Category Archives: Cinema
Cultivating culture is year-round project, not just three weeks
CROYDON COMMENTARY: In a previous column, DAVID CALLAM argued for a festival celebrating the borough’s heritage. But next month’s Croydon Heritage Festival misses the target in a number of important respects E viva la fiesta! Time to party in Croydon, … Continue reading
Playwriting Festival lives on after Warehouse closure
The International Playwriting Festival which for the past 26 years has been staged at the Warehouse Theatre has found a new producer and a new home. Warehouse Phoenix, a company formed by members and friends of the Warehouse Theatre in … Continue reading
Benched: Council still can’t get borough’s greats’ names right
It is almost a year since Inside Croydon highlighted another botched PR effort by our council, the staging of a “public vote” on leading figures from Croydon’s past (and present), to provide three subjects for a “portrait bench” on a … Continue reading
“Favoured” Halls, £4.5m debts and the commercial interests
Using the Fairfield Halls’ trustees’ own annual reports and accounts since 2010, together with official council documents, SEAN CREIGHTON examines what is going on at the town’s arts venue, ahead of £25m of public money being spent to refurbish it … Continue reading
Fairfield’s future needs to engage with Croydon public
Tired. Poorly managed. Poorly used. Under-funded. Under-appreciated. The Fairfield Halls, half a century old, might symbolise the faded grandeur of Croydon itself. With mounting concern over the council’s arts policy, or absence of it after the axing of the Mela … Continue reading
Another chance to get Trashed: Sutton, March 28
The Stop the Incinerator Campaign’s screening of the acclaimed Jeremy Irons film, Trashed, at Fairfield Halls last week was seen by more than 80 people, and the obvious demand has persuaded the organisers to show the movie again. “There was … Continue reading
Hall brothers progress to the final of mini-movie competition
Local actor and film maker Michael Hall and his brother Charlie have both made it into the final five UK entries in Empire Magazine‘s “Done in 60 Seconds” movie competition. Michael Hall qualified thanks to votes from friends, family and … Continue reading
Beastly beginning to David Lean Campaign’s March screenings
The March programme of films from the Save the David Lean Campaign, being screened at the Spreadeagle pub on Katharine Street, next to the Clocktower, begins on Monday, March 4, with Beasts of the Southern Wild, a hit at the … Continue reading
Fairfield in discussions over cinema use of new studio threatre
Supporters of two of the borough’s neglected arts venues, the David Lean Cinema and the Warehouse Theatre, are expected to be very concerned that management at Fairfield Halls have been holding meetings with cinema operators over the possible use of … Continue reading
Bidders for David Lean Cinema deterred by council delays
£5,000 – that’s the amount of money Croydon Council will have to spend to “re-calibrate” the borough’s own digital cinema projector, after Town Hall staff were ordered to move the £20,000 piece of kit from the council-owned David Lean Cinema … Continue reading
Mini-movie-maker makes the final of One-minute Oscars
Croydon’s mini-movie-maker, Michael Hall, has done it again. Hall, the sometime stand-up comedian and leading light in the borough’s top am-dram group, CODA, has made it to the short-list of 20 finalists in Empire magazine’s annual “Done in 60 Seconds” … Continue reading
Trashed: incinerator campaigners stage free screening
The Stop the Incinerator Campaign, the Sutton and Croydon group opposed to the £1billion scheme to burn rubbish for profit planned for Beddington Lane, is staging a free screening of Trashed – No Place for Waste, the award-winning documentary. The … Continue reading
Dante’s tale of how he escaped the inferno of gang culture
A former gang member from South Norwood has made a satirical film to raise awareness of the dangers of gang culture while also showing how to shrug off the stereotyping they face. The film – Breaking the Cycle – will … Continue reading
Failing Fairfield Halls is limping along on borrowed time
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Long gone are the days when the Fairfield Halls could attract some of the biggest acts in the world, such as the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, says DAVID CALLAM. These days, the only beetles at the arts … Continue reading
