Film Soc is back! As we slowly emerge from the Coronavirus lockdown, the Bemerton Community Trustees and the BFS Committee have agreed that it is now safe to cautiously re-start activities in St John’s Place. We are delighted to offer The Birdcage as our first screening on Wed 12th August.

There will be a number of changes and precautions to reduce the infection risk. These will include: Wednesday 12 August 2020 • To ensure social distancing of at least 1.5m between seats, numbers attending will be restricted to about 30 people. Couples will be able to sit together. • To avoid having to turn people away, everyone will have to book in advance by emailing [email protected], including name, address and phone number of all attendees. • Everyone will be asked to wear facemasks throughout the screening. Please bring your own. • Entrance will be through the main South Door, and people will be asked to maintain 2m distancing while entering and leaving. • Contactless card payment preferred. • Everyone attending will be asked to provide contact details to enable contact-tracing in the unlikely event of a Covid-positive case in the audience. • There will be no refreshments available. • There will be a toilet available. • The screening may be called off at short notice if regulations change, or if there is a local outbreak. It will be very different to what we have become used to at our screenings, but as everyone will have appreciated by now, the world has changed. We hope you enjoy the film, even without the customary drinks and close socialisation. As regulations ease, we hope we can be less restrictive for future screenings. Website: www.stjohnsplace.uk The Birdcage Bemerton Film Society Written by , and directed by , this is In the autumn of 2010 a group of Bemerton residents the story of a gay nightclub proprietor, Armand (Robin decided to set up the Bemerton Film Society (BFS) as a Williams), whose son becomes engaged to the daughter of fundraiser in support of local efforts to turn St John's Church an ultra-conservative senator (). A pending into a community centre. The Society aimed to offer people visit from the future in-laws leads to frantic preparations for the chance to see quality films that had in one way or other a dinner party at which the proprietor's -queen partner, made film history. We obtained the permission of the then Albert () poses as the boy's mother in an head of St John's School to screen the films in the school attempt to ensure that everything seems straight. hall, using the school’s own projection facilities. A small Created long before the arrival of marriage equality the film grant from Wiltshire Council enabled us to upgrade these is recognised as providing one of the first depictions of a gay facilities in 2014. family. Armand and Albert are a loving gay couple who have Since our first outing in December 2010 we have screened been together for 20 years. They are also well-off business 102 feature films, covering a wide range of subjects and owners of the hottest spot around. Their penthouse suite styles, from classic Hollywood films to modern comedies, would be the envy of anyone lucky enough to visit. Most documentaries and dramas. We have travelled in time from importantly, they are real people, not stereotypes - though 1938 (The lady vanishes) to 2018 (A private war) and their dance moves would make John Travolta blush, and geographically from California to Taiwan and Australia. We you’d need a scalpel to remove the amount of makeup on have also brought our audience news from the front line of Armand’s face. The Birdcage is beautifully acted, “Call the midwife”, thanks to its midwifery adviser, Terri entertaining, camp, smart, colourful and brimming with Coates, being a local resident. gags - an unchallenging film to take our minds off covid-19. We transferred operations to St John’s Place in January USA 1996 - 119 minutes - 15 certificate 2017. Since then we have been able to screen blu-ray films Wednesday 12th August 2020 in full HD and surround sound, thus enabling our audience St John's Place, Lower Road, Lower Bemerton to enjoy an authentic cinema experience. Doors open 19.00 To date (July 2020) BFS screenings have contributed nearly Programme starts 19.30 £8,000 to the Bemerton Community Project, and we hope Entrance £6 to continue generating funds for that worthy cause into the foreseeable future, despite the hiccup caused by Covid-19.