Sun Pictures Cinema

Broome, Western Australia 6725

Where in the world can you watch a movie with bats flying overhead, geckos crawling on the screen, and occassional musings of airplanes setting and jetting off. Since 1916, Sun Pictures Cinema in Broome has fascinated thousands of movie fans through its own superb cinematic experience on a deck chair. In the 1990s, the cinema started with a silent movie called "Kissing Cup", a racing drama that drew so many audience. Its success led to another of its first talking movie in 1933 called "Monte Carlo". Sun Pictures Cinema went through tough experiences since the evacuation of Broome in 1942 due to the World War Two. Catherine Milner, who was left running the cinema, was forcibly evacuated two days before Japanese Zeros strafed Broome in March 1942. Tidal Flooding was also an issue, almost every night the cinema would be flooded and men would carry women to a higher ground. They even claimed that you could catch a fish while screening. Discrimination was another contention until 1967, seats were segregated, Europeans who are most worthy can take the seats in the middle and sit on cane chairs with cushions. A levy was built to stop tidal flooding in 1974 and many more positive things happened including its place on the list of State Register of Heritage Places and Guinness World Book of Records for being the "Oldest Open Air Cinema in Operation".