DateSunday 8 March 2009VenuePound Arts CentreCorsham Wiltshire SN13 9HX Please click on the postcode to display a map from Streetmap.co.uk in a separate window.
Six excellent films were on show. |
 Inside the recently improved venue |
The South West Group last visited Corsham’s Pound Arts Centre in 2003 when the newly-formed Film @ the Pound welcomed 60 or so delegates
from 20 Societies to the Wiltshire town. Six years on, the former school has been transformed with a £1.25m refurbishment with an
auditorium of 100 raked seats and a bright exhibition and performance space in the main building. Even so, the almost record attendance
of over 130 from 33 societies, new and established, proved rather a challenge for the organisers fitting in the numbers between the
auditorium and the smaller viewing area in the Studio.Film @ the Pound organisers enjoying the short-lived sunshine before the Viewing - left to right: Lu Overy, Oscar Stringer and Tricia McLeod |
| The films were all well-received with four scoring more than 80% but the various strong themes may have been rather overwhelming for some to take at one sitting. View the reactions to all the films in PDF format. Top of the ratings was I’ve Loved You So Long with members responding to Kristin Scott Thomas’s BAFTA-winning performance, despite initial technical problems with the sound. The surprise runner-up was the lesser-known Emma’s Bliss, one of the new acquisitions for the BFFS’s Block Booking Scheme. The film was introduced by former BFFS General Secretary, Dave Watterson, whose involvement with The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers had led him to appreciate the work of the German director Sven Taddicken, illustrated by excerpts from some of the director’s earlier short films. Although the film’s theme was literally one of life and death, there was a lightness of touch that made a welcome contrast with the more heavyweight, and possibly more worthy, Hunger and Waltz with Bashir. Of the others, Lemon Tree with a wonderful central performance from Hiam Abbass, is likely to feature in many Societies’ programmes later in the year, whilst Robert Carlyle gave Summer, another BFFS title, a gritty edge. |
Overall, another successful event for the SW Group, thanks to the efforts of Tricia McLeod and the FATP team and to the excellent
catering from Susie Hazell and her helpers who coped admirably with the high numbers attending. Thanks also to Paul Schilling for
booking the programme including a number of exceptional shorts some of which BFFS are hoping to distribute – see Newsreel and the new
BFFS website for up-dates.Brian Clay Crowded reception at the start of the SW Group’s Corsham Viewing |
