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news digest
honoring medicinema
About seven years ago, I was delighted to be asked by a very energetic industry per- son, Christine Hill, if I would become a Patron of a new organisation she was trying to set up.
To be called MediCinema, it was Christine’s wonderful idea (if only the money could be found) to set up real cinemas in hospitals.
Her plan had nothing to do with patients watching tapes on small electronic monitors. Not at all, it was to have a proper, full size cinema screen with Dolby surround sound in a designated place where the latest cinema releases could be presented.
A great idea but an expensive one and funds had to be raised not only to pay for 35mm projec- tion equipment, but also to con- vert an area in the hospital where there could be not only cinema type seats, but also facilities for both wheelchairs and hospital beds to be wheeled in. A charm- ing feature of these special places was that the patients would be able to invite their fami- ly members as guests.
There was one other little mat- ter to deal with, and that was inevitable bureaucracy attached to the health service – not that any official department was being asked for money. Procedures have to be over- come and one has to be pretty determined in order to deal with the administrative hurdles.
Success has been achieved already at St Thomas’s in London and go-aheads are in place at hospitals in South Wales and Scotland with a commitment in Northern Ireland hoped for by the end of this year.
MediCinema is fortunate in vital support it receives from the top film distribution companies in the UK, and I know facilities made available by BAFTA over the years have been equally appreciated.
Why am I writing this piece at this particular moment? Simply because the indefatigable Christine Hill was awarded the MBE in the recent Birthday Honours and how good it is to know that her remarkable work has been recog- nised by the Nation.
Further support will always be appreciated so why not visit Christine’s website: www.medicinema.org.uk.
MediCinema is a success about which we can all be proud.
Sir Sydney Samuelson
calling central
The Central School of Speech and Drama wants to maintain contact with all its alumni. If you trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama but are no longer in touch please contact Rose Faria on 020 7559 3997 or email alumni@cssd.ac.uk
asian jewel awards 2003
Parminder Vir OBE has received the Media and the Arts Award, sponsored by Southall Regeneration Partnership, in this year’s Asian Jewel (Southern Region) Awards.
Parminder is responsible for diversity both on and behind the screen at Carlton Television and is also the driving force behind the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN).
Her current projects include the feature film The Prince of Dalston, a third series of Single Voices and Carlton’s Multicultural Achievement Awards
epff mark two
Films, panels, workshops and discussions are on the agen- da at the 2nd European Psychoanalytic Film Festival which is mostly BAFTA-based from October 30-November 2.
The films will include Histoire d’Eau by Bernardo Bertolucci (the EPFF’s honorary president), Aki Kaurismaki’s Man Without A Past and Julio Medem’s Lucia Y El Sexo.
Organised by the British Psychoanalytical Society, the pro- gramme, provisional at this stage, will reflect everything from “the representation of ethnic minorities in European films” to “the motif of the endangered child”.
More info: (tel) 0207 563 5017 or via the web at www.psycho- analysis.org.uk/epff2
members remember
When Cecil Cattermoul Ltd closed down earlier this year, it represented the end of a long chapter in the his- tory our film industry.
Cecil Cattermoul (above right) formed the company in 1925 and one of its earliest activities was providing theatrical costumes for European productions in conjunc- tion with Berman’s and Angel’s.
But its main business was pro- viding film entertainment to the crews of UK cargo ships. By the 1940s it was the largest supplier to the UK merchant fleet.
The company slogan was “Any Time Anywhere In The World.” After that, UK-based cruise liners were supplied with films for passengers.
In 1951 Cecil married Russian- born Marina Becker whose father was one of the leading lights behind the legendary German film studio UFA. After working in the business for Universal then Republic she finally joined up with her husband.
The company extended its fields even more widely, repre- senting distributors in West Africa, Colombia and Iceland.
Cecil died in 1967 and when she died 30 years later, Marina left the controlling shareholding in the company to Bev Pearman (whom she’d met in 1970), best known as an executive with MGM, EMI and Virgin Films.
Cattermoul was always up with the times and by 1982 had moved into video, supplying many of the oil rigs round the British coast.
The company was always close knit, best illustrated by the fact that when it closed - due to the US studios taking back all their rights - its staff had achieved over 180 years total service, which included an astonishing 48 years by Bev’s co-director Colin Thomas. John Kennedy Melling
Millie Banerjee is very much in demand, at the Cabinet Office, the Carnegie Trust and, increasingly on the South Bank of the Thames at Ofcom’s strategically placed offices. The view from the eighth floor is splendid. To the left, St Paul’s and just up-river the pay- masters at Westminster: to the right, the skyscrapers of the City of London.
People there will be watching every move made by Banerjee and her eight Board colleagues, as they edge towards 2004 when Ofcom will be properly up and running.
Watching too, nervously, will be a vast range of companies from global players like BT and BSkyB to tiny radio taxi firms. And in the background, the BBC Board of Governors, aware that a significant lobby would like to see them subsumed by Ofcom.
We met as the Communications Bill moved finally towards law. “The way we regulate and
what we regulate has to change as the industry moves,” says Millie Banerjee. “Our job is to make sure the environment is properly primed. That we don’t do any- thing ridiculous: that we are actu- ally ahead of the game.”
Towards the end of the year, Ofcom, the new communications industry regulator will be born. At this embryo stage, Millie Banerjee, a member of the powerful Ofcom Board talks to John Morrell about convergence, content and culture.
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Photo: Everyman Cinema