Russell Campbell: Man with a movie projector

WHILE you’re enjoying the 32nd Dunedin Film Festival, spare a thought for the guy stuck in the projection room missing out on the movie.

Regent Theatre projectionist Russell Campbell will be hectically changing reels, splicing film, and packaging movies for their next destination. It’s a solitary job in a confined space, he says.

“You can spend 10 or 12 hours in here, but it doesn’t worry me. And you don’t usually get to watch the films, especially with the film festival.”

Campbell, a projectionist for almost half a century, has been working at the Regent since 1995.

The 64-year-old began his apprenticeship at Dunedin’s Embassy Theatre in 1960.

But his interest in film began as a 6-year-old in Gisborne, where his father was a theatre manager.

“A relief projectionist let me come into the projection room and have a look.

“I was just mesmerised.

I think I was hooked then – the smell of the oil, the heat, the noise.”

After gaining his A grade operator’s licence, Campbell moved on to cinemas in Christchurch and Wellington.

He worked at the National Film Unit in Wellington for 18 years. It was at its peak when he started in 1972, due to the immensely successful 1970 World Expo showcase This Is New Zealand.

Campbell worked in the processing lab before returning to the projection room. Here he often screened the work of another film unit employee – the young Sam Neill.

“I saw him come in kind of at the beginning when he was starting out in that sphere. He’s certainly gone a long way since those days.”

Things go full circle. Campbell was the projectionist when Neill’s Jurassic Park III had its New Zealand and Australia premiere at the Regent in August 2001.

The Queenstown-based star has nice things to say of his ex-colleague: “I’m happy to hear Russell is alive, kicking, and presumably projecting.

“He’s one of those unusually dedicated people who love their craft.”

The first Jurassic Park was the last film shown at Princes Street’s Century Theatre before it was closed in 1993 and demolished.

Campbell had been working at the Century until then. And there were significant family ties to the theatre.

His mother had worked there as an usherette in the 1930s, and his father had managed it in the 60s.

The Century would be a big asset for Dunedin if it still stood, Campbell says. He was shattered by its destruction.

He’s happy to be working at another Dunedin treasure that has been saved.