Of all the new 'plateglass' universities founded in the 1960s, none was as photographed and filmed as Sussex. So it's appropriate that a documentary film should be part of the University's 50^th-anniversary celebrations.

And next week all staff will have the chance to see A Golden Opportunity, which looks at Sussex as it is in 2011 and as it was in the beginning.

When the film was shown for the first time during the anniversary celebration weekend earlier this month, the interviewees' reminiscences and anecdotes - together with the archive footage and photos - brought laughs and murmurs of recognition and nostalgia from the alumni in the audience.

Sussex graduate and TV director Mary McMurray (whose credits include 'Coronation Street' and the 'Ruth Rendell Mysteries') was given "carte blanche" when she agreed to direct the documentary, said the Vice-Chancellor in his introductory remarks at the gala screening.

Referring to the apposite length of the film (50 minutes and 50 seconds), Professor Michael Farthing said that it has "50:50 vision".

The current Vice-Chancellor is one of the many people who appears in the film, which also features the second Vice-Chancellor, Lord (Asa) Briggs.

Lee Gooding and Paul Vincent, from the School of Media, Film and Music, worked with Mary McMurray to interview scores of well-known alumni as well as current staff and students.

BBC broadcaster Robin Lustig, for example, recalls his time as editor of the student newspaper Winepress in the late 1960s, while MPs Hilary Benn and Tony Baldry reflect on their involvement in student politics.

There are also contributions from novelists Ian McEwan and Philippa Gregory and other well-known figures in the arts including publisher Gail Rebuck and theatre director Michael Attenborough.

Another interviewee is Sussex graduate and musician John Altman, who has composed the scores for many movies including Little Voice and Bhaji on the Beach and who wrote an original soundtrack for A Golden Opportunity.

The film is narrated by yet another Sussex alumnus, actor Jim Carter, who is currently on our screens every week in the ITV drama series 'Downton Abbey'.

A Golden Opportunity asks whether the unique spirit of Sussex - with its 1960s 'new map of learning' - has survived, and risks a look into the future.

So for any staff with an interest in the first 50 years of Sussex, this special series of open screenings is not be missed.

All staff are welcome to any of the five showings, which take place every day from Monday 26-Friday 30 September, at 1pm in the Pevensey 1A6 lecture theatre.