Below is a precis of the President's Welcoming Speech at our 75th Dinner
A special welcome to former members who are present. It is good to see you all and we hope you have a very enjoyable
evening.
A special welcome to Robert Sarkies who is going to speak to
us tonight. It is a great pleasure and honour to have you here Robert.
Two of your films - Scarfies and Out of the
Blue are shown on Air NZ International and I expect Two little Boys will join
them in the future. All of these films are based in Otago and Southland.
I
have a number of people and organisations I wish to thank.
Sponsors who assisted with
this anniversary are Otago Community Trust,
Pub Charities, Bendigo Valley Foundation and Harvey Norman. Without the help of these organisations it
would have been much more difficult to hold this anniversary.
Now I wish to thank 3 People.
Firstly
Nevill Smith for the immense
amount of time and effort put into organising this function. A lot of work has
gone on in the background. Nevill deserves our heartfelt thanks.
Also
Andrew
Wylie who put together the programme of historical
films for tonight’s showing. It looks easy to do but we all know how much
effort and time it will have taken. Thanks Andrew.
The
club decided to update its printed history and Robyn Armstrong put her hand up and offered to do this. I
know how much work went into the book but we now have a history which is good
reading and of which we can be proud.
Many
other members, too numerous to mention individually have helped Nevill, Andrew
and Robyn, but I wish to thank sincerely for your assistance.
I think this is an appropriate time
to mention some history.
The story starts with Doug Mackersey who was the local manager
of Kodak NZ and made films certainly as early as 1932 and probably earlier as
well.
It
was Mackersey’s idea that the movie enthusiasts in the city should get together
and consider forming a club. The Dunedin Photographic Club was a pretty
successful organization and an idea was that the cine people should be a sub
group of that club.
The
idea founded when the Dunedin Photographic Club was happy enough to accept the
Cine Group but would charge 1 guinea subscription ($2.10) and not give any back
to the movie sub-group.
Now we come to the important date -
On the 29th November 1937 a group of interested people got
together in the Cine Room of the Kodak
Shop, 162 Princes Street.
Those
present were Messrs F.E.L. Forrester, Gordon Currie, Doug Ritchie, Doug Mackersay,
D.C. Cameron (Nephew of Mayor Sir Donald
Cameron), N.G. Buchanan, Miss
Phyllis Scott, S.R. Burns, Marcus Hanan, H.G. Fischer,
Miss H.Partridge and R.F. Riggs. There were some apologies.
A motion was put to the meeting “that a separate Cine Club be formed”
and this was carried by an overwhelming majority. Thus the “Otago
Cine-Photographic Club” was formed.
The first General meeting took place in December, a
constitution was ratified and Doug Mackersey gave a lecture on “Picture Making
on a Holiday Trip”. We need him again.
There
were meetings twice a month and the club went from strength to strength peaking
at about 250 in the 1950’s.
The first Judge was Jack Welsh a pioneer in the film
industry, following in the footsteps of Joseph Perry and Henry Gore (Ollie
Manson’s Grand-father).
Welsh
and his colleagues made innovative documentaries and dramatic films. “Down on
the Farm” produced in1935 is regarded as N.Z.’s first talkie feature. Welsh’s
work made Otago a leading light in the development of early talkies.
Jump now to after the War.
As
membership grew there was a strong desire for the club to have its own rooms.
In
1957 the club signed a lease with the Atheneum library for use of part of their
reading room near the Regent Theatre in the Octagon.
A
theatre was built seating 136 people and was opened by His Worship the Mayor Len
Wright late in 1957. You will see a little bit of this later in the
evening.
Now what else has the club achieved?
In
1950 President JB Thomson urged
members to film matters of civic interest and importance.
In
1963 Architect John Allingham wrote
in Cine Frame. This is précised.
“In
the name of progress, things are done, which to some, constitute legalised
vandalism. Here the movie maker has to be on the alert and record all those
precious things before they disappear for ever.”
How has the club got on?
We
helped film the 1948 Centenary of the
City. The film was gifted to the City.
In
1953 a film was made of the Royal Visit.
The 40 minute film was shown in the Concert Chamber and it was estimated that 6000
to 7000 people saw that film.
In
1958 The Queen’s mum arrived and was
filmed. – Gracious Lady
In
1963 The Queen returned and was recorded on film by 10 cameramen.
In
1998 the club filmed the City’s 150th. We have Frank Weedon and many
other club members to thank for a memorable film.
We now have an archive of films and I
hope this will be built on as time goes by.
Now a club is about people.
Many of our members excelled on the world
scene.
I
wish to note the following:-
Bill Clifford - Amongst many awards, he
won a silver medal at the Cannes
Film Festival
Fred O’Neill – Won 32 international
awards with films of his plastercine models
Arthur Richardson – Was at the forefront of
experimentation and won a silver medal at Cannes
Lindsay Macleod – Also won a silver medal
at Cannes
Les Steel, Wes Ferens, Ray Payne and
Frank Helean all were recognized overseas
Robert Sarkies – subsequently made 3
full length films. Scarfies filmed in Dunedin
won 7 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the NZ film awards.
Nevill Smith has won numerous NZ
awards.
There
are a host of others but you will have to read the book for details
As I have mentioned the club has a
rich and important history and we now celebrate its birthday.
Finally I wish to note that over the years there have been many
technological changes.
But what we do has not changed. We
make films to entertain, to inform, to stimulate and to record. Long may that
continue.
Thank
you all for coming and hope to see you all at the centenary!
John Armstrong
President
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