Saturday 30 August 2008

A visit to the Cinema of Dreams.




Last week I found myself in a magic world of beanbags, deckchairs and wonderful films. There were glitter balls in the cafe and you could pay for your ticket with a plate of home made cakes.
Dogs watched films about pigeons and children who were 8 1/2 could celebrate their Cinema Birthdays. Grafitti in the loos was positively encouraged, some of it deeply philosophical, some just honest, like the little girl who had written:

This is better than TV!
( But I still like TV. )

It rained like billy-o, there were two hour queues for films and only one loo for the ladies yet nobody grumbled. Instead they passed the time chatting to strangers and talking about the films they had seen, or wanted to see. Some of us worked on our knitting. This festival was sponsored by no-one, not intended to make a profit and was staffed by volunteers, from the projectionists to the lady who sewed all the bean bags. If a film was sold out, they simply showed it again.

Thank you to Tilda Swinton, Mark Cousins and all of the volunteers. I hope the Ballerina Ballroom surpassed all of your hopes and dreams. It was a fantastic place to visit and the cakes were lovely.

4 comments:

inkberryblue said...

Gosh, it looks fabulous. I love stumbling across these sort of events. Lucky you!
There's an award for you over on my blog, by the way.
Happy Sunday.
=]

Ivywindow said...

That sounds amazing. It has gone straight onto the to-do list. Paying with baked goods also rocks.

Cindy G said...

How delightful! I just feel happy when I hear about that kind of thing - restoring faith in the human spirit and all that. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

That looks like it was such a good time!