SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY
In keeping with a long-standing tradition, we are extending our main season by showing a film in conjunction with Shropshire Friends of Palestine. This year we are thrilled to be screening Palestine 36 (Palestine, 2025, cert 12A, 119 mins) a historical drama written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. The film recounts the 1936–1939 Arab revolt against British colonial rule in Palestine during the Mandate period.
Set during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s under British rule in Palestine, this historical drama follows ordinary people drawn into a growing movement of resistance and political upheaval. Combining personal stories with wider historical events, the film explores colonialism, identity and the struggle for self-determination in a turbulent and pivotal period of Middle Eastern history.
We’d love you to join us for this “handsome, old–fashioned production.”
Tickets can be booked here
You can read the Film Notes here, and watch the trailer here
Our leaflets for the next season have just been delivered! If you didn't come to our last film, then you can pop into the Hive to pick one up. They will also be left at various locations around Shrewsbury including the Library.
Last Monday we were invited to the Mayor of Shrewsbury Awards, where we received an award in the Community category. Although we have only recently taken over running the Film Society, we were more than happy to grab all the accolades for ourselves. However, in the harsh light of the day after the after–parties, we have to reluctantly acknowledge that all who have gone before us to earn us this award: the likes of Sally, Peter and Corinne as well as the Hive.
You can see our award next time that you visit the Hive:
This month, ODCC is taking a break from showing a film at the Hive and offering a social event at the Exchange. This event is free of charge and consists of a few short films, quizzes and other games as yet TBCed. If interested, please go to the ODCC webpage (see below) or even better follow them on Instagram (also below)
Following on from our first highly successful mini–season — Horror at the Hive – we’re really proud that from a standing start, we’ve averaged audiences of over 40 at each screening. Even more encouraging has been the makeup of those audiences, which included:
Thanks to the enthusiasm and hard work of Louis, Matt, Jonny and Ted, we now have a loyal and dedicated core on which to build future seasons.
We are truly grateful to everyone who has supported this new strand by joining our mailing list, following us on Instagram, and, of course, coming along to the films. As we’ve said before, this isn’t standard Film Society fare – but your support is proving that there’s an appetite for something a little different.
Please spread the word, or even better, come along yourself.
Louis and Jonny played an absolute blinder when interviewed by Mark Elliott on the BBC Radio Shropshire mid-morning show about the Open Door Cinema Club
You can hear it here:
We have taken advantage of the break from screening movies to do some maintenance work on all things Film Society. The standout job was to replace the projector. From the start of last season it was clear that the current projector, which had served us loyally for over 10 years, was on its last legs. There was an area in the bottom right corner with a sepia tint, which was slowly increasing in size. Plus we would occasionally turn on the projector and everything would be red
So we spent £3000 on a new NEC PV710 projector
This has a guaranteed 20,000 hours lifespan, so using my back-of-a-fag-packet-maths, assuming that we show 16 films a year which last 2 hours, then this projector will need to be replaced in 625 years! So hopefully this is not an expense that we will need to worry about again.
And this is all before I mention that the image quality at its first film showing was absolutely superb, so it makes the whole experience of seeing films on the big screen that are not available elsewhere even better than ever.
We are also revamping the age-old Film Society tradition of the buttons in cups. The Happy, Neutral and Sad faces can make people conflicted especially with films that are best described as "gritty".
Quite rightfully, many aren't sure if they should go for a Happy face on the basis of the excellent quality of the film, yet the subject matter shouts out Sad face.
We are therefore going to tweak the cups to go for a 1 to 5 star system - so this would be more in line with the ratings used by for example the Guardian.
We are offering the best of world cinema over 16 fortnightly Friday nights. Printed copies of the leaflet are available from The Hive and other outlets or you can download a one-sided poster version here.
Best wishes,
Louis, Andrew and Mike
as the Shrewsbury Film Society Committee
