History
It was established as WEA Film Study Group in 1961. The society had its first meeting on 23 February 1961. Ken Quinnell was present at the first meeting. The first president was Ian Klava, Pat Roos was the first secretary. Sid Gore was on the first committee.
As well as being a founder of the WEA Film Study Group, Ian Klava had memberships of a number of film societies including Sydney University Film Group, Sydney Film Society, the All Nations Club Film Group, the Sydney Cinema Society, and the Catholic Film Society. He also worked for the Department of Information film Unit and was Director of Sydney Film Festival from 1962 to 1965.
In the first twelve months of its operation the WEA Film Study Group had presented such films as “Kameradschaft”, “The Sentimental Bloke”, "Animal Farm", “The Last Laugh”, “The Titan” and “Berlin Olympic Games”.
The society held some film weekends, both residential at Newport and non-residential film weekends. These included an Eisenstein Weekend held in October, 1963 with one of the speakers being filmmaker Gil Brealey." Another residential film weekend was "Men with guns: an examination of gangster and western films", held at Newport, on 26-28 February, 1965 with speakers, Ian McPherson and John Flaus." On the Anzac Day Weekend in 1966, the society held a film weekend at Newport with the theme: "Myth and Reality".
On the 3rd and 4th December 1966, the society held a non-residential film weekend on D. W. Griffith, with such features as Way Down East (1920), Orphans In The Snow (1922), and Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) being shown. John Morris, film director at the Australian Commonwealth Film Unit gave a lecture at the film weekend.
Occasionally the WEA Film Study Group and the Sydney University Film Group have combined to present film screenings. These have included The Siege of Pinchgut (1959), in July 1965, presented at Margaret St., Sydney. After they moved to Clarence St. Sydney, they also presented a weekend "Signs and Meaning in the Cinema" season, based on the famous cinema book by Peter Wollen, in September and October 1969. In April 1970 they presented at weekend of Silent Comedy. The last time the two societies combined in screenings was 1973.
From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter
Notable screenwriters, filmmakers and film critics such as Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, Ken Quinnell, John Baxter and John Flaus have been members of the WEA Film Study Group.
Since April 1978 the WEA Film Study Group has published the Monthly Bulletin to provide film notes and film news to its members. In 1999 it changed its name to WEA Sydney Film Society.
Notable Committee members include Ian Klava, John Flaus, Denis Trimas, Doug Roberts, Tom Politis, and Leth Maitland.
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