Film Night Celebrating Leytonstone and the Lower Lea Valley - Sunday 8th July

I’m organising a film night this Sunday for the Leytonstone Festival. I had the idea not long after I moved here when I became aware of the great film references connected to the area. Wouldn’t be great to show some John Smith, Paul Kelly/St Etienne and Ian Bourn in a pub in Leytonstone, I thought. Well this Sunday it’s going to happen and what’s even better, the film-makers themselves will be in attendance to do a Q&A afterwards.
It’s this Sunday 8th July at The Heathcote Arms, 344 Grove Green Road, Leytonstone E11, 8pm till late (the bar at the Heathcote closes at midnight), and it’s an incredible bargain at £2.
I think I’ve written about all these films before on the blog and I wrote an article on this theme for Rising East, but the programme includes:

The Black Tower: John Smith (1985-7, 24mins). In The Black Tower we enter the world of a man haunted by a tower in Langthorne Road which, he believes, is following him around Leytonstone.

Blight (1994-96): John Smith captures the dying days of Colville Road, with a soundtrack of residents’ reminiscences composed by fellow Leytonstonian Jocelyn Pook.

Black, White & Green – the way of pie (2003): Ian Bourn
In this world of marble tables, etched glass and tiles the humble London dish of pie, mashed potato and thick green liquor acts as a catalyst for excursions into memory, fantasy or to places best forgotten. Filmed in the pie and mash shop at Harrow Green, Leytonstone.
Black White & Green is a meditation on the pie and mash aesthetic – an exploration of the terrain and a revelation of what wriggles just below the surface.

What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? (2006): Paul Kelly & Saint Etienne. Mervyn Day’ is set in the Lower Lea Valley on the day after the announcement that London would host the 2012 Olympics. Kelly has described the film as being like an obituary to the birthplace of the 20th Century. The film follows a paper boy doing his rounds who allows his sense of curiosity lead him on a journey through the ruination of an area that gave the world plastic and petrol.