There is a very important place in Forest Row where you can satisfy your film interests other than coming to the village hall on a Friday; Forest Row Library has access to an astonishing range of films and film resources and it is well worth checking them out.

Through the library in Forest Row you have access to the world cinema collection throughout all of East Sussex libraries, and that is very impressive. As well as recent releases, the catalogue includes an interesting range including Godard, Bergman, Kieslowski, Rivette, Visconti, Truffaut, Rohmer, and much else.

You can see some highlights of the collection organised by theme, which includes world cinema and classics. Current world highlights include Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, Christ Stopped at Eboli, and the rather wonderful Korean film Spring, summer, autumn, winter… and spring.

It is also a great source for films that you may have missed which we have screened, including Cherry Blossoms, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, and A Separation. And, the recent releases are equally impressive, including Coriolanus, Moonrise Kingdom, Marley and The Angels’ Share.

I also have a top tip: to find a specific film or those by a director, use the Advanced Search. You will need to choose Search type = “keyword” (rather than the somewhat bizarre default ISBN; who apart from librarians and publishers search by ISBN?), and Format =”DVD”.

There is more than DVDs too. Of course, it’s a library so there are books, and that includes film books such as the wonderful Cinema: A Critical Dictionary, edited by Richard Roud, and the amazing Oxford History of World Cinema, two of my own favourites.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, there are online resources too, many of which contain useful film-related content, and which you can access from home

1. Oxford Reference Online contains hundreds of OUP’s reference works, many of which include good film materials. I just looked up Eisenstein, for instance, and found a good range of information, including about his theatre work, relationship to critical theory, and especially on his film form;
2. Dictionary of National Biography is the major source for British biographical information, and includes tons of British actors and directors (deceased);
3. The Times gives access to film reviews from the earliest dates when the paper started covering film; and
4. Who’s Who, Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online all contain other film content.

So, you will need a library card, of course, and then you can register for online access by getting a PIN, which will enable you to reserve stuff online as well as access the online resources. The library does charge for DVDs of course, and you can see the current hire charges on the ESCC website.

Finally, the library may be able to get in specific collections from time to time that will appeal to the Film Society audience so we won’t need always to order individual titles in from other libraries. If you have any ideas for groups of films that we could request, do let us know.