Rochdale Pioneers

[asamaic]

I saw this today the Renoir. There were only around 30 people there, but apparently 200 or so had booked.

Felt sorry for the organisers, this was a nice little event and there should have been more people there to appreciate it. The Q&A was one of the better ones I've been along to - thought the directors handled the questions really well and were very responsive to feedback. (There is more editing to come, apparently, we haven't seen the final cut.)

I myself had problems registering for tickets and wasn't sure I had any until fairly recently, which I imagine contributed to the high no show rate - did anyone else suffer from this?

I think there was a fine line between telling the story of the Rochdale Pioneers forming a successful co-op and being a big blatant advert for The Co-op, but I thought the directors largely got it right. I must say, I really want to find my nearest Co-op and b*y something now, so maybe there was a hidden message after all...

PS They kept the cinema closed off and fed us afterwards, which is always lovely!

[ejwrank]

We were also at this screening and saw pxc's OH there--sorry we don't know you asamiac. We thought the film was disappointing but considering the budget of a mere £86,000 it wasn't surprising. There was one extremely rude man in the audience who picked the film apart (it was a 55 minutes film that will be shown on Film4) and I thought the directors were very nice to consider it constructive criticism. We did think the sound quality was poor but it was still a work in progress so hopefully that will be sorted out.

Lovely lunch served to us afterwards and agree with you asamaic that it was a poor attendance considering all the care that the Co-op obviously put into it.

[Beate]

Darn - I completely forgot about this - thought it is tomorrow! What was the food like?

[ejwrank]

Lovely food --nice sandwiches, houmous and assorted dips with celery, cucumber and carrots, quiches and some nice small tartlets with onions and vegetables and there was plenty of it. Plus proper coffee and tea -- sorry you missed it Beate.

[asamaic]

We were also at this screening and saw pxc's OH there--sorry we don't know you asamiac. We thought the film was disappointing but considering the budget of a mere £86,000 it wasn't surprising. There was one extremely rude man in the audience who picked the film apart (it was a 55 minutes film that will be shown on Film4) and I thought the directors were very nice to consider it constructive criticism. We did think the sound quality was poor but it was still a work in progress so hopefully that will be sorted out.

Lovely lunch served to us afterwards and agree with you asamaic that it was a poor attendance considering all the care that the Co-op obviously put into it.

Would have been nice to see a friendly face as I was on my own today, never mind, I'm sure I'll meet one of you FMUKers one day!

I think showing something on the big screen creates expectations, but this was very much a low budget film for television that hadn't gone through final editing and you needed to reconcile yourself with that. Some of the audience members said they found the film really emotional - I will admit I didn't really feel very much until the very end. But I'm a sucker for happy endings.

[prettyxcool]

I was there too! Saw the back of ejwrank and her husband's head (sorry to have missed you both), as I had to sit at the back row and make a quick get away (babysitting duties!), so missed the last five minutes of film (as they started late!) and the Q&A and the lovely spread (saw it as I was rushing out!)

The film started slow, took me some time to adjust to the accents and sound, but once got into the flow, I did enjoy it but thought it was full of flaws. When we were waiting for the film to start, I did hear one of the organisers saying to another, I better go and check on the sound!! I knew a bit about the co-op and the film definitely does have an underlying message, as asamaic mentioned. We used to have a massive Co-op in our High Street which I loved shopping at, and was almost like John Lewis, selling furniture, clothes and everything for the home, not just food. But then it closed down, and just left the supermarket part, which was then taken over by an independent chain.

6/10 and a whopping 7/10 from my OH!

[prettyxcool]

Darn - I completely forgot about this - thought it is tomorrow! What was the food like?

I thought you were coming, and looked out for you!

[prettyxcool]

I saw this today the Renoir. There were only around 30 people there, but apparently 200 or so had booked.

I counted the same too and also felt sorry for the organisers, as the cinema was huge and they obviously went to a lot of trouble, got the Co-op Chair of the South Region to introduce the film, got the director to do the Q&A, and then laid on the lovely spread.

Shame to have missed you too, asamaic!

[Beate]

Lovely food --nice sandwiches, houmous and assorted dips with celery, cucumber and carrots, quiches and some nice small tartlets with onions and vegetables and there was plenty of it. Plus proper coffee and tea -- sorry you missed it Beate.

Well, looks like apart from the food I didn't miss all that much. Didn't know they would show a film that wasn't even finished yet! Might catch it on Film4 but not all that fussed.

[Snowwhite]

also saw this yesterday and like everyone else was very surpised with the little turn out. thought the the film was okay once you get into it as it was a slow start but i thought it was a bit too short felt they could have developed the storyline a bit more, nevertheless did enjoy the food afterwards

6/10