Nailsea Fresh Expressions

Nailsea Film Club

2009-09-29T08:28:00.003+01:00

Film Club Extra may have folded as a route into Fresh Expressions but the Methodists are still planning to show regular films with discussion afterwards. They launched last week with a showing of The Age of Stupid. Here is the text of the closing thoughts and discussion questions.

'The Age Of Stupid’ is the new documentary-drama-animation hybrid from Director Franny Armstrong and Producer John Battsek in which Pete Postlethwaite stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055 where runaway climate change has ravaged the planet. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we’ve achieved. He pulls together clips of “archive” news and documentary from 1950-2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. He focuses on six human stories:

Alvin DuVernay, is a paleontologist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first 'major climate change events'.

Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying.

Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds.

Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. She’s trying to help her elder brother make it across the border to safety.

Piers Guy is a windfarm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England.

Fernand Pareau is an 82-year-old French mountain guide has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 metres.

When asked, 'What prompted you to make The Age of Stupid?' Franny Armstrong replied 'Either we seriously tackle climate change or we wipe out most life on Earth. So it's not a tricky decision, as a filmmaker, to decide which subject to work on. I find it hard to understand how anyone who grasps the problem can work on anything else.'

The Age of Stupid comes after Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth which laid out the scientific facts and makes it increasingly difficult to plead ignorance on climate change.

Yet those who are trying to take action face apathy and opposition from many well funded big businesses, politicians and misguided but well-meaning individuals who acknowledge climate change but still won’t accept a wind farm locally if it will 'spoil their views'. I attended a public meeting regarding a planning application for a Wind Farm near the Nuclear Power Station at Hinkley Point in Somerset a couple of years ago and heard a speaker from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England say that she accepted that Wind Farms were probably necessary but that they should be put in Birmingham or somewhere that was awful already.

Even those who accept urgent action is required to reduce carbon emissions are divided as to the best alternatives with nuclear, wind, wave, solar and coal with carbon capture each having their supporters.

The biggest problem is perhaps that the gross inequality in the world means that developing countries are understandably reluctant to curtail their economic growth when they perceive that the mess we are in is the fault of the West in general and the USA in particular (where incidentally 5% of the world’s population consumes 25% of the world’s oil).

The Archbishop of Canterbury used his Ebor Lecture in York Minster on March 24th to spell out why respect for the environment is not an optional extra, particularly for Christians. Getting our relationship with the rest of the created order into proper perspective is both a responsibility and a necessity. Failure could have disastrous consequences especially for some of the poorest and most vulnerable. 'There is no way of manipulating our environment that is without cost or consequence … we are inextricably bound up with the destiny of our world.' 'Ecological questions', Dr Williams says 'are increasingly. ..defined as issues of justice.. both to those who now have no part in decision-making at the global level yet bear the heaviest burdens as a consequence of the irresponsibility of wealthier nations, and to those who will succeed us on this planet – justice to our children and grandchildren'.

So where do we go from here – what can we do:-

Tell as many people as you can about the urgent need to act on climate change tell your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues at work, school, college – indeed anybody who will listen – use The Age of Stupid, An Inconvenient Truth, A Time Comes, the internet anything you can lay your hands on.

Act – reduce your own carbon footprint at home, at work, in church, at school – reduce, reuse, recycle. Walk or ride a bike or use public transport. And start doing these things now – for as Phillip Vera Cruz famously said, 'If not you then who? If not now, then when?'

Join an environmental group – Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Plane Stupid, Rising Tide, Earth First – the flyer on your seats is for A Time Comes which tells the story of four activists who take direct action against a coal power station and are subsequently vindicated in court.
Use what weapons you do have – vote for politicians who are committed to act on climate change, only spend your money on products from producers who are acting to reduce their carbon footprint. Buy locally produced produce and only buy what you need.

'Throughout our history, the deal was we left the world in a slightly better place than we found it. That was progress. The wheel, the rule of law, penicillin. It was our covenant with our children and grandchildren.' If we don’t act on Climate Change we will be breaking that covenant. And as Edmund Burke famously said – 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'

Discussion Questions
How did you find the film and what struck you most?

Why should we bother taking action if the USA, China and India refuse to?

What reduction from our current standard of living can we expect in a future low carbon economy?

Who can or should provide the leadership necessary to achieve action on climate change?

What, if anything, will we do differently having seen tonight’s film?

Film Club 4 U

2009-09-23T08:25:00.001+01:00

Nailsea Methodist Church is opening up Film Club 4 U. There is a showing of The Age of Stupid this Friday 25th September with a closing statement. This is no longer being seen as so much a Fresh Expression as a Church Film Club, but non-church members will be made very welcome.

Cafe Create

2009-09-17T08:22:00.002+01:00

Cafe Create is tomorrow (Friday 18th September) in the Trinity Centre. Cool lounge music, live spoken word and musical entertainment, fair-trade cafe/bar. Be there 7.30 - 11.00 p.m.

Cafe Create

2009-09-07T18:26:00.002+01:00

Cafe Create returns to the Trinity Centre a week on Friday, 18th September. Fair trade cafe/bar, DJ music and possibly live entertainment. Have a word with me if you wish to perform.

7.30 - 11.00 p.m.

Steve

So Farewell Then

2009-07-12T17:38:00.003+01:00

3.08 at Kingshill School is closing after two years. Originally set up as a congregational plant from Christ Church, Nailsea the aim was to attract local families who do not currently go to church, might find Sunday mornings awkward and might find a school hall less threatening than a church. Whilst the team have enjoyed working together and have learned many new skills we have not been able to reach beyond those who currently go to other churches and kindly turned up to support us. So watch this space for new all-age developments at Christ Church and new Fresh Expressions in the autumn.

Cafe Create

2009-01-09T11:55:00.002Z

The next Cafe Create will be at the Trinity Centre, Nailsea on Friday 16th January 7.30 - 11.00 p.m. Entertainment will be a quiz, music from resident DJ, donation-basis bar and lively atmosphere. Try it.

Film Club Extra

2009-01-09T11:50:00.002Z

Film Club Extra is folding. It was an experiment and it lasted for fifteen months. Numbers only went over 30 on about four occasions and the vast majority of attendees were already members of churches. Few guests were brought along. On the one occasion two of us set aside some time to discuss a movie further in the pub nobody showed up. Rather than carrying on for ever the organisers have assessed its usefulness against their original vision 'to build a fresh expression of church amongst the movie-going community' and decided to call it a day. Thanks to those who joined us, whether once or fifteen times.

Film Club Extra - the Future

2008-12-18T08:46:00.003Z

Film Club Extra (FCE) was dreamed up as a way of making contact with people who do not go to church, yet might be interested in the themes covered by movies. The organisers felt there may be some mileage in a Christian and a non-Christian movie lover communicating about the way they each made sense of the world. It hasn't really worked. What has developed is a sort of silver film club, mainly attracting church-going over 60s. The attendance has been falling recently.

Whilst delighted to encourage the older, Christian, movie-loving community to meet each other and discuss films, some of the organisers don't feel that is where our passions lie.

So. Should FCE continue? In what form? Anyone want to join the organising team? Comments welcome.

Steve Tilley

Film Club Extra - Bruce Almighty

2008-12-18T08:42:00.003Z

Here are Alan Emery's closing thoughts from last week:

Bruce Almighty is a humorous take on God and human life. The film is full of sideways glances at that relationship. Many are obvious but I am still trying to figure out why rain and water featured so much and what the training of an incontinent dog might have to say to us. There were though a couple of serious things that did stand out for me.

It is common in our world for us to blame others for their predicaments. Indeed it is inherent in human nature. It begins very early, almost at the onset of being able to speak – 'she started it', a comment of the nursery, playgroup and school playground. Of course it could have equally been he.

And it does not stop as we grow up. In the kidnap of Shannon Matthews, Karen Matthews, her mother, told custody officers that her partner Craig Meehan had arranged Shannon's abduction; 'I've done as I was told. It was decided to be me because I don't have a criminal record. I feel I have a pile of bricks on me.' And her co-conspirator Michael Donovan blamed Karen.

In the case of the Damian Green Affair, The Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, was at pains to absolve himself of any responsibility by blaming Jill Pay, the Sergeant at Arms. As distinct an abrogation of leadership and a failure to recognise that the ‘buck stops here’ as you will ever see.

And of course in the film, Bruce lives up to this pattern of behaviour. He can’t attain his desired status in life and it’s everybody’s fault but his own, even the dog’s I suspect.

It’s hardly new though. In the early record of humanity’s journey two people walk in a garden and sample an apple that they were expressly told to leave alone. When caught the man blames the woman and the woman blames the snake. I just wonder what the human story might have been if the man, or indeed the woman, had held his or her hand up and said – 'no, my fault, I’m sorry'. And indeed could it be changed now if each of us took that often difficult step of being fully and solely accountable for who we are and what we do? In the film, Bruce does in the end do just that and the world begins to be a different place. Even the dog can be house trained. Everything, that is, except in love. And that leads to the second point, freewill.

'You can’t mess with Freewill' says God. 'Anything else is yours to do but that.' As Bruce implores Grace to come back to him he comes right up close to that constraint. He can neither coerce, threaten, nor implore, this woman to change her view. 'How do you make someone love you without affecting Freewill' asks Bruce? 'Welcome to my world,' says God. Things only become different when, in the penultimate scene, instead of considering himself, Bruce begins to look at Grace in a different light and considers the sort of things she might want. Then and only then is there the possibility of Grace changing her mind – mind you having a major traffic accident would not be a recommended way to achieve such an end.

Unlike Bruce, God has always considered what would be best for us human beings. He did not have to change his way of working. The very fact that we can turn our backs on that in an exercise of freewill is a demonstration of just how great his love is. What Christians believe, however, is that in Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, God demonstrated in an astonishing way what he truly desired for us. As we begin to appreciate the full significance of that perhaps we too can be persuaded to return that love. With Christmas and this year’s celebration of the birth of Jesus fast approaching I hope we can find time amidst the festivities, and the giving and receiving of presents to reflect on this truth.

Film Club Extra

2008-12-09T08:06:00.003Z

Ever wondered what it might be like to be God? Film Club Extra on Friday looks at a film where that very thing happens to one of the characters while God goes on vavaction.

Methodist Hall, Nailsea 7.00 doors for 7.30 showing followed by refreshements, discussion and some closing thoughts.

Fresh Expressions Event

2008-12-09T08:04:00.002Z

Blogger Mr Gnome posts here about the recent event at Coventry Cathedral. He writes well and amusingly.

Cafe Create

2008-11-22T09:50:00.003Z

Big thanks to the team, acts Anthea and Dianna, Simon Airey, Pete Wood and the astounding Atlum Schema for a fine night at Cafe Create, Nailsea last night. For those who care (probably only me but there you go) here is the set list:

Anjunabeats Volume One Tracks 1-3
Ladyhawke Love Don't Live Here
Quincy Jones Superstition from Blaxploitation
Faithless God is a DJ
Roni Size Brown Paper Bag
Deodato Also Sprach Zarathrustra
Butch Cassidy Sound System Cissy Strut
Paul Desmond Wave
Heritage Orchestra III
The Decemberists We Both Go Down Together
David Holmes Everybody Knows
Tower of Power Only So Much Oil in the Ground
David Holmes Paper Underwear
The Shamen ProGen (Move Any Mountain)
Don Ross Afraid to Dance
Girls Aloud Sound of the Underground
Analogman Driving a Small Car
The Streets Turn the Page
All Saints Whoopin' Over You
Oasis Part of the Queue
Beth Orton She Cries Your Name
Electronic Like No Other

St

Cafe Create

2008-11-20T07:27:00.002Z

A reminder that Cafe Create is on tomorrow night (Friday 21/11) at the Trinity Centre, Nailsea. Live music from singer/songwriter and fine young talent Atlum Schema with local support. Fair trade free cafe & wine bar (donations basis only), chilled lounge music, games, DVD wall and chat. 7.30 - 11.00 p.m. Why not drop in?

Film Club Extra - Juno

2008-11-15T07:52:00.003Z

We enjoyed Juno last night. Here are Mandy Stevens' closing thoughts:

At the moment I am facing a dilemma – what to buy my 16-year-old nephew for Christmas. It will probably be a voucher for I-tunes or something similar, but the experience of choosing made me realise how shamefully little I know about his likes and dislikes, what is cool and what is not. And although I could tell you what it was like to be a 16 year old in 1988 I have much less idea about what it is like to be a 16 year old now.

When we think about teenagers it is very easy to lapse into shorthand and stereotypes. The hoodie. The teenage mum. The sporty ones. The brainy ones. The gaggle of girls hanging around in the precinct. The lads mucking about in the park. What I like about Juno is that it challenges our preconceptions about teenagers and introduces us to an intelligent, witty, perceptive young woman who has some major choices to make in her life. To have a baby or not? To try and have a relationship with the baby's father or not? To seek a better life for her baby – or not?

In the film, Juno is always going 'against the flow' When she walks down the street, the runners come at her in the opposite direction. When she walks up the school corridor, everyone else is walking down. Scenes like this set her apart, not just as someone who is quirky and different, but as someone who is self assured enough not to care what others think of her – except those who really matter.

There are big themes in this film. Teenage sex, pregnancy, abortion, adoption. As we see Juno's reaction and response to her situation, and the reactions of those around her, more stereotypes are smashed. Her parents do not yell or throw her out, but are supportive, loving and protective of her. And then we meet the picture-perfect suburban couple who seem to be ideal adoptive parents – until the perfection is held up to a mirror and shown to be much less than utopia.
The writer of the film, Diablo Cody, based Juno's story on the experience of one of her close friends who became pregnant while a teenager. It is interesting also that the director, Jason Reitman, has spoken of his parents adopting a child when he was twelve years old. It is obvious that their personal experiences have contributed to the warmth and humanity of this film.
Some commentators have suggested that the main core of this film is not the issues of teen pregnancy, or abortion, or adoption. The main core of the film is the warmth of the characters in it, the way they defy stereotypes and relate to each other as well as the issues they face.
Jason Reitman is quoted as saying: "I like that the characters defy convention and are people who make personal, as opposed to political, choices for themselves, just like in real life.' And according to lead actress Ellen Page 'When someone is honest and whole and well-written, you're gonna be able to connect to them, no matter what their life, because we're all made up of the same stuff'.

In everyday life it is easy to rely on stereotypes – and even if we like to think that we don't judge people – we do – it's in our psychological makeup. As soon as we meet people or hear a news story we mentally categorise them in our heads. And if you don't believe me – what images come to mind when I say the words – single mum, or – asylum seeker, or - paedophile – or terrorist? We retreat into stereotypes because they are easy.

When Samuel was looking for a new King for Israel, God sent him to Bethlehem where he was told to anoint David, the youngest and smallest of Jesse's sons. God told Samuel: "The Lord does not look at the things humans look at. Humans look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Maybe Juno encourages us to do the same.

Cafe Create

2008-09-13T08:39:00.001+01:00

Friday 19th September at 7.30 p.m. Live DJ this time but we need more acts.

St

3.08 @ Kingshill

2008-09-13T08:38:00.000+01:00

Starts again on Sunday for more all-age mayhem followed by tea and cakes.

Film Club Extra - Crash

2008-09-13T08:32:00.002+01:00

Closing thoughts from last night's movie:

Film Club Extra
Friday 12/9/08
Crash

In a week when the scientific community all became very animated about crashing a few protons into each other, or at least trying to, it is interesting to see a film which reflects upon how our various lives crash into each other.

As a species, humans are extraordinarily amenable to each other. You might not think so but consider, for instance the progress of a crowd through a shopping mall. We make adjustments to our step allowing people to pass in the opposite direction. We accommodate each other. There are few collisions. By and large we drive to avoid each other.

The film Crash brilliantly looks at some separate lives which collide over 36 hours – two days and one night. None of the people is as you thought they might be at the outset.

It is, as you can now tell, a film about racism. But not the narrow racism of black/white suspiciousness. All the people in Crash have different ethnic backgrounds. They bring different baggage, preconception and, yes, prejudice to the table. And if we think we don't then Crash should have woken us up, at least a bit.

Movie reviewer Roger Ebert, reminds us that, until several hundred years ago on earth nobody ever saw anyone who didn't look like them. Now the amount of ethnic backgrounds which collide in a European or US city is remarkable.

TV chef Ainsley Harriet, researching his family background for the TV programme 'Who do you think you are?' this week found that on his father's side several of his ancestors were, not surprisingly, slaves in the West Indies. The shock came in the discovery that on his mother's side one of his ancestors was actually a white slave owner.

I have no idea if I am Celtic, Viking, Roman, Germanic or what. It doesn't matter in my day to day life. But I need to beware of the assumptions I make about others' ethnicity since I can never be sure it is not in my blood too.

Characters in Crash make errors trying to define each other by race. Are you Latino? Are you Arab? Are you white?

The strap line for the film is, 'You think you know who you are; you have no idea.'

So Crash is about racial prejudice and people's reactions to it? Many of the characters prejudge what another character is going to be like before getting to know them. They do this based only on the racial attributes they think they can see with their eyes.

The man who sells Farhad the gun yells at him about terrorism, assuming he is Iraqi when he is in fact Persian. Anthony points out that Jean draws closer to her husband when walking past him and Peter, assuming that they're going to hurt her.

Crash shows us some of the prejudice in everyday life and challenges us to recognise ourselves in the characters. It also asks if we see the prejudice or choose to ignore it.

There are other issues about which we might be prejudiced. Gender and sexuality are the more obvious two. In writing to the Galatians Paul said that in Christ there were neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor gentile. It was an early anti-racist, anti-sexist statement. Jesus, a good Jew, chose to ignore the prejudice that would be stoked by touching lepers, menstrual women or dead bodies, despite clear Old Testament laws to the contrary. Princess Diana overcame many prejudices years later, when touching AIDS sufferers.

Whilst many of us would insist we do not judge by external appearances the film asks us if we're sure about that?

The backdrop of Los Angeles, where subways and car parks are anonymous and lonely, where roads divide up communities and disaster seems to be only just averted every time may be a recipe for complacency for us in mono-cultural and comparatively safe Nailsea. The film shows us not a people living in utter harmony, but a people just about succeeding to live together.
If we resolve to keep all hints of prejudice out of our hearts and be prepared to confront it, discuss it and welcome and embrace those who are different we may be spared such a desolate outcome. We can do better than that.

My friend runs a centre for asylum seekers. Most of the people she meets are fine, upright, honest people in deep, deep trouble. Some are spongers. She has to make regular phone calls to government officials. Many are fine, upright people in deep, deep trouble. Some are spongers. She has no choice, nor would she want it any other way, than to treat all who come into her sphere of influence as human beings.

Evil seems to care not the colour of the body it inhabits. Neither should we be surprised that people made in the image of God may display goodness, even if they do not yet know the one in whose image they are made.

May all your bumpings into people this weekend be happy and fortuitous.

Steve Tilley

(Further discussion at Damaris from where some of these thoughts were taken.)

Cafe Create

2008-07-23T16:18:00.007+01:00

A few photos from Cafe Create last Friday.

Steve does an impression of an old git with backache.

Tash headlines and sings like an angel.

Spanner reform after fifteen years in the wilderness.

The S Club 7 fanclub perform their covers.

Ed tells us a story.

Big thanks to Chris M for the photos.

Cafe Create

2008-07-18T07:48:00.002+01:00

Cafe Create in the Trinity Centre tonight. Fair trade drinks and coffees. Live music from local talent and guest headliner Tash; poetry, stories and comedy if I can think of something funny by then. 7.30 - 11.00. Donations not prices.

What Women Want

2008-07-12T12:17:00.003+01:00

Here are the closing thoughts from last night's Film Club Extra:

What Women Want

Our eyes meet across a crowded room. There is a sparkle. We engage each other in conversation. I hear, you say, ‘I like your shirt.’ In fact you are thinking, ‘I’m not sure I could live with a nose that long.’ Which of the two sentences is likely to prolong the relationship?

Movies don’t necessarily answer questions correctly but they do get to ask some good ones.

· What would it be like if we could tell who would commit the crimes?

· What would it be like if a modern teenager lived in the 1950s?

Two questions recent movies we have watched here have posed, and attempted to answer.

And so to the question many men, no, make that all men surely, have asked since, ooh for ever. What do women really want?

Writer and director Nancy Meyers (yes this film has a strong female hand behind it) uses the simple narrative device of an accident to enable Nick Marshall to hear the thoughts of the women all around him. And they aren’t always that complimentary.

He discovers that people he thought liked him are tolerant at best. He discovers that those he thought doted on him never think about him at all. He discovers that during love-making his partner is thinking about what’s on TV.

Bit of a jolt. Is this a skill that is as helpful as you might have thought?

A survey published in the Independent recently concluded that ‘Bad boys, it seems, really do get all the girls.

‘Women might claim they want caring, thoughtful types’ the accompanying article went on to say, ‘...but scientists have discovered what they really want – self-obsessed, lying psychopaths.

‘A study has found that men with the ‘dark triad’ of traits – narcissism, thrill-seeking and deceitfulness – are likely to have a larger number of sexual affairs.’

Now I can see a slight flaw in the logic there. Whilst such men may have more sexual relationships that is not the same as saying that they are doing what women want. They may be employing a succesful, evolutionary strategy, but the strategy of leaving, bonding and sticking seems to produce succesful offspring too.

Further more, in the chilling world of the Film Club Extra speaker’s research, I also found articles that suggested that my chances of getting a date improve if I touch a woman gently on the arm for a couple of seconds when engaging her in conversation, that women want less judgementalism about their looks, especially in the media, that women want their views listened to on national issues and, well guess what, to be listened to more.

I wouldn’t dare suggest that I knew what the truth was.

Perhaps one general answer might be that there is no more one answer to the question ‘What do women want’ than there is one answer to the question, ‘How do we run the economy?’

In the complex world of relationships a rash generalisation might be that men share too little. Men bottle it up. What Women Want tells us that whilst women are free with their emotional sharing and, if anything, do the opposite of bottling, they are not telling the world the truth. Not the whole truth anyway.

Trying to get to know someone when one partner keeps their thoughts bottled up and the other shares less than the full truth is the way soap operas have worked for years.

In reality a gentle move towards each other might be helpful, is helpful, but the gift of telepathy might stop a lot of potential partnerships at the outset and might cause untold damage to some long-standing ones.

‘Does my bum look big in this?’

‘Darling your bum looks big in ... everything.’

To quote another movie. ‘Truth. You can’t handle the truth.’ Can we?

Maybe we should reflect on the fact that tact, diplomacy and sensitivity are all loosely related to lies.

I was given a prayer once which a woman in a previous church I worked at saw on the wall of another church whilst on holiday.

It was by the pulpit. ‘May I open my mouth and speak the truth. If it is the truth may it be the whole truth. If it is the whole truth may it not be merciless.’

There’s the rub. We live our lives with more principles than simply, ‘Truth at all costs.’ Mercy, grace, loyalty and honour are also in there somewhere. We need to weigh them up too.

Oh and by the way... What do men want? That might be quite a short film.

Please don’t argue on the way home. Month off next.

See you in September.

Coming Shortly

2008-07-03T08:08:00.003+01:00

A couple of manic weeks of Fresh Expression activity coming up then as we have:

Film Club Extra. Friday 11th July with a new, improved, stereo sound system.

3.08 at Kingshill. Alternative, all-age mayhem for under an hour at Kingshill School. Sunday 13th July. Theme: Go to all nations.

Cafe Create. Arts-based fun in the context of a fair trade cafe/bar. Adults only. Live music, story-telling and poetry this time.

Following these events Fresh Expressions stuff will disappear for August and rise up like a thing that rises up (Phoenix/Messiah/home made bread - pick your own metaphor) in September.

Erin Brockovich

2008-07-03T08:01:00.002+01:00

Last month Film Club Extra enjoyed Erin Brockovich. Here are Rosey Lunn's closing thoughts:

Erin Brokovich - the story of a woman who had all the odds stacked against her, but who found a cause worth fighting for, and won: PG& E, and the battle of the chromium in the water supply.
What did you think of her? 'She had her Beauty Queen days', says someone of her - and at first it seems that appearance is everything; how does she come across - a tart? Provocative? Someone who uses her sexuality to get what she wants - or tries to.

She certainly knows how to use language!

'You look like someone who has a lot of fun,' says someone - with a touch of envy? Or is that a disparaging remark? Perhaps our attitudes to her at that stage are ambivalent.

But beneath the appearances, we learn that although she has no qualifications, she always wanted to go to medical school. 'I thought I was going to do something with my life - something important. I thought I was someone...' Here's one of the themes of the film: the development of this woman's potential, the emergence of her hidden identity.

What, then, was it all about?

'It's about respect, it's about being valued.' she says. When first applying for a job with the law firm, she felt neither of those things - and was mad about it. 'The two things that annoy me are being ignored and being lied to.'

Because she had to fight those battles for herself, she became empowered to fight them for others... the victims of PG & E, who had been ignored and lied to. Later she says, 'For the first time I've found people respecting me' - and as that happens to her, so she, in turn, makes it happen for the people whose cause she is fighting.

But the personal cost was great - was it worth it?

Ask anyone whose work /mission /vocation in life makes huge demands on them, and they'll agree - it costs! A mission like this demands a certain ruthlessness, single-mindedness, and others may have to make sacrifices for 'the cause' - is that fair? Erin lost out on many precious moments - not least the moment when her youngest child began to speak.

But who knows, perhaps her children grew up to be proud of her, glad to have a parent who gave them a broader perspective on life than a narrowly domestic one.

So, who are the people who get the world changed?

Powerful people? Experts? Governments and institutions? Celebrities?

What about a man with no academic qualifications, who grew up in an obscure Middle eastern village; who liked the company of disreputable types of people; whose values - manifesto - could be summed up in the words of a song that was composed to celebrate his coming:

'He has shown strength with his arm:
He has scattered the proud with all their plans,
He has brought down the mighty and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.'

I think he would have enjoyed Erin's company; and I'm sure he would have approved of what she did.

Discussion Questions
1. Did you enjoy the film? What was your favourite moment?
2. Did your view of Erin change as the film progressed? How?
3. 'I thought I was someone; I thought I was going to do something with my life - something important' says Erin as she looks at her Beauty Queen tiara. How do you feel about the kind of people who want to do 'Something important'?
4. How do you think her children rated her for what she did?
5. 'You look like someone who has a lot of fun' - was that attractive (why?) or threatening (why?)
6. What does this film say about respect / being valued?
7. If you could engage in a battle with a big corporation / organisation, which would it be and what would be your mission?

Cafe Create

2008-05-18T16:40:00.021+01:00

Here are a few images from Cafe Create, Nailsea, launched last Friday night. Firstly notice the beauty of the transformed and decluttered Trinity Centre.

Let there be light.

And a stage ready for live performers. Watch your head now.

The team nervously await the first punters.

And along they came. Hooray. Maximum hooray.

Let's make sure they are all welcomed and greeted.

Waterintofunk. Keyboard player in silhouette only to preserve youthful feel of band.

Ah yes. Full glory. A band in which hair is largely over-rated.

Very arty shot from Ali Jones (who took all these).

Steve shows why Vogon poetry isn't all that bad.

Richard Calverley brings a spot of real talent onto the stage.

And makes sure his mates are there to go wild.

Ewan Jones tops the bill.

Cafe Create, Nailsea

2008-05-15T09:40:00.001+01:00

The third location of this franchise opens tomorrow night, Friday 16th May, 7.30 - 11.00 p.m. at the Trinity Centre, Church Lane Nailsea. Those who are familiar with the decor in there, watch for the transformation. The vibe will be chilled but the music will be varied - not just bargrooves stuff.

There will be a fair-trade, juice, coffee and wine bar on a donations basis and the costs of the evening will be covered by donations too.

There will be live performances. These will include

Stories Steve Tilley
Water into Funk (newly formed band just for the occasion)
Poems Steve Tilley

Music from Richard Calverley
Ewan Jones (guest from Cheltenham - excellent singer/songwriter)

Cafe Create is a project designed to attract those who engage with life mainly through the arts. It is an event run by Christian adults for people of any or no faith. There is no preaching apart from the occasional content of a song, story or poem. There are no limits to what constitutes 'the arts' and previous cafes have included electric and acoustic, solo and band, popular and classical music, short films VJs, DJs, stories, comedy, fire-eating, fire-twirling, sketches and poems. It is intended to be a safe place to have a go, perhaps for the first time, at performance.

Minority Report

2008-05-09T22:44:00.001+01:00

Here are the closing thoughts from tonight's Film Club Extra:

‘It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it.’ The perennial cry of the wronged sibling.

But how about. ‘You can trust me. I wouldn’t do a thing like that.’ Trust brings a whole new perspective into play. The cleaner won’t steal my things. The baby-sitter won’t abuse my children. The treasurer won’t steal the money. The minister won’t abuse young people.

All these break-downs in trust have occurred. They have occurred recently. And they have occurred not so very far from here.

Philip K. Dick’s short story, set in 2054 and directed by Steven Spielberg, appears to be set a long time in the future but let’s recall, some of us, reading the novel 1984 and feeling it was set a long time in the future. The future creeps up on us. Philip K. Dick also wrote the short story ‘Do robots dream of electric sheep?’ which became the cult classic movie Blade Runner. The future in that story, is very bleak. In Minority Report, whilst still set in a dark world, they seem to have a key to making the future better.

Films set in the future, often in the genre called ‘Science Fiction’ are good at asking ‘What if’ questions.

What if we could stop crime before it happened? But push it a bit and you get, ‘What if we could stop every wrong before it happened?’ What if we could stop selfishness, greed, sin? What if we didn’t have free will? How far do you want to push?

But, says the film to us, doesn’t a system that allows us to know, in advance, who will do these things and stop them seem brilliant. Well yes. Yes but...

Cultural commentator Nick Pollard argues that once upon a time most philosophical enquiry took place in universities and most spiritual reflection in churches. Today, he says, most philosophical investigation and spiritual enquiry takes place in the cinema.

The real heart of this film’s philosophical investigation is the exploration of questions about freedom and identity. Are we able to choose our future? If we are, are we morally accountable for it? Or are our actions in some way determined for us? This is the philosophical problem of determinism.

All parenting, training and teaching is a counter to determinism. We believe that people act wrong because they don’t know right so we educate them.

There was an accusation at the time of the murder of Jamie Bulger in Liverpool that the church had failed to teach people the difference between right and wrong. But the killers went to jail because the court found they did know the difference but still did wrong.

Education doesn’t solve everything.

However much I try I always seem to end up at movies which have eye surgery in them. It’s grim. But the film asks the question, ‘Do you see?’ Do you see what life would be like, how grim it would be under the surface, if we behaved like this? A vision of a crime-free utopia has an underside of back-street eye surgery. The same argument is often used in the matter of abortion.

If we could know so much by pre-cognition or genetic analysis would we simply swab a baby and decide to keep or discard? We stray into the world of the film Gattaca which raises these issues and we may watch together some day

So is the future fixed? Determined? Am I the luckless, or lucky, product of my genes, my environment and the quality of my education?

St Paul beat himself up about this a lot. ‘Oh wretched man that I am,’ he said, ‘I can’t stop doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I do want to do.’ If St Paul lived in the world of Minority Report he would have been taken out before he supervised the first murder of a disciple of Jesus, would never have become a follower himself and most of our New Testament would have been missing. Unless someone or something was determining his future perhaps, at which point I get brain ache.

A few weeks ago a man finally went to prison for his 52nd driving offence. Are we as a society leaning in the opposite direction to the film? Are we too lenient?

But is there a place in the world for repentance? If I stand over someone with a knife raised is it inevitable that I am going to kill them?

The message I want to shout at the screen is this; people change. So we must allow them to live in a world of second chances. However awkward that makes it that I am, from time to time going to be the victim of sin. And of course, occasionally the perpetrator.

But I won’t commit the sin of going on any longer so have a great weekend, whether someone is watching you or not.