Mince Pies and Movies 2009
Our second meeting in December really went with a bang! We had a brilliant firework display in the bath, guns blazing in the silo and mince pies in the clubroom. Well, the mince pies were the real thing and were provided by Judith and Chris as a tea break treat. The firework display and blazing guns were actually featured in two of the films screened during the evening.
The occasion, of course, was this year`s Christmas competition, where a total of six quite different films had been entered and an experiment in the method of judging was tried. This involved most of the assembled members, who thought they were just coming to watch films, being handed clip boards and pens, being segregated into three groups and all becoming judges for the evening. Luckily, they were all “delighted” with this new venture and very quickly settled into their new role.
The danger with having a large group of judges is that, with six films, it would be quite possible to end up with six different winners, although in this case it didn`t happen. The gathered assembly, or perhaps I should say adjudicating panel, all selected the same two films as their top two, with one of the two titles narrowly beating the other for first place.
The films in order of screening were:
- Making of a Mayor, by Howard Johnson, being almost a fly on the wall documentary of the inauguration of a new mayor. Matlock Bath, David Porter`s view of a fireworks display.
- Time and Tide, by Chris and Judith Kenny offering a poetic approach to a family growing up.
- Winter Waters, actually two separate films (almost a double feature) from Edmund and Audrey Law, with the first showing the tons of wood washed up on Worthing beach from the Ice Prince which sank some 26 miles off the Dorset coast early in 2008. With the addition of an explanatory commentary, I believe this short film could become an intriguing historical document. The second film provided a leisurely view around the Wildlife and Wetland Trust. Shoreham by Sea, one of three travelogues produced by John Guile, David Porter and Keith Poley, offering an informative trip around the Sussex waterside town of Shoreham.
- Fort Silo, filmed by Peter Wainwright during a trip to Singapore in a type of historical theme park depicting the life of servicemen during the war. After discussing the films with their own groups the three group leaders, John Fisher, Chris Hodson and Ken Collis, gave interesting reviews of all entries.
- The winning film was Shoreham by Sea with Time and Tide the runner up.
The general feeling amongst the members in attendance seemed to indicate the judging experiment was successful, but privately some members did say they prefered not to be involved with the judging.
What are your views?
Brian Meetens