Dunedin and the Dunedin Film Society have a proud history when it comes to film festivals.

In a statement, society president Alister McDonald said cinema magnate Sir Robert Kerridge approached the four-month-old Dunedin Film Society in 1947 to help organise New Zealand’s first film festival.

The event took place in March, 1947, at the now demolished “old” St James Theatre in High St.

The Kerridge festivals, often two in a year, lasted into the 1960s.

The current Te Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival, screening this year at the Regent Theatre and Rialto Cinemas, from August 14-30, traces its origins in Dunedin to 1977.

That year, Amalgamated Theatres, in association with the Dunedin Film Society, brought a selection of films from that year’s Auckland Film Festival and screened them for a fortnight at the now-demolished Century Theatre in Princes St.

Mr McDonald said the NZ International Film Festival was now organised nationwide by a trust spun off from the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies (which took over organising the festival in 1984).

“The society’s role has always been to help publicise the festivals and educate audiences about the films and film-makers that have been selected,” Mr McDonald said.

For the past 10 years, the society has done this by organising a “sneak peek” of the festival programme.

This year’s preview event will be held next week Saturday, August 8, from 2pm, in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery auditorium.

Mr McDonald, who has written a 75th anniversary history of the society and film festivals in the city, will introduce local film buff Ryley Atkinson to present the sneak peek.

Mr Atkinson has served as vice-president of the NZ Federation of Film Societies and last year served on the festival’s selection panel.

He will discuss 10 films of particular importance from this year’s line-up of around 75 titles, drawn from all the key strands of the programming.

Members of the public are very welcome to attend and admission is free.

— Allied Media