Bringing the Big Screen to Biggleswade every month
For Your Entertainment
© 2008 -
IVEL FLIX FILM CLUB - by May Garton 1920 - 2007
From the time I arrived in Biggleswade in November 1998 and found there was no cinema in the town, I explored the idea of starting a film club. I did what research I could. Friends took me to the Civic Theatre Bedford, home of the Bedford Film Society and I telephoned Pip Jones who ran it and picked his brains. I also got in touch with Marcello Quarterone and Sumil Kalyan at the Corn Exchange who invited me to go there and have a look at their facilities. Then I contacted several shops which supplied projection equipment, screens, DVDs, etc. to find out what was needed and the likely cost And finally, I wrote a letter to the Chronicle asking for support and stressing that the film club was intended to benefit everyone in the town, not only older people.
A Committee of volunteers was recruited and they distributed a Questionnaire asking for opinions and film title suggestions. Then there was a lull in the proceedings until Hilary Western, Youth and Community Arts Worker at MidBeds Community Services, Leisure and Tourism came to talk at an OPAG committee meeting. She found a suitable venue and introduced us to ‘Alive and Reel’ at Leighton Buzzard Theatre through which we were able to hire films, projection equipment and the services of a technician. Suddenly, in 2003, it was all happening……….
Biggleswade Community Liaison Forum gave Ivel Flix a ‘Start-up’ and working capital grant and Bedford and Luton Community Foundation also made a grant. The MidBeds Youth and Community ‘Performance’ Scheme financed the first two films – ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ and ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ and, at 3pm on Saturday, 15th November 2003 Ivel Flix welcomed the whole community to its first film show!
All has not quite been plain sailing ever since. Audience numbers have fluctuated, costs have risen. It has been necessary to use different venues and cope with several near calamities, but, with a faithful core audience and a hard working committee, the film Club has survived and the third season is drawing to a successful close.