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by Anthony Hill - Resident from last century, before any traffic lights, when Frankton was considered out of town

Our landscape is what has attracted tourists over the centuries and since the earliest means of capturing it physically, it has been a mecca for those who aspire to make it visually permanent. Artists and photographers were soon followed by cinematographers. The landscapes have been especially attractive to location scouts for movies and advertisers.

Central Otago features in a huge number of extremely diverse scenes. But our film industry has struggled to make a large or permanent base here. Studios and soundstages have been touted on small and grand scales but never quite made it. Instead, we largely see the actors, crews, equipment, components, move in and then out again.

The buzz of filming helicopters periodically annoy life blockers, in equal measure to the life blockers own helicopters annoying their neighbours. Drones are quieter and do a lot of the grunt work now. With the use of expensive stars, a lot of secrecy seems to surround film projects, and our high-end hotels seem well set up to offer them security and privacy. Film is a perfect high-end earner for Queenstown, but as digital technology is improving so much, the need for real locations is diminishing. Our locational heyday may be waning. Do we own the intellectual property rights to our mountains? What happens when they are regenerated by AI without crews on the ground?

Film is the word for an old physical medium which is predominantly now digital. Back in the day, showing films in the Lakes District consisted of hauling large 35mm cans and equally large portable projectors around the halls and venues to as far afield as Glenorchy. Films were held in the Queenstown Memorial Hall. Eventually Queenstown got the Embassy cinema perched above the small supermarket in the Mall. When the supermarket moved the theatre grew into that space adding two more screens, and Dorothy Browns got set up as a boutique cinema in Arrowtown. A quarter of a century ago The Queenstown Film Society set up (as a fully functioning member of the NZ Federation of Films Societies), in The End Room of Frasers Bar in Steamer Wharf. With the early demise of The End Room and after a brief stint in the Arts Centre on Stanely St, QFS finally ended up being hosted by Dorothy Browns on Tuesday nights, where it remains, now as the longest running and most exclusive film host in the basin.

The Queenstown Film Society season is about to open but be warned there is a waiting list to join. The opening of Silky Otter is a welcome revitalisation of the cinematic art form, albeit removed from downtown. With multiple screens it can cater to a variety of tastes. Film watching has been remarkably resilient, it has fought off TV, battled video rental, catered with cable and now streaming, and still people want to get out. Theatre, whether live or cinematic, is an event, a location, an occasion, and whilst you may not interact with the rest of the audience, it is also social at its heart.