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 ELEVENTH season of classic films is now showing - click HERE for the programme.
Click HERE for a list of past sceenings
The present day FeckenOdeon - comfy chairs, licensed bar, motorised tabs, footlights - everything a PROPER cinema should have!
This has to be a first for a film society!
We have a second auditorium!
There are a lot of films out there that don’t fit into our main season. We created
FeckenOdeon 2 to show some slightly off mainstream movies in a smaller cinema in
the same building.
NEXT SHOW:
POTICHE
Click HERE for details
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.... Something had to be done!
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 professional standard 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. Ten 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.
JOIN US
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 links above to find out how. We can
promise you a real “night out at the pictures” with all the trimmings.
There’s a licensed bar at every show, our usherettes serve ices in the interval (and
yes, they do have those old fashioned trays with lights on), there’s always a supporting
programme (in FeckenOdeon 1) and there are free programme notes for every film.
For the technically minded:
The FeckenOdeon has embraced new technology and has recently installed a Christie HD800 professional digital cinema projector giving high definition pictures and multi track sound. In addition, when high definition prints are not available, films are shown on a Westar 2001a 35mm projector with a Westrex tower system for continuous running of films up to 2 hours 45 minutes duration. The 35mm system has full Dolby Stereo SR surround sound using CP55 and SRA-5 processors, Both digital and film systems use Yamaha amplifiers 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. The 20 ft (7 mtr) wide screen has a Harkness Hall perforated, high gain, matt white surface. FeckenOdeon 2 has Acer High Definition Digital projection with 6 channel digital surround sound.
If you’re buying books, videos or DVDs you can help your favourite Cinema Society
by clicking on the Amazon icon. The Society will receive 5% of the value of any order
you place during your visit to the Amazon site
What’s happening in our big neighbour - the Borough of Redditch.
Shows at the Palace and Kingsley Theatres plus exhibitions, concerts, etc.
Click the logo to visit the Arts in Redditch website
The FeckenOdeon Cinema Society is an Affiliate Member of the British Federation of
Film Societies - bringing Cinema to everyone. Click the logo to visit the BFFS website
You'll find us in the Cinema listings of
Full UK and international Entertainment Information
AND THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE
Take a look at this video. It shows the entire process of creating the FeckenOdeon.
from bare hall to sumptuous cinema - condensed down to 45 seconds.
The actual transformation takes us about an hour...but we’ve had ten years of practice.
