Technically this is DaD's thread, cos he sent me this link from work - http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2008/07/the-ballarat-fi.html

What a shame!

So, are you going to call the cinema? Come on, you know you wanna. . .

Is it an economic decision (contract with parent companies, expectations that the movies with big advertising dollars will pull in bigger crowds, etc) or a political decision (against the movie's message)?

(either way its a shame!)

The first is my bet. We have one cinema in town. They set the prices, they make the money.

yeah DaD's right, they never show a decent movie... there is a l33t movie club that shows 'art' movies, (i.e. French), but they charge a mint to joint, run each film once, and only on thursdays. Not convenient for us, i'm afraid. Otherwise i'd consider it. Would definitely be interested if it were, say, Sunday afternoons.

They rarely show anything Australian. It totally sucks. Our film industry is minute, but when they want to they can make awesome movies. I just hate missing them because the bullshit regent can't be bothered with them. Barbarians.

So - skip the movie house and go to what ever passes for local government. Ask if there could be a town showing at the local school - I bet the local boys associated with the show would help get a cheap run if the community asked (great free publicity on local boy makes good).

It occurs to me we should start our own renegade cinema. That sounds awfully fun. And never, ever show pauly shore or ben stiller movies.

There's an "outback opera" group that perform opera in like sheep paddocks and stuff, that looks way cool. We could do like that, always on the run... film reels trailing from our getaway car when the fuzz comes down...

isn't it peculiar though, we get more international news/movies/art etc than local. We are an impoverished bunch.