STAR ADDS GLAMOUR TO KIAMA FILM DEBUT

POPULAR Australian actress and best-selling author Judy Nunn will be in Kiama this week to add a touch of star quality to the much anticipated premiere of the Kiama Lions film A Town Like Ours.

The 65-minute feature film will be screened at Kiama Leagues Club on Thursday, April 20 and Ms Nunn will present the Arthur Awards in a special ceremony at the conclusion of the movie.

In the film, Kiama has been cast as the mythical coastal town of Miakaroo in what is believed to be the first Australian community production of a feature-length movie.

A Town Like Ours documents Miakaroos attempt to win Australias Friendliest Town Competition, an ambition likely to be thwarted by Arthur, one of the towns homeless characters, played by Robert Ketton (top left), a senior lecturer in acting at the University of Southern Queensland.

The satirical comedy was written, produced, directed by Kiama Lions Club members, with hundreds of other locals participating as extras including Kiama councillor Brendan Comber.

A Town Like Ours has been produced by the Lions Club of Kiama to raise money for various charities supported by Lions locally, for example, Cancer Care, said the films experienced writer, producer and director, Ken Methold.

It also aimed to involve the community in a cultural project and produce a movie that would demonstrate to other communities and organisations that it is now possible, through the accessibility of digital video, to make community feature films as well as the more traditional amateur dramatics, he said.

Mr Methold, himself a Lions Club member, was active in the Australian film industry for some years as a writer-producer and a member of the board of Film Queensland.

Although the premiere of A Town Like Ours is fully booked out, organisers expect that many people will turn up at 7:30pm to witness the excitement of a red carpet night of glitz and glamour as the stars of the film arrive at the venue in vintage cars.

Thursday April 20 will be a night of nights in Kiama and certainly not one to be missed, said Mr Methold.

The premiere coincides with Lions Community Week, designed to showcase the Lions' contribution throughout Australia.

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