I arrive at Brisbane Airport on 22 August and start to search the Hertz Car Hire bays for what I think the office has booked for me – a station wagon to carry the many films I will be taking on tour with me. I am presented instead with a brilliant vermillion XR6 Ford Falcon sedan, fitted out with mag wheels and a mighty sports exhaust. There has got to be a mistake. What’s a five-foot, middle-aged woman going to do with that? I seriously need a brown paper bag with the eyes cut out to conceal my utter embarrassment every time this kahuna of a car travels into the outback centres on the tour schedule.

I clench my teeth and start the long drive out to the cradle of Australia’s oil and gas industry – Roma, the largest regional town in south western Queensland, 480 kms from Brisbane. To get there I will need to undertake some night driving; not a good idea in the outback. When morning dew runs off the endless tracks of road, its edges offer fresh green fodder for marsupials that come out at night to feed. I encounter wildlife of all descriptions. It seems these critters are all out tonight and I end up skirting around a joey in the middle of the road and narrowly missing a majestic grey roo by a whisker. Phew!

I am entering Captain Starlight territory (alias the maverick drover Harry Redford), where his infamous trial for cattle duffing was held in the Roma courthouse. I am also entering the heart of beef country. Everyone’s in town for the huge annual Beef Muster and all the hotels are full. The national icon that is the Bungil Saleyards sells unfattened cattle each Tuesday and prime-fattened cattle each Thursday. Even the pizzas sold in town remind us of beef and the outback; they are named Stockman’s, Aussie Supreme, Beef Boomer, Aussie True Blue and Southern Cross.

On Wednesday at 9.00am we are screening our first free school session. Students from St John’s College are running fifteen minutes late. I nervously pace the floor only to be told by the cinema owners Beth and Ron to relax: “Everyone here operates on Roma time.” The cinema gladly accommodates cinema patrons by always starting sessions after the advertised time. At last the young people arrive and I cannot believe what I see – immaculately dressed high school students adorned with straw hats who look amazingly like the boarding school students straight out of Picnic at Hanging Rock, the film they have come to see. All up, six primary and high school screenings are on the Roma program. The attendances are very strong – between 80 to 140 per session.

It is Thursday and Big Screen patron and festival guest Marcus Graham flies into town. There is a great buzz around his arrival, and I notice wherever we walk or stop in town lots and lots of predominantly female eyes are following us, or rather, following Marcus.

Marcus has joined the tour to talk up the Australian film industry and to present the opening night film Josh Jarman, in which he stars. Cinema owners and operators Beth, Ian, Cindy, Ron, Terry and Bronwen are all there, as are Roma Town Council Mayor Councillor Bruce Garvie and Deputy Mayor Councillor Lyn Kajewski. The Western Star’s freelance journalist, Jackie, who has been writing fantastic stories about Big Screen and about Marcus Graham is eagerly snapping photos, many of which contain Marcus in the middle of (mainly female) groups of cinema goers. Twenty minutes past the session time we all mosey on into the cinema. The crowd is excited about seeing the film, and Marcus cracks everyone up with his story of how he and good friend Pip Mushin (writer/director) got the film made with very little money.

The rest of the week offers old favourites Muriel’s Wedding and The Man from Snowy River, with the latter attracting a good crowd on Saturday afternoon. A family of three generations tells me how happy they are that they have had the opportunity to see this gem of a film once again on the big screen. Mum and Grandma got to see ‘Snowy’ in the early eighties and the Y-gen kids who have come along with the family to see it for the first time today can’t stop raving about it. This is not the first time that a Big Screen festival presenter like myself has witnessed this phenomenon – where inter-generational family groups come to relive a favourite film, delighted at sharing it with their young ’uns.

New release titles on the program for Roma include The Magician, Candy, Oyster Farmer and The Caterpillar Wish, and I notice a healthy number of repeat clients. The festival passes have been selling well. My favourite session so far has been the Courier-Mail BIFF Fast Film matinee where two audience members decked out in clown hats and wigs won prizes in the best hat competition that we ran.

At the close of the Roma festival I see Marcus off at the airport for his return flight home. Then I point my racy red stead in the direction of Cloncurry – Big Screen’s next destination.

Cinzia Guaraldi – ICD Audience Development Coordinator