Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams finishes

August 23, 2008 · Filed Under Arts, Film, Nairn 

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Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dream finishes

Well, Tilda Swinton certainly turned the Cinema Of Dreams at the Ballerina Ballroom a roaring success – once it launched most viewings sold out very very quickly.

While they did try to keep some tickets available on the door, they would sell out within 10 minutes of the box office opening, even though it was 45 minutes before any showing.

So it was definitely get in quick, while you can, and regret not booking earlier.

I managed to get the family in for the first Saturday morning to see “Palle Alone in the World” and “Paddle to the Sea”.

The first was cute, but the PAdd to the Sea was absolutely cosmic – probably the most under-stated story I have ever encountered. Not only did is allude to a deep sense of spiritual journey in afterlife, it re-created a sense of the epic myth simply through change of scale – I kept thinking of Jason and Argonauts, there were many parallels. I also kept thinking what an amazing scifi you could script around it.

Luckily also managed to get the kids in to see “The Singing Ringing Tree”, but unfortunately didn’t get to see “8 1/2″ at the crescendo.

I have to admit, I really wished I’d been able to speak more with Tilda and Mark about getting involved.

I’ve already spoken with Dave (who had some shorts shown on the Sunday night) about organising some film making, so it would have been great to discuss options with them as well for pushing arts and film making in this area of the Highlands.

Still, I’m sure I’ll get to soon enough.

In the meantime, an absolutely great idea, brilliantly executed.

I can only hope I can get more involved next time – in the meantime, I’m unofficially building them a new website: Cinema of Dreams.

Comments

6 Responses to “Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams finishes”

  1. stephen smerdon on October 7th, 2008 5:27 pm

    interesting to see you are making an un-official website for festival i am in the process of jazzing up nthe official one to make it more interactive!

  2. admin on October 7th, 2008 8:48 pm

    Feel free to contact me, as I’m hoping to get a copy done on the cinemaofdreams.co.uk domain, which I can then hand over to Tilda’s internet team. :)

    http://www.britecorp.co.uk/

    Btw, Stephen, are you based in Nairn by any chance? If so, you’re welcome to give me a call from Thursday.

  3. stephen smerdon on October 9th, 2008 8:20 am

    Hi there thanks for your message Yes i am based in nairn and its actually me that is the co-orddinator for the ballerina website .. i was down at tildas house last sunday for the twins birthday party, where we had a lengthy discussion as to how we see the new web-site functioning we also felt it was right that the web-site was run from nairn.. so any ideas you have i would love to hear them my telephone number is 01667451790 hear from you soon

  4. steve on January 16th, 2009 8:20 am

    Dear Nairners, and friends old and new, in Nairn, Scotland, the UK, Germany, Canada, America, Finland, Australia, Japan, and intergalactic visitors to the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams!

    One of the things we’ve missed most, since those mad, fun, unexpected 8 1/2 days after which we scattered to our hearths in Nairn and the four corners of the world, is the chance to parlay and chinwag about movies in that dark wee Cinema of Dreams.

    We liked the Nairn Natter. We liked the way kids talked to grown ups about movies; the banter about how weird and wonderful Dames was; the collective greet we had at The Boot and Peter Ibbetson; the conversational shougles and spraffs.

    Then we had an idea called “Last Night I Dreamt I Was At The Ballerina Again…” It goes like this. Every month or so we will pick one movie on TV that is in the spirit of the Ballerina movies – dreamlike or fun or challenging or childlike. Something weird, rare, unexpected. We’ll post its name on the Ballerina website. If there are a few movies we like, we will pick the main one plus recommend some others. We will assume that people have the main UK TV channels plus freeview (at £50, the cheapest one-off access to digital).

    Then those of us who are into it – kids and adults, in groups, families or alone, in their jammies, eating fairy cakes or chips – can watch the movie. Then, as fancy takes us, we jump online and pour out our reactions to it as entertainment, as art, as ideas, as inspiration or warning, as adventure or window on the world.

    And, crucially, we’ll have a heated debate about which song we should have played in the dark, with the spotlight roaming, before the movie began!

    We know this excludes people who don’t have TVs – so sorry. And our pals abroad may not get these TV channels but how fab would it be if you – our intergalactic buds – could rent the DVD, watch it and then join us?

    All we need you to do is to go to the website at http://www.ballerinaballroom.com or http://www.cinemaofdreams.co.uk, whichever you prefer, they both end up in the same place, and sign up to the forum. Add a pic and a bit about yourself if you like. And when we get enough people signed up we’ll get started!

    And if you’re wondering about the next festival… fret not, you’ll be the first to know as soon as we have any news.

    Love from Mark and Tilda xxx

  5. carol crawford on January 19th, 2009 10:13 pm

    I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to attend the film festival. I arrived in Nairn for a vacation in Sep. ‘08 and heard a few stories from Nairnites about the great event.
    As soon as I returned home to the US, I scoured the web, reading everything I could about Nairn and the Ballerina Ballroom.

    I am a Scot living in Southern California, hoping that my next visit home will include: a front row deck chair/beanbag, tea and bun ticket to the ‘cinema of dreams’.

    In the meantime I will be sure to sign up for the Nairn Natter – I have membership to Netflix so I’m sure I’ll be able to rent any movie that is being shown in the UK.

    Carol

    p.s. I have been telling my pals here in the US …forget Cannes, Palm Springs, The Oscars etc. ‘Cinema of Dreams’ is the film festival event to be seen.

  6. Brian Turner on January 19th, 2009 10:36 pm

    If you’d like to keep up to date with the Cinema of Dreams festival, there’s now a forum running on their site. :)

    http://www.cinemaofdreams.co.uk/forum/

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