A dozen more Thursday screenings – first this Thursday
Our first film for 2017 is GRANDMA, which we are screening this Thursday (Jan 5th). It stars Lily Tomlin, whom you may remember seeing in A Prairie Home Companion a few years ago. She plays a grandmother helping her granddaughter to arrange an abortion – a very funny film with the serious underpinning theme of choice.
Special offer to school and full-time college students
It’s great that we have more members from the younger generations than was the case a few years ago, but we feel that we should still be aiming to get more people of school and student age to our screenings. So we have decided that until further notice we will only charge £3 for admission to a single screening; £19 for all twelve film showings; and £2.50 if they come as a member’s guest – 50% of what everyone else pays.
This offer needs to be publicised, of course. We have sent a press release to the local newspaper, which may or may not bear fruit, and we will do more. But we rely on members to spread the word. Please do.
15 December report: excellent cheese from Didcot
The social event which tied in with our last film before Christmas went very well and the voluntary collection raised enough to pay for the food and soft drinks we had bought. Thanks are due to all those who brought comestibles, and in particular to Anita Rendel, who brought two home-baked cottage loaves and shopped for the cheese. The latter came from a specialist shop in Didcot and was interestingly unusual and very well appreciated by members present.
Planning for season 2017-8
In a few weeks’ time the committee will start working on the selection of films to be shown next season. All members can suggest titles, themes, genres and your ideas will go into the pot. We usually start the process with over one hundred suggestions and have to trim down to just over twenty. In doing that we have to bear in mind the balance of the programme; two typical factors are countries of origin and when a film was made. We also like to have a few special events. A typical problem we encounter is when we cannot find a rights holder who will license a particular screening, so we have to have reserve titles.
In recent years the annual programme has included titles that have originated from members. Just write down your ideas on the back of a reaction slip or send to info@abfilms.org.uk and they will be considered.
We wish you a happy 2017 and look forward to seeing you frequently.
The next newsletter is planned for late January.