onionbagblog

A kindly invite to come down to the Phillip Road Centre on Sunday afternoon, via the good folk of Moving Image and the young folk of Wivenhoe.

I struggle immensely with the ‘young folk of Wivenhoe’ phrase - these are, um, young folk that clearly aren’t kids, but the lucky buggers have yet to get bogged down with the stranglehold of a monthly mortgage.

Be young, be foolish (ish) be happy; be a curator for Moving Image, the independent community cinema for Wivenhoe, and then soon see how these youthful looks will quickly lead to grey hairs.

November has been Take Over month for Moving Image. Building upon his superb work at The Hub, Michael Padmore has been keen to pass on the programming and running of Moving Image to… the young folk of Wivenhoe.

It became clear from the start that this is much more than simply a vanity project. Sure, the young folk get to select which films to screen, but Moving Image is about promotion as much as it is about popcorn [which technically speaking, it isn't really, but I'm not going to let an easy alliteration opportunity oversee me.]

Posters have been brilliantly designed, social media has been engaged, in a bid to put bums on seats down at Phillip Road for the remainder of the month. The Wivenhoe film crowd is a tough crowd to please. The break-even figure of [um, not sure if I should really be giving this away...] is just about holding its head above water.

But for every Sunday afternoon sold out matinee, there is a bare as bones empty auditorium, when scheduling such as the Quayside fireworks, or the simultaneous screening of V for Vendetta appears on TV.

Whoops.

And then there is the practical element of putting in place the projector, setting up the sound system, draping those considerable black out curtains.

Much more than simply saying let’s screen The Sound of Music and have a jolly wheeze, eh?

Michael has been able to interest a great selection of the young folk of Wivenhoe to step up and take hold of Moving Image responsibilities. On Sunday afternoon it was the turn of Rebecca, Louise and Jane. Added to all the ever-growing list of responsibilities was the small matter of, um, hyperlocal media requests.

The three ladies very kindly agreed to me door stepping them with a mic, and then asking all about Take Over November, and what Moving Image means to them. I was impressed with the answers, as much as I was with the maturity.

The 18 year-old hyperlocal blogger would have grunted and giggled, and made little sense to anyone apart from his pet finch. And then there would have been my request to screen Purple Rain EVERY weekend as part of the teenage Take Over season.

So yeah - if Moving Image is to have any long-term future - and here’s hoping that it has - then the young folk of Wivenhoe appear more than capable of… Taking Over.

Action!

The Moving Image Take Over season continues with screenings of:

Exit through the Gift Shop - 19th November

If… - 26th November and

Back to the Future - 27th November