Two films produced by Loftus Community Production for Village Arts begins with older residents of the East Cleveland town reminisce about their experience of going to the cinema when they were younger In the second film an animation produced by Loftus After-School Club and Hands-Up Junior Puppet Club that uses both cut-out and shadow puppetry techniques to tells a visual story of some the tales told by the older residents of their experiences of going to the cinema. Title: The following...

Two films produced by Loftus Community Production for Village Arts begins with older residents of the East Cleveland town reminisce about their experience of going to the cinema when they were younger In the second film an animation produced by Loftus After-School Club and Hands-Up Junior Puppet Club that uses both cut-out and shadow puppetry techniques to tells a visual story of some the tales told by the older residents of their experiences of going to the cinema. Title: The following films were made by community production teams for Village Arts at Stables House, Loftus during the summer of 1999. This programme is part of a wider project which aimed to celebrate the arts of live puppetry and film animation. Village Arts presents Loftus Community Productions Loftus Cinema The Golden Years Inside Loftus Library over cups of tea a group of older men and women from the town reminisce about their experiences of going to the cinema when they were children during the inter-war years and of the towns two cinema’s, the Empire Theatre on Deepdale Road and the Regal Cinema on the High Street. Archive still are used to help illustrate some of the points being raised about the types of film they watched, how the news reels were windows onto the wider world and how to them magic was being created on the screen. An animation begins with a set of stage curtains opening to reveal the film’s title and a figure makes its way across the auditorium to a piano. Title: Blast from the Past As the pianist begins to play an audiences make its way into the auditorium to their seats. A second set of curtains open to reveal a cinema screen onto which a film is being shown that features cuts-outs of famous actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Burt Lancaster and Marilyn Monroe. Back in the cinema a member of the audience becomes rowdy, and someone is removed by a member of staff. On the screen the film continues featuring now a series of shadow-puppets of aliens inter-cut with a Western scene in which a cut-out of John Wayne takes on Frankenstein’s Monster. A cut-out featuring a man and woman coming out of a saloon change to the audience where another couple begin to kiss. Back on the screen two women fight over a man followed by another woman getting into a car and being driven away. An extended sequence follows featuring the car being chased by a cowboy and crashing into a horse and carriage. The film breaks down and the audience in the auditorium stomp their feet and shout for the film to start again. On the screen Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe dancing together causing the audience to cheer. A series of shadow-puppets featuring a car, alien and wizard perform on the screen with the film ending on a madcap sequence of various cut-out characters jumping around the screen chasing after each other. Title: The end Participants at Loftus Library Rosaline Walker, Ken Verrill, Mac Gaines-Burrill, Larry Gaines-Burrill, Alwyn Gaines-Burrill, Derek Gaines-Burrill, Frank Bice, Tommy Jackson, Arnold Robinson, Kathleen Readman Anne Middlemas, Anne Blackmore, Mary Stonehouse Animated by Loftus After-School Club and Hands-Up Junior Puppet Club Workshop leaders Dave Brunskill and Lorna Moone Special thanks to Loftus Library, The Children’s Society, Val Magee, Eric Jackson, Nina Hibbin A Loftus Community Production for Village Arts © 1999 End title: Made with the support of National Lottery A4E, Cleveland Community Foundation, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Lloyds TSB Foundation, Northern Arts, Village Arts