Pine Grove Pictures, based at the Crowborough Community Centre, is Crowborough’s Community Cinema group, and we celebrated our tenth birthday in January 2024. The first film shown in 2014 was Midnight in Paris, and we show films that appeal to our members by entertaining, informing and sometimes challenging them. Our mainstream film screenings take place once a month on Friday evenings, starting at 8pm, with doors opening at 7.00pm. We also have special Charity Nights, which have proved to be great fun, with proceeds going to Hospice in the Weald. Our Extra films, five this year, are screened on Thursday evenings, at the same time, with doors opening at 7.30pm.
A few years ago, we started to explore the possibility of reaching out into the wider community and showing films which might appeal to those living with dementia and their carers. We made contact with Wealden Dementia Action Alliance and Wealden District Council to show what we call Golden Oldies, five times a year, on Tuesday afternoons. These films range from the 1930s to the 1970s, and cover a wide range of genres, particularly musicals. Our audience has widened to include people with other disabilities and their carers, and particularly local care homes and other organisations. Anybody is welcome to attend these free showings, at 1.30pm, and we provide coffee, tea and biscuits.
We currently have over 200 paid-up members. Membership costs £8.00 for a year, which runs from the day you join, and a members’ ticket costs £5.00. Non-members are most welcome and pay £10.00. Even if you only plan to come twice in a year it works out cheaper to join as a member. A glass of wine costs £3.00. So the cost of an excellent evening out is £8.00 – less than half the price of a ticket at a commercial cinema.
PGP is run by a committee of nine, who undertake the various essential jobs to enable the club to show films on a regular basis. These include procuring DVDs and screening the films, arranging for the necessary screening licences, selling tickets on film nights, maintaining bar stocks, keeping membership details up-to-date, looking after the club’s finances, dealing with publicity and sending out the monthly newsletter and coordinating the production of our annual programme of films. On film nights we are lucky enough to have a team of volunteers to help on the bar, and assist to clear away glasses and seats at the end of evening. It’s a real team effort, with some firm friendships being made.
To screen a film in public before a paying audience, we need to obtain what is called a single title screening licence, which typically costs between £100.00 and £200.00. It’s a form of royalty that is collected by a film’s distributor and is ultimately paid out to a film’s production company, sometimes to leading actors. Getting such a licence can sometimes be problematic as many newly released films are funded/produced by companies such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky and Disney who make their money by streaming films over the internet. The general release of popular films is then delayed, making it impossible for film clubs, such as PGP, to get these licenses. As an example we wanted to show Nomadland when it first came out in 2020, but were unable to get a licence until 2022.
Further information about the forthcoming films for 2025 shown on this list can be found on our website: pinegrovepictures.org.uk – we’d love to see you at one of our showings!
– Submitted by: Caroline Robinson – Pine Grove Pictures
