One sad day, a few years ago, the ABC cinema in Redditch closed its doors for the last time. For those of us living in the tiny village of Feckenham that meant that a trip to the movies now entailed a lengthy trek to the mean streets of Birmingham or Worcester. And then the truth dawned. We realised that not many of us really wanted to see the latest action filled gorefest in glorious multi channel deafenoscopic sound. We just wanted a good old fashioned night out at the pictures. And so we tried it.
An experimental showing of "Some Like it Hot" enticed over a hundred locals of all ages to Feckenham Village Hall and the atmosphere was magic. We had another go a few months later with "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "Oh! Mr Porter!". The fact that Will Hay could still captivate a full house sixty years after his film was made convinced us that the idea of a rural Picture Palace was an idea worth following up. We gathered redundant equipment from helpful and enthusiastic independent cinema owners and we spent the summer of 2001 installing the screen, a new sound system, motorized festoon drop tabs and new lighting. All our films are shown on traditional film projectors on a proper cinema screen - a brand new Harkness-Hall screen was installed in April 2006. Comfortable fully upholstered red plush seating replaced the hard plastic chairs in 2003 - you can leave the cushions at home! We wanted to provide a real cinema experience - not just a filmshow in a village hall. Eight seasons of full houses seems to say that we had the right idea!
The first show in November 1999
The screen was an old backdrop hastily covered in white emulsion, the curtains were suspended on an improvised domestic track and operated by a motor called Bob.
The FeckenOdeon opened on September 29th, 2001 with a gala showing to a packed house of "The Smallest Show on Earth" and "Duck Soup".
The Society can accommodate 120 Full Members and welcomes an additional 20 Guest Members to each show.
Our ninth season of classic films is now showing - click below for the programme.
The present day FeckenOdeon - comfy chairs, licensed bar, motorised tabs, footlights - everything a PROPER cinema should have!
For the technically minded: The FeckenOdeon's films are shown on a Westar 2001a 35mm projector with a Xenon Arc lamphouse and stereo soundhead. We use a Westrex tower system for continuous running of films up to 2 hours 45 minutes duration. Newer films are shown with full Dolby Stereo SR surround sound using our CP55 and SRA-5 processors, Yamaha 4 channel amplifier and Peavey loudspeakers. Care is taken to show films in their original formats - we can cope with Academy Standard, American and European WideScreen and all CinemaScope type formats. Occasional films are operated on two Bell & Howell 16mm projectors with changeovers. Some trailers and shorts are shown in projected DVD format. The 20 ft (7 mtr) wide screen has a Harkness Hall perforated, high gain, matt white surface.
Click this button for a list of films we’ve already shown
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CINEMA FOR ALL
Affiliated to the British Federation of Film Societies
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A warm welcome from our glamorous, uniformed staff awaits you. Join us for the season
or just pop in for the occasional show. Use the buttons below to find out how.
This has to be a first for a film society!
We’ve added a second auditorium!
We’ve long been aware that there are a lot of films out there that don’t fit into
our main season. We’ve decided to show some slightly off mainstream movies in a smaller
cinema in the same building.
NEXT SHOW: Amelie
Click HERE for details
