Top movies in Shropshire film festival with Great War theme
A Shropshire film festival themed on the Great War will see screenings of both classics from top directors, and new movies – including a premiere of a local production – as the county counts down to the 100th anniversary of the end of the conflict in November.
Festival organiser Tim King said: "A few months ago I was sitting around the table with the rest of the Shropshire World War One Group and I came up with a proposal to hold a World War One film festival in the county.
"The idea has taken off and the film festival now has 26 screenings of 13 films in 16 venues."
It will start on October 8 with the acclaimed 2017 movie Journey's End at the Edge arts centre in Much Wenlock, and the same film will bring the festival to a close at All Stretton village hall on November 23.
Tim said: "We have a sold out world premiere from the London Film Festival in Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old.
"The first public screening of The Long Way Home, a low budget Shropshire-based production directed by a young Bridgnorth director, Jake Lewis-Taylor, will take place on November 8 at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery. This is part of a double bill with new film The Burying Party about Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon."
Members of the cast and crew will be on hand to answer questions from the audience, in a session chaired by film buff Carl Jones.
"We have a charity gala screening of Journey's End at The Old Market Hall on November 9 with a talk by Lt Col Richard Jones of Venning Barracks in Donnington about the last 100 days of the war with eyewitness reports from those who were there. This is in aid of the ABF The Soldiers' Charity, which was formerly the Army Benevolent Fund.
"There is a dementia-friendly screening of Richard Attenborough's classic from the 1960s, Oh! What A Lovely War, with a star-studded cast, at Wem Town Hall.
"Our oldest film is Hell's Angels directed by Howard Hughes. It came out in 1930. Also from the 1930s is La Grande Illusion directed by Jean Renoir, which dates from 1937.
"The film selection includes work by top directors Steven Spielberg and David Lean and, of course, Richard Attenborough.
"Films are being shown in village halls and market towns all around Shropshire so everyone can get involved and take part in the county's World War One events through http://www.shropshireremembers.org.uk
"Many of the screenings are included in the Wilfred Owen 100 brochure and they are all on the festival web page http://www.firstworldwarfilmfestival.com."
