Dear CFC Members

It is now more than three months since I wrote you all, so the first thing to say is that we on the Committee hope you are all in good health and coping with – should I say ‘enduring’ – the strictures imposed by ‘Lockdown Mk.2’.

In August I had hoped that by now, as we approach Christmas, there would be some good news to report on the prospects for planning a further season of CFC. Sadly, this is not the case. The Cramphorn Studio, our venue, is still closed and looks like remaining so in to the New Year. But it is not all gloom and doom. As you know, this month heralded the prospect of a vaccine which could be rolled out in early 2021 and which might well mean that our club, and the Arts in general, could start to flourish again. Let’s live in hope!

The on line streaming platforms which I mentioned in August are still providing a rich diet of recent films. The BFI player is particularly rewarding. There is now another service, Your Screen, aimed at audiences such as ourselves, which is being provided by the Electric Picture House of Wotton. It costs £9.99 a film (£2 discount if you use the code WOTTON20) and the revenue generated is to be shared with independent cinemas. Go to www.WOTTONCINEMA.com and explore! This does put the CFC subscription of just over £4 a film into perspective!

I note also that some cinemas have (had) opened, such as the Odeon in Chelmsford, for limited bookings and reduced audience numbers and will, I assume, be open again after December 2. Terrestrial TV, especially the BBC, continues to make extra efforts to show classic movies and, albeit late at night, some recent independent ones. Another useful on-line tool is tv-films.co.uk which provides a comprehensive list of films for the coming week and shows the IMDB rating as well as other helpful information.

The Club’s collection of books, DVDs and CDs which many of you so kindly donated for our Foyer stall has been languishing in my garage since March and, as the winter comes upon us, was in danger of becoming damp and mouldy. I can therefore report that it has been donated to charities, including Oxfam and Books to Africa. Again, optimistically, a new collection will be needed when, not if, we start a new season of the club.

It remains for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas, hoping that we can spend it with friends and family, and a better New Year.

Take care.

Peter Bunyan
(Chair of Chelmsford Film Club Committee)

Greetings to all CFC members

This will be my third Newsletter since the Covid-19 crisis began, bringing our 2019-20 season to a premature end. So first of all, I do hope that you are all well and in good spirits, especially as some lifting of restrictions is beginning to take place.

You will no doubt be aware that some arts venues, such as museums, art galleries and a few theatres are beginning to open up to the public, albeit with greatly reduced capacity due to the need for social distancing, and with on-line booking required. Some sporting venues are also opening up. However, we have not heard from Chelmsford Theatres what will be happening to the Cramphorn Studio or the Civic Theatre. A sensible assumption would be that, even if some performances do take place from, say, September/October, audience numbers will have to be greatly reduced. This would have serious implications for organisations like ours.

Sadly, therefore, it seems extremely unlike ly that the Club will be able to put on any kind of
programme this year and, probably, into the first half of 2021: we will, of course, keep this under constant review.

Members of the Committee have been sharing their thoughts and ideas as to how the Club could continue. One hopeful strategy is to think ahead to September 2021 when we may be back to some semblance of ‘normality’. By then there would be no real certainty of just how many of you, and potentially new members, would join. One possibility is that the new season could start with a reduced number of films, say 10 as a round figure, being shown over the months leading up to June 2022, at a commensurately reduced membership fee. The fee would be reduced even more for existing members, recognising that you have missed out on the 5 films not shown from March this year. Guests would be very welcome if social distancing seating capacity permits. The planning of future programmes would very much depend on whether the membership numbers held up. It would re ally be like starting the Club all over again, just like all those years ago.

On that last note, may I say that not one member has contacted me to ask for a refund. On the contrary, several of you have let me know that you wish to ‘donate’ the potential refund to the Club: we hope that won’t be necessary! On behalf of the Committee, may I express my deep and sincere thanks to you all. It has been an enormous help.

I would very much like to hear what you think of the strategy outlined above and your own,
personal, thoughts on how the Club might move forward: the Club belongs to you! I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas and to share them with the Committee. It would be very interesting to learn, also, just how you have been watching movies, if at all and what your favourites have been in these past few months. Do feel free to contact me on pfbunyan@btinternet.com.

New liftings of restrictions, and re impositions, seem to be occurring weekly, if not daily: keeping au fait with the rules is challenging! I hope to be in touch with you all again, as and when there are more developments. In the meantime, take care and stay well.

Best wishes

Peter Bunyan
Chair of CFC Committee

Since Peter sent the above newsletter to Club members, we have now heard from Chelmsford Theatres. Almost all of their staff remained furloughed, apart from a few back two days per week for admin. They do not anticipate either the Civic or Cramphorn Theatres reopening until April 2021, at the Earliest

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