Screen Time By Nic Jeune

Screen Time with Nic Jeune Treats at the Film Society

FILM fans of West Dorset have a special annual film feast, The Bridport Film Society season. The film showings take place every fortnight on a Tuesday evening at 7.45pm at the Bridport Arts Centre, screened on state-of-the-art digital cinema equipment.

The members of this society, one of the oldest film clubs in the country, founded in 1925, take great care in selecting the films each year. The films are often Oscar winners or nominees directed by multiaward winning directors. The season 2022/2023 is no exception. Twelve films from France, India, Spain, Japan. Eleven different countries in all.

Almost impossible to choose between them but here are three selections. The season kicks off September 27th with:

Summer of Soul (..or, when the Revolution Could not be Televised) (2021).

Winner of 2021 Oscar and Bafta for Best documentary feature film.

The film includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more.

‘Buried for 50 years, the spectacular filmed footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival reveals a musical moment — and a Black revolution — in full flower.’ Variety. Owen Glieberman.

Shoplifters (2018). Winner of over fifty film awards. A wonderfully tender film of great originality.

‘For all its calm gentleness, the film, which is based on a news story, is devastatingly clear-sighted about modern Japan, its dysfunctions and hypocrisies.’ The Guardian. Peter Bradshaw.

Everything Went Fine (2021)

French director Francois Ozon brings his wry humour to the subject of assisted dying.

‘André Dussollier and Sophie Marceau are outstanding as a father and daughter whose tricky relationship is upended when he asks for her help to die’ The Guardian. Peter Bradshaw.

Season tickets go on sale on September 1st. Twelve great films for £35. A bargain! LYME REGIS A BRILLIANT comedian and comedy writer, Julian Deane headlines the Lyme Regis Comedy Club at the Marine Theatre on Sunday 28th August at 8pm. Widely celebrated for his ingenious punchlines, Julian Deane is a past winner of the ITV Stand Up Hero and the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competitions. He also hosts the Two Vegan Idiots podcast, with fellow Julian Deane comes to Lyme Regis in August comedian Carl Donnelly. Julian has appeared on The Russell Howard Hour and supported Paul Chowdhry on a world tour, which included Wembley Arena. He is also an in-demand writer, with credits including Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week, Matt Forde’s Unspun and Morgan Spurlock’s New Britannia.

He is joined at Lyme Regis by Tom Toal and Tom Glover.

Variety for Ukraine

HONITON HONITON Community Theatre is putting on a variety show at the Beehive Centre for four nights, from 2nd to 6th August at 7pm.

The show, Strictly Variety, includes comedy, music and dance, with cabaret style seating. Proceeds will go to the victims of the conflict in Ukraine.

They’re the tops

BRIDPORT BRIDPORT Musical Theatre takes on one of the great Cole Porter shows for its summer production, Anything Goes, at the Electric Palace from 16th to 20th August,

With a fabulous score of Cole Porter classics, including You’re The Tops, It’s Delovely, I Get a Kick out of You and the show-stopping Anything Goes, the action is set on a trans-Atlantic liner.

When the SS American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention head out the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love … proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, a comical disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail.

This hilarious musical romp across the Atlantic is directed by BMTC’s Dave Swaffield. Performances are at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30.

Celebrating the spoken word

BRIDPORT BARDFEST, a celebration of the spoken word, comes to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 20th August, at 6.30pm, with a lineup of local and guest poets and performers, hosted by Kevan Manwaring.

The evening starts with local folk dance side, Wyld Morris, and Jane Silver-Corren’s Voices of Hope choir.

Debut poet Estelle Phillips will share her poem about Ukraine, Reaper, (which has been translated into Ukrainian).

Local wordsmiths Martin Maudsley, Dylan Ross, Ged Duncan, Robert Sean Casey, Tom Rogers, and Peter Roe will read some of their poems and tales.

After the break there will be more stories from Gloucestershire-based storytellers Anthony Nanson and Kirsty Hartsiotis,