South West Autumn Viewing at Exeter University

Date

Venue

BFFS RELEASE TOPS AT EXETER VIEWING!

The South West Group’s Autumn Viewing returned to a favourite venue at Exeter University’s Devonshire House, home of the student society CinSoc. After the record breaking numbers in Wincanton back in the Spring, attendance was back to a manageable 85 representing an equally creditable 27 Societies from all over the South West including those who had made the long journey from Warminster, Malmesbury and Swindon in the east of the region. Their reward was a packed day of six new features – three in the superb 35mm cinema projected by Nick Keen and three more upstairs on DVD in the Digital Room with Paul Schilling working his magic with the BFFS kit.
Niki Adams introducing In Prison My Whole Life Highlight of the day was a new release from the BFFS Block Booking scheme – In Prison My Whole Life – a powerful documentary on the tangled world of renowned Death Row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The story is told through the eyes of William Francome who was born on the day that Mumia was arrested for a murder in Philadelphia, a crime which he has always maintained he did not commit. The screening was greatly enhanced by being introduced by Human Rights lawyer, Niki Adams (left), who had travelled down especially from London. The film was very well received and was accorded the top rating of the day, a remarkable 93%. The other digital offerings, the indie comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss and The Visitor from the director of Film Society favourite, The Station Agent.
All titles well-received Downstairs in the CinSoc Cinema, the titles were also well-received, all scoring over 70%. These were a diverse World Cinema line-up with The Pope’s Toilet, a bitter-sweet farce from Uruguay, Juliette Binoche leading a terrific cast in Summer Hours, exploring French heritage and the latest gem from our own Shane Meadows, Somers Town. With this and Midnight Kiss both possible future titles for BFFS Block Bookings, the success of the day underlined many of the advantages of BFFS membership!	Title Total Votes Reaction Index In Prison My Whole Life 21 93 The Visitor 37 92 In Search of a Midnight Kiss 25 80 The Pope's Toilet 51 73 Summer Hours 53 72 Somers Town 32 72
	Distinguished Lympstone In between the screenings and the excellent quiz devised by the diehard film fans of CinSoc, South West Co-Chair Ralph Willett presented a BFFS Film Society of the Year Distinction certificate to Don Mildenhall and members of Lympstone Film Society in the Best New Society category. Lympstone were one of the first new screens to be helped by the SW Group’s Film WbySW initiative – they drove all the way from Devon to the Information Day in Redruth last year and have never looked back! Their latest coup was to win an Awards for All grant that they used, in part, to fund a two-day film workshop for young film makers.

Please click here to read an introduction to In Prison My Whole Life.

Click on Programme Notes for one-page notes on all films shown.

Here are the audience reactions in PDF format.