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Just a year after the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph in 1895, the first screenings of this new technology of ‘moving pictures’ were held at the Mechanics’ Institute.
By the 1970s, cinema’s death was being heralded after the devastating impact of television and the attraction of the drive-in, making the BMI’s Vegas 70 for a brief time Ballarat’s only indoor cinema.
Their latest photographic exhibition Not the Last Picture Show traces the history of cinemas in Ballarat, from the spectacular nitrate film-fuelled conflagration of the 4,000 seat Coliseum Picture Palace, (now a supermarket car park), to the Skyline Drive-in, now a housing estate with a ‘Bogart Avenue’.
The exhibition will be held in the Williamson Foyer space, which formerly hosted the candy bar of the cinema, with an additional exhibition in their beautiful Heritage Reading Room.
This event is part of the Ballarat Heritage Festival.
Accessibility Information
- Caters for people with sufficient mobility to climb a few steps but who would benefit from fixtures to aid balance. (This includes people using walking frames and mobility aids)
- Caters for people who use a wheelchair.
Ballarat Mechanics Institute | Hugh Williamson Foyer
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