On Sunday May 2 from 11am, The Corner House are once again organising their Flea Market which was such a success last year. This year half of the proceeds will go towards The Reel Appeal! Recycle your unwanted belongings or treasure with a stall of your own or wander around the streets of Wivenhoe searching for bargains.

Register your address, book your pitch or buy a map from The Corner House, 7-9 High Street, Wivenhoe or call them on 07506 992971

The Reel Appeal is running a Film stall in the Station Pub carpark so bring any old DVDs or videos to Ginny and Sue at The Wivenhoe Bookshop and we will put them on our stall.

Just a quick note about tonight’s successful film quiz…

Seventeen teams of between three and eight people took part in the nine-round set of questions presented by Michael Padmore and Sue Finn.

Teams enjoyed an evening of questions verbal, visual and musical accompanied by freshly made popcorn and a bar.

The winning team (known as ‘Dial Snow White For Murder’) scored 108.5 points out of a possible total of 125 and were awarded the prize of a box of six bottles of wine. A raffle draw held at the same time gave first prize of a boxed set of Coen Brothers movies (including The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink and Blood Simple), wines, and the compendium ‘1001 Films To See Before You Die’. Photos of the evening will be uploaded in a day or two… meanwhile here is the final quiz score:

Our special thanks to Michael Padmore for compiling and presenting such entertaining questions…to all who helped to make this first Reelappeal Quiznight such a success, and to the local businesses and individuals who donated the prizes for the quiz and raffle.

If you have any pictures of the evening you would like uploaded, or ideas for future quizzes and events,  please email them  john@idz.info

Download the poster

The next fund-raising event for the Wivenhoe Reel Appeal is a quiz night at the William Loveless hall on Saturday 24 April.

There will be a film theme to the evening, but quiz-master Michael Padmore promises to test much more than the size of your DVD collection.  “Expect anything from aliens to zulus; I may even find room for the kitchen sink (dramas).”

There will be a pay bar.

There will be suitable film-themed snacks.

Teams of three or more (£2.50 per person) can book a table in advance.

Call Michael on (01206) 826991 or email: quiz@reelappeal.org.uk

To Wivenhoe, on a freezing February night. It’s a fair way from my rural backwater to the great metropolis, but I travelled in great hope & expectation.

I was not to be disappointed.

Not having visited William Loveless Hall before, I managed to lose my way a couple of times before realising that the place with the lights on & a crowd of people outside was a decent bet (little gets past me); I should add no drink had been taken at this point. That didn’t last long.

Upon entry the atmosphere was immediately inviting & convivial, with a heterogeneous mix of ages, dress code & sex. Well, just two of the latter. The common demoninator seemed to be happiness, so, determined to join the mood, I headed for the bar.

Proceedings proper soon began. Hobo Chang were first on, & an excellent, well judged set followed. A very ‘together’ band, good but unflashy musicians with a distinctive, strong vocalist in Fiona Harmon (Dr. John influenced?), their laid back Blues – Reggae style ideally suited to the occasion. Volume was spot on too; conversation was possible, but there was always that frisson of potential misunderstanding which can add so much to a social situation. Lighting was atmospheric. In fact the only downside was the camera-dodging undergone when visiting the bar (again). I’m just too bloody old for such manoevres. And I’ve got this dodgy knee (bit of shrapnel ……)

The hour flew by &, in a symphony of black,  the Man of the Moment appeared. If you think you’ve never clapped eyes on Mr. Clarke … well, in a thousand yellowing 60s NMEs, you have. Suit sprayed on to a slender frame, Henry the Human Fly dark glasses topped off with a bouffant barnet of Bosnian proportions, the look is a parody of/ homage to iconic mavericks of the era. It’s post-ironic irony. The voice subverts the image. The language belies the voice. He is a little the worse for wear. He has been ill. He’s up & running, & none of this matters.

My memory becomes ever worse. Some gags – funeral first, I think, then golfing (various) & an observation about the ascendancy of Marine Biology as the University course du jour; the phrase “under the sea” captures him & he rolls it around playfully. Now you start to get a flavour of his motivation, his engine room. It’s a love of language, of wordplay, how it fires you into a world of imagination, how it wrongfoots you & makes you think. He did “Hire Car”  first, rasping voice delivering the rhythmic assault  perfectly – I have to say, I can’t imagine any other voice doing his stuff justice. More jokes, (about Alzheimers …….. I’ve forgotten) then that most wonderful of titles “The Hanging Gardens of Basildon”, which rendered me entirely incapable of hearing the actual recital, doubled up as I was, face streaming with tears. I couldn’t hear the title of the final piece, but it involved the repetition of an imprecation so many times that any meaning disappeared, & you were left with a strangely reassuring train-like rhythm, almost like a lullaby … well …. almost …..

There was a final set from Hobo Chang, finishing with a duet between Fiona & Johnny, none of which I am really qualified to comment on, due to the complete collapse of my critical faculties, but it all sounded bloody good to me. Much applause. Lots of willing volunteers, in varying states of coherence, then busied themselves with the aftermath (& a last drink), rapidly returning the venue to its original, Loveless state. Job done.

Professional, entertaining, profitable! An excellent evening, kick starting the Great Moolah Quest without which the Great Cinematic Quest is doomed to fail.

This punter was impressed.

Allez Wivenhoe!

Andy Young

The Quiz Night at the Flag was great fun thanks to Peter Kerr who organised the questions and the raffle. All the proceeds went to the Reelappeal fund and we raised £83.00. Thanks to everyone who came, and to the Flag for hosting the event and especially to Peter Kerr.

The February Reelappeal fundraising gig sold out within just a few days… Ticket sales totaled over £1700 which together with bar and merchandising raised a total well over £2000  towards our appeal. A good time was had by all, more donations were taken on the door, and we received many very enthusiastic comments about the gig, the public meeting, and the scheme as a whole…

Two questions on many peoples lips were: why didnt we go for a two-nighter and when are we going to do the next gig?

Many thanks to a great audience, to John Cooper Clarke and Hobo Chang who gave top performances for free, and to all who made the evening go with such a swing.

Screen East is the regional screen agency for the East of England, dedicated to developing a vibrant and flourishing film, television and digital media industry. Moira Collett and Michael Padmore from the Reel Appeal working group went to meet Martin Ayres, Head of Audiences and Education, at the agency’s office overlooking the Forum in Norwich.

One of the most useful topics of discussion was Screen East’s support for the Suffolk Digital Screen Network, which has made affordable digital cinema available in small towns and villages across the county. This tried and tested approach to community cinema is an excellent model for our own enterprise and Martin felt it might be a good time to develop a similar network in Essex.

Another focus for the discussion was making bids for funding. Martin explained that the Reel Appeal is most likely to be successful in attracting funds if we present a business plan based on wide consultation. Issues such as access, educational uses and sustainable design should be clearly established features of our plans from the outset.

Martin gave Reel Appeal enthusiastic support and we have taken away many useful contacts and suggestions to help us to bring cinema to Wivenhoe.

Essex University alumnus Nick Broomfield studied politics here in the early 1970’s before going on to the National Film School and a highly respected career as a documentary film maker. He returned to Essex University on the 15th of February to present a recent film ‘Ghosts’ and talk to a capacity audience at the Lakeside Theatre.

Ghosts is something of a new direction for Nick as it combines a largely factual story with the cinema style of drama. Using mainly non-professional actors themselves former illegal immigrants and headed by the astounding Ai Qin Lin the cast of this beautiful but searching film show a journey from rural China to the terrible tragedy which in February 2004 caused the deaths by drowning of twenty three illegal Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay.

Nicks film, and the subsequent campaign to commemorate these deaths also brought to public attention the fact that three million migrant workers form an essential but unprotected part of our UK economy. The film also launched an appeal which has raised half a million pounds towards relieving the crippling family debts which drove many of these workers to find hazardous, unprotected and underpaid work in the UK, coming here as the film showed by van and truck, often suffering frightening and hazardous conditions whilst being smuggled into the country by organised gangs.

Nick Broomfield presented the film and responded to the audiences questions and comments.



A CINEMA IN WIVENHOE?
The community response is ‘YES!

Public meeting at William Loveless Hall 2010/01/30 presented to capacity audience.

The morning meeting began with welcome and badge selling by Charlotte, donations signups, teas and coffees etc. There was a very engaged response to Sue Finn’s half hour presentation on the overall aims of the project followed by a good range of questions to a panel: Michael Padmore, Adrian Birch, Sue Finn (plus floor support from Bryan Thomas, Moira Collett and Ann Quarrie).

Download a pdf copy of Sue’s presentation slides (size appx 370K)

Meeting was very positive about the project. People new to the project have offered further support, interest in linking to the website, adding names to mailing list… etc.

Pam J took notes of questions and comments which we will write up as a fuller report.

Thanks to WL Hall, everybody who made it work and particularly thanks to so many interested local people of all ages who came to find out more and show support.

Responses like this give us the confidence that this project can and will succeed.

Architect Bryan Thomas is working on a new sketch plan just to give an idea of how a possible cinema might look. Meanwhile here’s the original five minute ‘back of an envelope’ drawing which helped start it all…