Beer Film Society was founded in September 2006. With a great deal of help from the British Federation of Film Societies and donations from Beer Parish Council, Devon County Council, Mike Green and several others, the Society was able to obtain basic projection and audio equipment. Our aim is to bring a combination of popular as well as less-mainstream films to the village. Over the years the Society has used any surplus funds from the screening of films to improve the quality of its equipment.
Our screenings are held in Mariners' Hall in Beer, which has a high-definition video projection system as well as improved acoustics, and which together mean that our audiences get a first-class viewing experience. A licensed bar is provided.
Beer Film Society is not only getting its autumn
programme underway with a special celebration in September – but it is also
announcing a new start time of 7pm.
Yes, from
now on we will be getting the action underway at 7pm – 30 minutes earlier than
previously – with doors opening at 6.30pm.
Our next screening will be the classic Italian film ‘Cinema Paradiso’ (1988, 2hr 03mins, 12) in Mariners’ Hall on Thursday 19 September.
And did we already tell you we are
now starting at 7pm? No
apologies for repetition here as we don’t want anyone to turn up at 7.15pm and
miss the start of the film!
We have chosen this film to celebrate the 200th
film shown by Beer Film Society since its foundation in 2006. Martin Cox,
one of the founding members, tells us that the first official film shown by Beer
Film Society in Mariners’ Hall was Capote
on 10 October 2006 and, after a spell at Steamers Restaurant (thanks to its
previous patron and film fanatic Andy Williams), it is wonderful that we can
mark this occasion back in the place where it all started.
In Cinema Paradiso
a filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the
cinema of his home village in rural Sicily and forming a deep friendship with
the cinema's projectionist. It won
the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in 1990 – plus two BAFTAs for the lead
and supporting actors - and we think it is a fitting film to celebrate such a
notable milestone for Beer Film Society.
What
the critics said:
‘This is
one of the finest films about innocence ever made, a perfect picture of a time
when the cinema was the only source of laughter and joy.’
‘Recent
changes to cinema which have seen the projectionist's art sidelined in the
digital age add a further layer of poignancy to the magical memories.’
‘Utterly
irresistible, this may be a cornball celebration of the art and social history
of cinema, but it's also a thoughtful memoir of more innocent days, when
pleasures rarely came cheaply or instantly.’
On Thursday 17
October we will be showing the British film
‘The End We Start From’ (2023, 1hr 43mins, 15)
starring Jodie Comer, who plays a woman trying
to find her way home with her newborn while an environmental crisis submerges
London in floodwaters.
For our November film on
Thursday 14th
we will be showing ‘Anatomy Of A Fall’ (2023,
2hrs 30mins, 15), an intense French drama –
which won an Oscar and BAFTA for best screenplay – in which a woman is suspected
of murder after her husband's death; their partially blind son faces a moral
dilemma as the main witness.
Finally a change of tempo for our pre-Christmas film
on Thursday 5 December
with ‘The Holdovers’ (2023, 2hrs 13mins, 15).
A curmudgeonly teacher at a New England school remains on campus during
Christmas break to ‘babysit’ a handful of students with nowhere to go. He
soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the
school's cook, a woman who recently lost a son in the Vietnam War.
The bar will
be open for all of these screenings and our very popular Baboo Gelato ice creams will be on sale.
More news to come on all these films but for now put the dates in your diary – and don’t forget our new start time. 7PM.
Don’t be
late!
To reserve seats or a table for any screening, please email beerfilmsociety@gmail.com by the Wednesday before the screening.
Membership of Beer Film Society costs £15 for a full 12 months, and members pay a £5 entrance fee at each screening that they attend. The entrance fee for non-members is £7. Priority is given to reservations by members, but non-members may also reserve tickets. To book tickets or to find out more about Beer Film Society, just email beerfilmsociety@gmail.com.
Last edited: Monday 2 September 2024