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Noble Park Public Hall - Later to become the Pix Theatre.

The story begins in the 1940s in Muro Lucano, a village in southern Italy, the home of a boy with wide-set brown eyes and the inklings of a dream. Antonio Zeccola’s
father, Giovanni, a cabinet-maker, showed films on weekends in a rented church hall.

It was quite an event. Giovanni assumed an aura of importance in the village and his son was able to watch the black-and-white American movies for free. Antonio, allowed into the projection room, was so fascinated by the rotating 16mm reels that he put his fingers in one of them (he thinks it could have been The Bells of St Mary ) causing it to run off the sprocket, stopping the show.

In 1963, Antonio Zeccola, a teenager in a new country, spent weekends running the Pix cinema at the Public hall at Noble Park, his father advising him along the way. He worked three or four other jobs to fund the hobby, using all his savings to buy second-hand projection equipment. His dream had taken root.

A reserved man with a gentle charm, he tells his story uncomfortably, fidgeting at times. He’s a behind-the-scenes person, he explains, finding it embarrassing talking about himself.

He speaks with an ingrained Italian accent and measured words. Occasionally, you see flashes of the passion and energy that drive him. “He’s a thinker,” says film maker Rolf de Heer, who has known Zeccola for years and has sat with him on the Australian Film Commission board. “He doesn’t say anything unless he’s seriously got something to say, then he says it well, considered and strongly, and you listen. And he’s committed, he really cares.”

The Pix cinema was a launching pad for Palace Cinemas, Antonio continues. Most times it didn’t pay, didn’t have any heating and after 14 months, I was forced to walk away - Today Palace Cinemas showcases high quality international & local art-house films, mainstream movies, cinema retrospectives & events right across Australia.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -