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11/12/2005: "AUSTRALIAN UNDERWATER FILM FESTIVALS"
The second (and final) AUFF was held in the main concert hall of the Sydney Opera House a few days before hire rates increased - effectively prohibiting a future show in that grand auditorium.
Underwater film festivals usually screened 16mm prints, often made for TV release but not in every case, and these were the real gems.
Today video projectors would be better propositions. Some editing in advance would be required. RSL clubs will provide auditoriums for free or a small percentage of the door sales. It is a valid project worth rejuvenating, and could easily be a national event. Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Woolongong, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane. Auckland, Wellington. (NZ).
The film festivals have been a top diving social opportunity in the past but why the southern city of Melbourne selected near freezing mid-winter dates for their show is a mystery.
The beginning of summer or spring would seem logical, such as October or November. We made the mistake of selecting mid-summer for the first festival, a non air cond auditorium with 624 seats sold out.
(The theatre had double-booked the venue. Surf film exhibitor Paul Witzig had arrived with his films only to find the venue packed with divers. He kindly allowed the UW festival to proceed without any fuss. Walter A Starck was the special guest for this festival and made an impression by arriving attired in shorts and bare feet direct from the El Torito underwater research vessel docked in Sydney Harbour.
John C Fairfax and blond Sandra Greentree (the girl who advertised Sea Hornet spearguns in her bikini) were his new crew members about to sail for the Solomon Islands, to research Stallion of the Sea - their future cinema film highlighting the plight of black marlin in the Pacific Ocean).
The festival poster featured Valerie Taylor in silhouette photographed by her husband, Ron, from within the now well known and spectacular cavern at Fish Rock, South West Rocks, mid north coast of New South Wales
