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Exodus. Movement of the Moving Image people. All the way to the Babylon that is the Philip Road Centre on Saturday evening.

Blimey.

Not so much Catch a Fire but catch a cold with the screening of Marley by the lovely, lovely folk of Wivenhoe Moving Image.

Only the second film into the September schedule and the Philip Road Centre was once again a sell out. This shows that there is a passion for independent cinema in the town when staged and priced to perfection. Having a big hitter of a film also helps.

Marley is a lengthy biopic. Clocking in at just under two and a half hours, it was a good opportunity to road test the Moving Image comfort factor. No one is claiming that the old schools chairs can compete with the Leicester Square Odeon set up, but then again you try seeing a big screen film in the West End for a under a fiver.

Much like the chairs, it all stacked up rather well. A few fidgets come the closing credits, but that was probably more to do with the Marley music, rather than the seating arrangements.

Meanwhile the Moving Image *cough* Big Society funded projector and speakers handled the soundtrack superbly. It wasn’t quite the Abashanti Sound System setting up down the Philip Road Centre, but I doubt if the bass bins will be put to a tougher test.

My toes still carried the vibrations as we wandered up past The Greyhound some two and a half hours later.

Or maybe that was just the half pint of shandy settling in?

And so what of the film itself?

Much like Mr Marley - epic. It covers the entire life of yer man, from Trench Town childhood through to the cancer that cruelly killed him at the peak of his powers. This wasn’t a cliché two hour plus presentation of the Legend album, but a look at Bob Marley’s talents, his faults and his ultimately his One Love message.

It wasn’t quite sing-a-long-a-Marley - that comes later in the month - but it wasn’t a silent Moving Image audience either. You can’t keep quiet to songs such as Is This Love, Stir It Up and Satisfy My Soul.

Bob Marley is fascinating figure, mixing the personal with the political. The film succeeds in matching up the social with the wider infrastructure. It was fighting talk, even for the Philip Road Centre on a Saturday evening.

Moving Image screens The Kid with a Bike next Saturday evening, a French language film telling the story of a 12-year-old boy who turns to a woman for comfort after his father has abandoned him.

No Woman, No Cry.

Aye.