Get out of the house on the third Wednesday evening of each month and enjoy films on the big screen with us!

The Drill Hall Film Society screens classic films at an affordable price in comfortable tiered seating in our air-conditioned theatre. Grab a delicious snack and beverage from the bar, and be part of our lively film discussions after each show.

Become a Film Society subscriber for just $75 and gain entry to 11 films/year (or $60 if you’re a Drill Hall Theatre Company associate member). Casual guest rates cost $10/film.

Renewals due in July.

Contact Peter on [email protected] for more information or to become a member.

The Drill Hall Film Society is a member of the Australian Film Societies Federation which provides support and information. To find out more visit AFSF.

Wednesday May 20th @ 7pm

Childhood takes on mythic dimensions in one of the defining works of post-1979 – revolutionary Iranian cinema, going on to gain significant international acclaim, helping to introduce the Iranian New Wave to a global audience.

Inspired by director Amir Naderi’s own childhood, The Runner is lit from within by Madjid Niroumand’s electrifying performance as Amiro, a young orphan fending for himself on the streets of the port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz. He is determined to rise above his circumstances — working odd jobs, passing time with friends, learning to read — and running, always running, toward the future. Water, fire, the human body in motion: in hypnotic images of lyrical power, Naderi finds unexpected glory in the world of a child suspended between modernity and elemental natural forces as he chases his own path forward.

Shot during the Iraq-Iran war, Naderi’s technique is noteworthy as the film is admirably lean and remarkably well-constructed. The sound design is deliberate. The camera placement, often at Amiro’s height, is precise and the editing is inventive.

Politics and religion are absent — as are women (reflecting the post-revolution expedience). However, a commitment to individual freedom seems absolute, despite the severe censorship of the time. By the 1990’s both the director and the actor had left Iran.

Wednesday June 17th @ 7pm

Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife, had her most famous role as Cabiria, the Roman streetwalker who, despite being knocked down by life more than once, never gives up on her dreams of love and happiness. Most of the scenes in the movie were kept in the Broadway Musical adaption renamed Sweet Charity, including the opening scene of being shoved into the drink by a treacherous boyfriend; her fleeting, glamorous encounter with an Italian movie star; a bizarre religious pilgrimage and her seemingly hopeful romance with a nice accountant.

Masina won the best actress award at Cannes, and the film won the Oscar for best foreign picture. Masina deliberately based her Cabiria on the Little Tramp; but while Chaplin’s character inhabited a world of stock villains and happy endings, Cabiria survives at the low end of Rome’s prostitution trade. Afterall she is a working girl, not a sentimentalised one, as in “Sweet Charity,” but a tough cookie who climbs into truck cabs, gets in fights, hides in the bushes during police raids and lives in a tiny shack in an industrial wasteland.

The film is generally considered an evolution of Italian post-war Neorealism. While it uses Neorealist elements like on-location shooting, working-class settings, and a focus on poverty, it bridges that movement with Fellini's signature subjective style, blending gritty realism with social commentary and a touch of lyricism.