The Northern Rivers Socialist Alliance screening of Mike Moore’s film The Big One proved to be exactly that.
Since the event was only moderately publicised, and projector failure forced us to resort to a TV set at the last SA film night, we had expected 20 to 30 people.
Fortunately, Maggie Moore’s Pub (no relation to Mike) had a movable partition and lots of spare chairs so when the crowd stopped arriving we had squeeezed 110 people into the room!
SA member Nick Fredman gave a brief intro explaining that Moore’s film, while admirable for its concern for US workers, failed to address the situation of Third World workers, which has to be considered in any coherent response to global capitalism.
With an entry charge of just $3/$5 we collected $350 at the door, and while we didn’t make a lot of contacts for SA that night, (it may have been more a cult film audience than a consciously political one), considering how stretched we were, we were happy to have managed to distribute 50 Socialist Alliance budget broadsheets to people as they left.
Quick negotiations with the pub manager during the film resulted in a decision to screen Moore’s film Roger and Me on June 24, possibly with two sessions. This was announced at the end of the film, so publicity has started early.
We hope that by showing Moore’s films, as well as films by John Pilger and Ken Loach, on a monthly basis, the Alliance can build up a regular following that could develop into an audience for political films in general. In the process, we’ll develop a regular source of income, strengthen our public profile and create opportunities to talk to a lot of new people about politics.
Since Northern Rivers branch has members in 10 towns and villages in the region, only a minority living in Lismore now, we are also looking at showing these films in Nimbin and other nearby towns.
For more information about the wide range of films that are available for screening by your branch, contact Jill or John at Actively Radical TV in Sydney on (02) 9564 1277.