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It is the dawn of a new era of film.....Leigh's long awaited Film Club launches on 16th May at the Turnpike Centre.
Leigh, like many towns and cities in the UK once had an abundance of cinemas, but the 5th October 1989 saw the closure of its last, the Cannon on Leigh Road. Since then, there has been no public cinema in Leigh and the town has been criticised for its lack of one of the country's most popular cultural facilities.
Leigh Film Club is a joint initiative between Leigh Library and the Turnpike Gallery, both part of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust. The monthly film screenings will be held in the Gallery at the Turnpike Centre and will show a much broader range of films than standard commercial films shown at a multiplex.
The first two screenings on Friday 16th May and Friday 13th June are: Control, story of Joy Division (Certificate 15) and Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the Were Rabbit (Certificate U). Both films will be screened from 7.00pm with doors opening at 6.30pm. Tickets are affordably priced at £3.00 per adult and £1.50 for children and can be booked in advance at Leigh Library on 01942 404404. Capacity is for approximately 100 people and age restrictions apply in-line with the British Board of Film Classification.
Establishing a culture of film at the Turnpike Centre will help realise one of the central principles of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, namely to ‘Get Wigan Active; mentally and creatively'. Part of the ethos behind the Film Club is to establish a forum for creative thinking, with showings that are informative, educational and stimulating as well as enjoyable.
The first of the screenings has been decided jointly by Libraries and Galleries staff. However, once the Film Club is firmly established, decisions about programming will incorporate group member suggestions. The programme will be broad in scope in order to appeal to a wide audience and it is hoped that future scheduling will include archive films, children's film, silent films, classics, foreign language films and arthouse.
Paul Banks, Central Library Officer at Leigh Library has lead on the project for Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust and commented: "We are delighted that the Film Club has got off the ground. We now need the support of local people to make sure that we can continue to fill the gap in Leigh. Our aim is to provide a cultural, educational and entertaining offer and we hope that everyone in Leigh comes along and gets involved".
A new cinema is planned for Leigh as part of the Leigh Sports Village complex, though timings for this are yet to be confirmed |
