2009 June 02 « The Bioscope

http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk

London’s Cinema Museum, whose good news about the renewal of its release was reported here recently, is having an open weekend. The Cinema Museum is a private institution, supported by its stills business, and it is not normally open to the general public, so this is a marvellous opportunity to discover one of London’s hidden gems, certainly if you have any interest in motion picture history. The collection represents cinema’s rich history from the earliest days to the present, containing every sort of item relating to film production, film exhibition and the experience of cinemagoing.

The open weekend runs 27-28 June June 2009. During the weekend you may enjoy any of the following:

Recipes to the Stars! – an edible talk with Jenny Hammerton
Rescuing Home Movies – a guide by David Cleveland
Classic Silent Comedy Shorts – a film screening with piano accompainment by Tom Bell
Guided tours of the Museum Collection
Chaplin and the Workhouse exhibition (the museum is located in the Lambeth workshouse which once housed Chaplin’s mother)

The weekend will also feature an exhibition of new artwork by Cnidoblasts and Anna Odrich, reconfiguring artefacts from the collection and exploring the mechanics and gestures of silent comedy through sculpture.

More information will appear on the Cinema Museum website in due course. And just to whet your appetite, there’s this delightful tour of the place hosted by the Museum’s founder Ronald Grant. We’ve featured it on The Bioscope before, but in the very early days of this blog, and it more than merits being screened again.