And it's a good night from him...

"I said Fork Handles"

As many of you will know -  due to council cuts we are unable to continue with the current live arts and cinema programme after april this year. The David Lean Cinema has, in its 16 years or so of existence, become an incredibly valuable resource, particularly to our older customer… I have found it endlessly fascinating seeing what films work here and what films don’t. An older audience by no-means means a less adventurous one and I find it heartening that there is always an audience for the more left-of-field, foreign and independent films in Croydon,  despite what the multiplexes would have you believe.

With April being our final month of films we thought it would be nice to try and do something to say thank you for 16 years of support. After quite a lot of procrastination between the living breathing embodiment of The David Lean, the supremely talented Christine Sales and I, we decided in lieu of a 2nd Croydon Film Festival, to do a unique festival of our own, one that celebrates 16 years of bringing fantastic film to Croydon, a month long celebration of why The David Lean is so important, so here it is… ‘The Last Picture Show’, actually we’ll probably get told to change that title, but as we’re showing the film anyway we thought the title sums up our month-long festival perfectly.

The programme is going to be made up of one-off screenings, Q&A’s and some very special events. We have everyone from The Powell and Pressburger Association through to The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club involved, but most excitingly for me is the involvement of a very special guest curator in the very recognisable shape of Ronnie Corbett.

Its hard to think of a more famous Croydon-based octogenarian and I’m pretty sure this is a film festival first. Ronnie has very kindly agreed to pick some films that have been important to him through his life, I wont tell you what they are, but he’s chosen some real gems, he’s even coming down to have a little chat about them towards the end of the festival, I think it’ll be nice way to bow out, lets hope our audience agree.