It’s just after 6pm on a Monday evening in the small New South Wales South Coast town of Batemans Bay, and as is the case most weeknights – especially drizzly, prematurely dark ones like this – the main shopping area is rapidly emptying. Just a handful of people remain, pushing laden trolleys down the ramp outside the supermarket in a rush to get home. Yet outside a small cinema above a shopping arcade, a procession of car headlights is nosing their way in to the car park.
Standing at the entrance to the Perry Street Cinema, screen director Damon Gameau is greeting a line of people filtering in to see his new film, Regenerating Australia. An out-of-towner, Gameau doesn’t fully comprehend what an unusual sight this is – the event is sold out – but says it was like this at the previous evening’s screening in the southern highlands town of Bowral, along with the dozen or so regional Victorian towns he’s also taken the film. The film will continue its national roadshow until mid-May.
