Dear Members:
I do hope that you and your families are all keeping well, are in reasonably good spirits and coping with the current Covid-19 crisis as best you can.
It’s now some weeks since I got in touch with you all to say that the CFC’s season had been postponed for the foreseeable future as places of public gatherings had been closed. At the moment Chelmsford Theatres remain closed and there seems no likelihood of them being re-opened in the foreseeable future: possibly theatres, cinemas, concert halls and the like will be the last places to experience any lifting of government restrictions on ‘social distancing’: the arts, in general, face a very uncertain future. Hence, sadly but realistically, this current season of CFC is now abandoned.
I would like to address the issue of the five films the club has not been able to screen and your membership subscription. The best solution for the Club, which I’m sure you appreciate runs on very tight financial resources, is for members to receive a credit towards a next full season, which would now, hopefully, be 2021-22 latest. It is not possible for now to say what the subscription would be in the future, or how many films would be screened, but the sum would be deducted for members who re-join. To anyone who decides not to join the Club when we are able to restart, we can offer a refund. However, if any of you would like a refund now, do please get in touch with me via my email or phone (pfbunyan@btinternet.com – 01277622716). Please do not get in touch until after 4 June, when our current season officially ends.
But hope springs eternal…. If there is any chance of showing, say, the last film in our programme on 4 June then we will let you know. If it becomes feasible to present a short season of films, from winter 2020 into early spring of 2021, for instance, then again, I will be in touch.
The members of the Committee have been exchanging ideas with each other as to ways of promoting the kind of films which the Club exists to show. There are a number of streaming services, such as Netflix, Mubi, Curzon Home Cinema and BFI player, showing recently released and back-catalogue films. Some require a subscription, others are pay-to-view. BFI player, for instance is £4.99 per month, while Mubi is £9.99 per month. It has been suggested that a ‘Watch Party’ could be organised in which those of us who take part watch a film ‘on line’ at a certain time and then share comments. Again, if and when the details of this can be arranged, I shall be in touch.
I would love to hear from you as to how and if you use the internet to download and stream films. As for me, I am steadily dusting down and working through my own collection of films on DVD/Blue Ray. Even one or two on terrestrial TV: three hours recently of ‘The Dear Hunter’ for instance!
BFI Player has just issued its ‘Top 10’ films downloaded over the past few weeks: Calm With Horses; The Assistant; Knives Out; And Then We Danced; In the Cut; La belle époque; A Guide to Second Date Sex; Mr. Jones; Bound and Vivarium. Films to grace any film club programme: but how good it would be to see them on the big screen!
On behalf of the Committee, I do offer you our very best wishes over the coming weeks: take care and keep well. We’ll meet again…
Peter Bunyan
Chair – Chelmsford Film Club