Forest Row Film Society

A film festival with a musical theme will be taking place in Pembury from 15-18 October, together with the Big Shorts film competition.

The four day event will be held at a selection of venues in Pembury, including the theatre at Kent College, Pembury Primary School and Hospice in the Weald.

The programme has not been completely finalised yet, though will include about ten films, concerts and talks. The films all have a musical angle, and range from popular classics to some marvellous and compelling world cinema. Check out the website or contact the organisers for fuller details nearer the time.

The short film competition, Big Shorts, is open to any film-makers over 18 living in Kent, Surrey or Sussex, and is offering a £1500 prize. Films must be under 16 minutes, and the submission deadline is 15 September. Competition guidelines and an entry form are available from the website.

Also taking place is the Snapshoot Film Challenge for young teams of novice film-makers to make a film during the course of the festival. Further details are on the festival website.

Further details are available from the Festival Director Keir Hoffmann at hoffmank@kentcollege.kent.sch.uk.

We want your input for a comedy film festival that we are planning.

Tentatively scheduled for 17-20 March 2011, Forest Row Film Society are in the early stages of putting together a film festival. Keen to counter the (partially untrue) idea that all we show are “serious” films, we are looking at creating an event that will be fun and will make us smile and laugh.

We’re looking for ideas for possible films. They can be from any part of the world, and from any part of cinema history, so can include anything from Buster Keaton to Micmacs and much else besides. We can’t guarantee to be able to source all the films you suggest since obtaining screening licences can be very difficult, but we will certainly consider everything.

Let us know if you want to know more, or fancy getting involved in some way. You can also keep in touch by becoming a fan on our Facebook page, or we can add you to our email list.

So, add your suggestions below, ideally with a note explaining why the film is so good, and why it might be able to attract 150 people to the village hall…

Thank you

We were delighted to welcome Jacqueline Chell of the British Federation of Film Societies to our screening on Wednesday. We were screening The End of the Line, the recent film about overfishing and the state of the world’s fisheries, as one of our documentary events programmed by Transition Forest Row. The film was booked via the BFFS block booking scheme, so it was great to have Jaq there for one of the films BFFS distributes. She outlined the wide range of activities that the BFFS undertakes, and reminded us of the incredible size of the community cinema network, with maybe 500 organisations like us around the country.

The BFFS also organise the annual Film Society of the Year awards, so we took the opportunity of a photo of Brad receiving the award, for the benefit of everyone who wasn’t at the awards ceremony back in September. Our award submission is available on the BFFS site when we were the Featured Exhibitor, if you want to read a bit more about the range of things we have been doing in the last few years.

When we bought our digital equipment 18 months ago it was important that we acquired a portable screen, some lightweight speakers and a little amp so that we would have the option of doing screenings in other locations. This afternoon we had a great time screening Son of Man, the marvellous South African film that we put on last season. It was a charity screening at West Hoathly church, to raise money for the South African charity Uthando.

It was very exciting to be able to screen such a fantastic and powerful film in such a beautiful old building. The screen was right in front of the altar, and it sounded great too.

We had a reasonable crowd turn out, and afterwards everyone I spoke with was very positive about the film. Thanks to everyone at West Hoathly for organising it, and for asking us along.

Audiences in Forest Row were treated to a wide range of films at the annual Festival over the last few days, from the sublimely beautiful Encounters at the End of the World on Friday to the lunacy of Bugs Bunny at the end of the weekend. Now in its fifth year, the Festival has grown considerably and this year’s was the biggest Forest Row Festival ever, with a large music marquee on Forester’s Green, and dozens of stalls and events happening around the village.

We had lovely weather for it too, which meant that hundreds of people were milling around the centre of the village all weekend. Whereas in the past it was just about possible to go to every event, this year there were often several running concurrently, but all had good and enthusiastic audiences, and the film events were packed out.

One of the highlights of past festivals has been the silent film screening, and this year was no different. The village hall quickly filled up at Saturday lunchtime to see Buster Keaton’s masterpiece Sherlock Jr, brilliantly accompanied by Terry Davies. The children were still talking about it the next day.

Over on Forester’s Green, animators Joseph Brett, Glen Zimmatore and Leila Watts hosted a workshop in the Animation Station, encouraging children to make plasticine figures and then spend 20 minutes animating them (see their channel on YouTube).

Places were soon booked up, and we were delighted to be able to screen the result on the big screen in the hall on Sunday afternoon, in what was certainly Forest Row Film Society’s first world premiere! It was especially striking how inventive the ideas were, and also how funny the film was; it must have been a great experience for the children to hear a room full of people responding so well to their work. The film is now on YouTube, and we will have a second screening of it next Sunday (11th) before Kirikou and the Sorceress at 2.30.

The animation was programmed with a collection of films about Sussex from Screen Archive South East. Running for nearly two hours, the audience enjoyed a wide range of the archive’s films, several of which were again accompanied by Terry Davies, such as Watery Trail, a documentary made in 1938 tracing the course of the river Medway from where it rises near Turner’s Hill, through Forest Row, and to the sea at Sheerness.

A particular treasure was the film Scene on the West Pier (1897) by James Williamson, which testified to the importance of Brighton as a major centre of early film-making in the UK. This particular shot has an almost Renoir-like quality to it:

For variety, we included a short Pathé newsreel, Mac Pays Tribute to Kennedy. Forest Row is located close to what was the home of prime minister Harold Macmillan. President Kennedy stayed with Macmillan there in 1963, and visited Forest Row catholic church while he was there. After Kennedy’s assassination, Macmillan came to the village to unveil a plaque on the village hall commemorating the visit. The newsreel clearly showed ranks of press photographers outside the very hall we were watching in, and there was at least one person in the hall who had been there that day. There is a little more about the visit, together with some (poor) stills from the film on the village hall site.

Thanks very much to Screen Archive South East and Pathé for making the archive films available to us.

Cats Protection is hosting The Grease Experience on Saturday 22 August at the National Cat Centre in Chelwood Gate, RH17 7TT.  This will be a drive-in movie screening of the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John classic.  There will also be custom cars, popcorn, hotdogs, burgers and Pink Ladies, as well as a competition for the best dressed ‘Danny’ and ‘Sandy’.

Gates open at 8pm, and the film will start about 9pm.

Tickets are on sale now at £20 per car. You are advised to book your tickets in advance by contacting Admin Reception (01825 741 900)  or events@cats.org.uk. Tickets available on the gate subject to availability. A poster and more information are also available.

A working FM radio will be required in your vehicle, else you won’t be able to hear the soundtrack.

Cat’s Protection also have another event coming up:

• Saturday 19 September An evening of Swing Music: Take in the sounds of the nine-piece ConChord Big Band as they play classic swing pieces by the likes of Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald.  Tickets are £20 and include a fish and chip supper (vegetarian option available) and a cash bar.

We were delighted to see such a big crowd at last week’s film. About a hundred people turned up to see the astonishing Danish drama After the Wedding. We knew it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but everyone we spoke to afterwards was extremely positive. One of the emails we got said it was “definitely one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time”.

Our new sound system in the village hall was shown off to good effect too, and over the summer we’ll be adding to it since we’ve just taken delivery of a new subwoofer to improve all the low frequencies. For anyone interested in the gory details, it is a JBL JRX118S. I must admit that it is a little bigger than I was expecting, especially since the marketing material describes it as “compact”. With that and a centre speaker we will have completed the refitting of the system. Thanks again to all our funders and donors this year.

The British Federation of Film Societies have just posted a short film about the national conference and Film Society of the Year awards last year in Sheffield, which we wrote about in October. It gives a good flavour of the weekend, and shows the importance of the film society community in the UK.

Last night’s Forest Row Film Society screening of Son of Man drew a packed house of over 120 people. Introduced by Flora Smith who, with Mark Dornford-May, worked heavily on the original theatre production on which the film was based, the audience were treated to the remarkable story of the project and the creation of the film.

Flora Smith introduces Son of Man

Cast entirely using non-professional actors and singers from a South African township, the original theatre company created powerful and at times controversial Xhosa versions of Carmen and the Chester mystery plays. These were performed not only in South Africa, but also in London and on a subsequent world tour to great acclaim.

The Carmen production was filmed first (released as U-Carmen eKhayelitsha) and the mystery plays rewritten and released as Son of Man in 2006 utilising some of the words of Steve Biko in Jesus’ sermons and speeches.

The audience responded very positively to the film, talking afterwards of the current resonances with events in Congo, and also in the context of the US election results. We look forward to screening U-Carmen eKhayelitsha next year.

The next screening of Forest Row Film Society will be this Friday, 7th November at 8pm when we will show the fantastic South African film Son of Man (certificate 12A). This is our second screening with the new digital equipment; doors open and 7.30 and we have a licensed bar for the evening alongside our usual tea and cakes. We had a packed house for our last film so would recommend arriving early.

We are delighted that the film will be introduced by Flora Smith, who, together with director Mark Dornford-May, produced the original theatre version. Son of Man will be screened in Forest Row Village Hall; admissions are £5/£4 (concessions). Further details about the film and a trailer are available on the official film site: http://www.sonofmanmovie.com/.

Newly-released DVDs will also be available on the evening. These are priced at £19.99, and may also be purchased from Spier Films.