IT survived television and the video recorder to become what is believed to be the nation's largest film society, and now the story of the Launceston Film Society has been immortalised in a book.
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From Reel to Disc: A History of the Launceston Film Society was launched at the Albert Hall in Launceston on Tuesday night.
Historian Thomas Gunn wrote the text under commission from the group.
He said the biggest surprise had been the nature of the society's ups and downs.
Membership dipped in the late 1960s following its establishment in 1958 as the Launceston Adult Education Film Society.
The society later enjoyed a boost in numbers when it aligned itself with Village Cinemas.
"The film society has been through a number of cycles where they've gone from boom to bust from boom to bust to boom," Dr Gunn said.
"They've had to adapt to a number of challenges."
Launceston Film Society president Peter Gillard said the society was certainly on the up in 2015.
The organisation boasts more than 1500 members - 85 per cent of whom renew annually - as well as a waiting list of 170 people and a budget of $180,000.
More than 40 films are screened each year from countries ranging from the Congo to England.
Mr Gillard said collating information for the book had been a mammoth task.
"We have been able to find all the minute books, so we've got a really good history," Mr Gillard said