Films to take you back to the 70s

H SQUARED Studios’ Rex Hardware will publicly present a small set of films from his Lost in 16mm collection at Trades Hall.

Highlights of test transfer footage showcasing Ballarat in 1972, captured by former BTV-6 personality Peter Gamble, will be screened this Saturday, 29 May, from 6.30pm.

The hour-long presentation will include snippets of life at the Sunshine Biscuit Factory, George Farmer’s, Skyline Drive-In, an early Sovereign Hill, Greens Pies in Main Road, the State Savings Bank on Sturt St, 3BA radio and BTV-6.

The crowd-funded Lost in 16mm project is seeing the digitisation of Mr Gamble’s full film collection. Mr Hardware is working through the test-pressing stage.

“We’ve assessed all the film, have tested it and catalogued almost the whole collection of about 60 items, around 10 hours, but now we need to do the proper transfers, so our screening will show some of our test transfers,” he said.

“It’s an incredible set of documents of Ballarat’s industrial heritage particularly; we’re talking about long-gone factories with people building and manufacturing things; the Sunshine Biscuit Factory, the George Farmer bacon and ham factory… a paper mill, and an industrial place which is casting iron, like John Valves.

“There are little gorgeous things as well, like a walk through the Black Hill forest, footage of the Midlands Golf Course, a feature on the Sturt Street laundrette, a beauty parlour in Alfredton, and film of a young Darrian Todd doing a whole haircut.”

Get a ticket to the Lost in 16mm Public Screening #1 via bit.ly/3fDPqeW. Supper will be provided in 1970s style. The bar opens at 6pm, with $5 drinks.

Visit paypal.me/rexhardware to financially support this ongoing protection of screen history. Approximately $680 has been raised so far, with a goal of $2800.