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Showing #blackpond was a risk I’m really glad we took @wivmovingimage

— Moira Collett (@heatheruth) January 28, 2012

Yep - the screening of Black Pond at the Philip Road Centre by the lovely folk of Moving Image was a risk worth taking. I’m not sure that I would have wanted to have paid £10 plus for a *proper* cinema screening, but then this is the beauty of having an independent community cinema right on your doorstep.

Any film that trades under the blurb of:

“If Syd Barrett had ever written and directed a movie, it might well have looked like this”

…is setting you up for something that isn’t quite Walt Disney. Moving Image managed to move mountains in getting agreement from Director Tom Kingsley to show a one off screening of the “deeply eccentric, haunting marvel.”

Tom was so impressed with what he discovered about Wivenhoe’s independent cinema via the website that he allowed the Philip Road show on Saturday to take place. Thanks for the interest ‘n all that, but I hope Tom doesn’t make a habit of checking out hyperlocal Wivenhoe blogs.

The film was… interesting. I would rather have sat through it than anything that Uncle Walt might have come up with, but by the second third in and I thought that it had become pure comedy. If Chris Morris has masterminded the production then you would label it as genius. I felt sorry for the poor family dog that came a cropper.

Whoops - was that a spoiler?

But yeah, it certainly worked for Moving Image. Another close to capacity Philip Road Centre on a Saturday night, confirming yet again that there is an interest in a community cinema for our hyperlocal patch.

What I love so much about Moving Image is the informality of it all. Couples arrived with blankets on Saturday evening and no one battered an eyelid. I made a beeline for the radiator and came close to peeling off my size 9′s and plonking my feet on top of the old pipes.

The real risk on Saturday evening was allowing a *cough* [yeah, I really do mean COUGH...] slightly man flu suffering hit and miss hyperlocal blogger into the building.

“You don’t look well,” remarked one of the rather nice Moving Image regulars.

Yeah, cheers pal!

The coughs came quick and plenty after the first third of the film. Maybe this is why the comedy value kicked in at the point where the Night Nurse should have been sending me off to La La Land?

Apologies, all.

For a film that is based around a dysfunctional family in a rural setting, it was reassuring to walk back up the High Street with what I strongly believe is a very functional family living in a rural setting. Black Pond was unsettling, especially so after necking half a bottle of Night Nurse.

But a risk well worth taking all the same.