friday 7 june
SOUTHEND ON FILM
Presented by Chris Izod
1.00PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE BALLROOM : TICKETS £7.00
The first of three fascinating presentations in the company of local cinema and film historian
Chris Izod. This afternoon he will be introducing fascinating archive footage of our city, including
The Wind of Change (an amateur travelogue from the early 1960s), Why All the Rush? (a 1961 ‘Look at Life’ profiling Southend on an August Bank Holiday), One Hundred Years of Cinema
(a look at our many cinemas, including interviews with those who worked in them), a rare screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s personal greeting (from the set of Psycho ) to the Westcliff 35mm and Cine Club - and much more.
A MATTER OF WHO
UK : 1h 30m : 1961 : BW: Certificate '12'
Directed by Don Chaffey
1.00PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE ROYAL VIEW SUITE : TICKETS £7.00
The ‘WHO’ is the World Health Organisation, and the always wonderful Terry-Thomas plays its
investigator in this sparkling combination of drama, detective story – and a dash of comedy. A plane arrives at London Airport with a passenger who has become very sick. A smallpox outbreak is suspected, but the victim’s business partner, aware of his links with Middle East oil exploration, senses foul play. Our hero starts his investigation...
TWO TICKETS TO BROADWAY
USA : 1h 46m : 1951 : BW : Certificate 'U'
Directed by James V Kern
3.30PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE BALLROOM : TICKETS £7.00
Young and inexperienced Nancy leaves her hometown in Vermont to make it big on Broadway. Along the way, she meets three struggling chorines and baritone Dan, who are at the point of giving up and going home. But then their agent suggests they try out for the new medium of television, and what better than ‘brother of Bing’ Bob Crosby’s real-life top-rated variety show. Janet Leigh and Tony Martin star in this effervescent musical, with Eddie Bracken as their only-slightly shady agent!
EDGAR WALLACE: THE COLLEGE GIRL MURDERS
Germany : 1h 28m : 1967 : Certificate '12' : English language
Directed by Alfred Vohrer
3.30PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE ROYAL VIEW SUITE : TICKETS £7.00
Adaptations of stories by celebrated crime writer Edgar Wallace were a staple of German cinema for decades. They are great fun, especially as they are mostly set in a very German version of England (including left hand drive cars!) with the investigations headed by a detective from ‘Scotland Yard’. In this fun mystery, a scientist at a girls’ college, who has invented an almost undetectable poison gas, is
murdered by a hooded figure.
As the investigation begins, co-eds start turning up dead. Can the inspector unmask the mad killer, who seems to come and go as he pleases?
MACON COUNTY LINE
USA : 1h 29m : 1974 : Certificate '18'
Directed by Richard Compton
6.00PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE BALLROOM : TICKETS £7.00
1950s Georgia: Two brothers are on a two-week, freewheeling spree before they are due to join the Air Force. They pick up hitchhiking free spirit Jenny but, crossing the county line, fall foul of the local sheriff. Then, when the lawman’s wife is brutally murdered, he has only the brothers in his sights, and sets off to hunt them down. This powerful drama is the perfect Southern ‘drive-in movie’, and was the most profitable film of its year.
GIRLS OF THE SPANISH STEPS
Italy : 1h 25m : 1952 : BW : Subtitles : Certificate '15'
Directed by Luciano Emmer
6.00PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE ROYAL VIEW SUITE : TICKETS £7.00
Three seamstresses from a fashionable dress salon routinely gather at the famous Piazza de Spagna (at the foot of the Spanish Steps) to have lunch and exchange gossip about their love lives. Marisa is engaged to a truck driver, Elena is in love with an opportunist who is also romancing the boss’s daughter, while Lucia is worshipped by a small-in-stature jockey, but prefers taller men. This gentle, heart-warming character study is part of the celebrated post-war neo-realist cinema in Italy that produced classics such as Bicycle Thieves . A really lovely film!
FAST FORWARD - THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF POP ON FILM
Presented by Daryl Easlea
8.30PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE BALLROOM : TICKETS £7.00
Join festival stalwart, music writer, DJ and pop historian Daryl Easlea, who is celebrating the 45th year since he sold his first record at the counter of Southend’s WH Smith with one of his free-wheeling, informative fun'n'fact-packed chats about the joy and importance of capturing pop on film.
Expect Beatles, Prince, Monkees, Aretha and many, many more, in extended excerpts on the big screen.
+ LOUDER THAN WORDS
UK : 16m : Director Jack Jackson
This short documentary, based around a music writing festival, takes a look at the intersection of words and music; how they inspire a passion and why sharing that passion is so important..
+ GOOD FOR THE SOUL
UK : 5m : Director Dean Chalkley
'Good For The Soul’ sets a blistering pace! A short film that celebrates the joy of dancing to Northern Soul. This modern, vibrant and fast moving short film taps into the emotional and cathartic nature of the music. It’s a high powered firecracker of a film that will turn your heartbeat up.
MEMORIES OF MY FATHER
Colombia: 2h 16m : 2020 : Subtitles : Certificate '15'
Directed by Fernando Trueba
8.30PM : PARK INN BY RADISSON PALACE ROYAL VIEW SUITE : TICKETS £7.00
This powerful film is based on a book by celebrated Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince. It took him 20 years to pluck up the courage to write it, as it is about his father, a university professor who promoted tolerance, human rights and social inequality but who was hounded and silenced by his political enemies. As well as profiling his father, this is a damning critique of the country’s social life in the last three decades.
Kindly sponsored by Pier View Self Catering Apartments
