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er than those I was used to from the Holly- Ricketts found ‘an Aladdin’s cave’ totally
wood westerns I had watched on TV. packed with 16 mm and 35 mm film. With
Raffaele Caputo, Melbourne the assistance of another collector, John
Leckey OAM, Ricketts was able to move the
I was nearly two when my family emigrated films from their flooded basement into long-
from Venice to Canberra in 1961… I feel term storage at Moe, Victoria. There they
nostalgic when I recall going to rare screen- stayed in clean, dry conditions for 30 years
ings of Italian films at Queanbeyan in the before Peter contacted the NFSA and the
1970s as a teenager, watching black-and-white films came to us in 2012.
Totò (Antonio De Curtis) films, not getting the
When the films arrived at the NFSA in their
humour that made my parents laugh (yet un- metal shipping containers, cardboard boxes
derstanding every word), and having strong and stray cans it was clear that there would be
emotional experiences and feelings of connec-
much research needed to identify and assem-
tion to my Italian background. That contribut- ble complete prints. The process of sorting,
ed to me maintaining my first language and selection and technical assessment finally
cultural identity, and today I can say I’m a
took several years.
very proud Italo-Australian!
Rita Parkinson, Canberra There were occasional disappointments
along the way. We
might find a won-
derful title like
Lucio Fulci’s
comedy sketch
film I Maniaci
(1964) only to dis-
cover severe water
damage, incom-
plete reels, mould
or that the film ti-
tle written on the
can was not the
film actually in the
can.
Ultimately we
managed to save
49 films in total,
Peter Ricketts with the films during their time in 14 of them trailers. This weekend, a selection
storage at Moe
of these rescued Italian prints will screen at
Hundreds of those European films imported Arc cinema.
by World Film Distributors were first saved The NFSA screened a short season of these
from destruction by Eric Yeomans in the
films on 8-10 April.
1970s. Yeomans, a former projectionist and
founding member of radio 3CR, discovered
them when the North Melbourne building
which had housed World Film Distributors Reproduced from the NFSA blog at …
was sold. The films were stored in the base-
ment and Yeomans was able to interest Peter http://www.nfsa.gov.au/blog/2016/04/05/itali
Ricketts, a fellow projectionist, in taking a an-film/
look.

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