For about a year our parish mission committee was quietly on the lookout for new ideas. We started thinking about the World Cup. Why shouldn’t there be more choices for watching than the pub? We noticed the local cinema closed. Travel to the nearest alternatives is complicated. A church near us found to its surprise that 100 people showed up when they put on a Saturday night movie. We started to test the viability of creating a local film club.
Why film? We know that films are a medium capable of provoking people to think about the big questions of life. So we agreed the package as well as offering films needed to include an opportunity to discuss.
We came up with this mission statement. Pitshanger Pictures exists to inform, entertain and strengthen community in North Ealing by screening films that stimulate conversation and discussion on questions of life.
The menu includes family favourites like Bambi and Bugsy Malone. For later evening audiences we prefer art house genre that positions Pitshanger Pictures in the ‘thoughtful’ sector. We managed to screen Hurt Locker in the week it won an Oscar. Ahead of the show we serve wine, juice and nibbles and that’s on offer during discussion time too.
The local newspaper, schools and residents association have hailed this as a “brilliant” idea and promote it energetically. Shopkeepers happily put posters in their windows. The London Diocesan website publicises screenings. Pitshanger Pictures is publicly listed in Time Out, What’s On in London and in other places.
As I write we have so far held three screenings with another due this weekend. We have attracted 400 adults and children. We have a mailing list approaching 300. Three out of four are people we’ve never seen before in church. Of the remainder the majority are no more than on the fringe of our parish’s worshipping community.
For us it’s a privilege to welcome people onto our premises, and we need to sensitively strike the right balance as we engage with them and gently try to get the message across that this is a Christian church that wants to encourage people on a journey of faith.
John Martin
