“Jack had a relentless curiosity. He was an egalitarian–he loved life, he loved people, he loved family. He was not larger than life, he would never have claimed to be. But here he is today as large as life. Film stores memories of him and this place, that we can visit and revisit whenever we want. ”
Jack Anderson loved film, so much he bought a cinema.
So proud to have worked with the Anderson Family, Regent Cinema, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), and the City of Ballarat to bring about Large As Life, a screening of the legacy of Jack Anderson.
Jack bought a run-down cinema that had been closed for ten years and restored it. Today it is a significant part of the cultural life of Ballarat. The iconic Regent sign shines over beautiful Lydiard Street every evening on dusk. The legacy Jack and Marie Anderson have given to Ballarat is extraordinary. From the restoration and investment in central Ballarat of the magnificent Regent Cinema, to the flickering black and white footage of Ballarat events from the 1950s to the colour of the 1980s, much of it unseen by the public.
The Anderson Family recently bequeathed the Jack Anderson archive to ACMI for safe keeping and digitisation. We were given the honour of producing a film to honour Jack and Marie.
