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WinterFilmSchools

Page history last edited by David Lindsay 5 years ago

In 1954, due to the initiative and enthusiasm of the President, Denis Garrett, the Society, in association with the Regional Council of Adult Education, conducted a school of film appreciation at the Victoria University of Wellington over the Queen’s Birthday weekend. Several films were screened for study, and discussions were led by a panel of tutors. The school was intended to be an opportunity for students of the cinema, as a brochure expressed it, "to forgather and to develop their critical appreciation of cinema by studying one particular aspect of the subject in the detached atmosphere of the university and in the stimulating company of others who share their interest." It was hoped that the school would in particular attract teachers who were conducting lessons in film appreciation in their own schools, as well as members of other film societies, and the school was in fact well attended.

 

The Winter Film School then became regular. The Wellington Film Society was closely associated with the Regional Council of Adult Education. The Director, Mr. A. S. Hely, was President of the Film Society in 1950 and 1951, and did much to stabilize it in its formative years. At the end of last year he accepted a position in Australia. Before retiring, he suggested it was time someone wrote a story of the Film Society movement in New Zealand. [In lieu of a written story, this Wiki is an attempt to gather together as much of the history as possible to make it assessible for those who may want to study it.] The new Director is Mr. Hilton Power, who has been prominent in Film Society circles in Auckland and Wellington, and has been responsible for a large part of the organizing of the Winter Film Schools held over the past three years. We extend our warmest congratulations to him on this well-merited appointment.

 

The Winter Film School became an annual event - except for 1965, when the arrangements to hold a school devoted to a study of the films of Ingmar Bergman collapsed because none of his films was available on 16mm and the cost of mounting a 35 mm programme was prohibitive. A further planned Film School on Ingmar Bergman also collapsed in 1973 - but there was time to set up a replacement subject. The Regional Council of Adult Education, become the Department of Adult Education of the Victoria University of Wellington, and then the Department of University Extension. It was associated with the Wellington Film Society in all but the final few film schools held.

 

The Film School lapsed in 1981.

 

See the list of FilmSchoolSubjects

 

Based on material in Sequence December 1966, edited by Laurie Lee.

 

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