Passion project to re-open historic Dannevirke cinema

Stephanie and Alison Amboy are hoping to get the theatre up and running with help from the MovieFest Charitable Trust. Photo / Leanne Warr

Stephanie Amboy's first memory of the Regent Cinema in Dannevirke is when her parents bought the building.

She was about 9 when the family moved from Wellington to Dannevirke.

The first movie she remembers seeing was The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl in 3D.

"You had to wear 3D glasses and it was like so cool!"

As a young child, the screen in the 200+ seat theatre was "ginormous".

Her sister Alison, who was almost 4 when her family came to Dannevirke, says her first movie was The Chronicles of Narnia.

The theatre held a festival over a week.

"I just remember everyone coming in costume," Alison says. "It was a really big event."

So big, she says, that they were running out of seats and had to find more.

While the cinema has been closed since 2012, the sisters, who run the cafe, are keen to get it up and running again.

They have teamed up with the MovieFest Charitable Trust to help them with the project.

It's a bit of a passion project for Stephanie, who is keen to preserve as much of the original building as possible.

The theatre as it looked around 100 years ago. Photo / Supplied

The cinema part of the building mostly needs a bit of TLC, like replacing some tiles, updating the bathrooms and one area probably needs a bit of earthquake strengthening but structurally the building is fairly sound.

"It's more about restoring before it starts getting into deterioration," Stephanie says.

An engineer has been to look at the building and has told the girls the back wall will be a problem.

The entire project won't be cheap and the girls are calling on the help of the community so they can get the cinema up and running again.

The Regent holds the record for being New Zealand's only provincial theatre to have remained open continuously, apart from periods where it was closed for refurbishment.

The theatre opened in 1919 as the Arcadia Picture Theatre and is a category two on the list of heritage buildings.

The lobby of the cinema in years gone by. Photo / Supplied

Trustee Graeme Moffat was also keen to put in a museum, intended to showcase the history of the cinema, which the sisters are fully on board with.

Graeme is also a documentary filmmaker and managing director of Capital Video Productions in Wellington.

"It's nice to have support from someone who knows a lot about film and the industry."

The girls are trying to do some fundraising through the trust so they can keep the doors open once the cinema is up and running again.

The girls also plan on having amateur movie festivals as future fundraisers and hope to be able to catch some of the tourists who visit the cafe to get them into the cinema as well.

"That will hopefully bring other people to the town as well, so it can benefit surrounding businesses."

The fundraising campaign is using the crowdfunding platform Boosted. https://boosted.org.nz/preview/moviefest