FILM and Television Institute CEO Paul Bodlovich says he doesn’t anticipate the organisation, once synonymous with Fremantle, ever moving back to the port city.

Earlier this year, the FTI relocated from the old Boys School on Fremantle’s Adelaide Street, which needed structural repairs, to the second floor of the state library in the Perth Cultural Centre

“The extensive repairs could take up to three years and we have first right of refusal on the the lease, but we are much closer to our practitioners and our government and corporate partners up here,” Mr Bodlovich says.

• Paul Bodlovich says FTI won’t be returning to Fremantle. Photo by Matthew Dwyer.

“Our staff used to spend several hours driving from Fremantle to Perth every week for meetings.

“Plus, the peppercorn rent on the Fremantle premises ran out this year.”

At the library, FTI has around 200sqm of office space, a video editing suite and access to a screening theatre and training area.

Mr Bodlovich adds FTI pays a “cheap commercial rent” to the library.

He anticipates it will eventually move to a larger, permanent space in Perth, but doesn’t rule out the FTI one day having some sort of presence in Freo.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK