A Brand New Film Festival for a Brand New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! 

As promised, our weekly film nights at the Victoria Park Baptist Church are set to resume on Thursday, the 12th of January.

As we sink our teeth into 2023 (a date that has no right to exist outside of pulp science fiction) I plan to embark on a brand new film series, which we shall be exploring over the next few months.

Anyone who has been following the trends of social and cultural discourse over the last decade or so may be reminded of a song made famous by Groucho Marx in the film Horse Feathers:


"Whatever it is, I'm against it" could almost be the battle cry for our modern age. Our increasingly tribal society has been marked by outrage, protests and of course, everyone's favourite: Cancel Culture.

It is Cancel Culture that I want to explore in our new film series, which is why the series is going to be called

Down With [complete as required]

Although the terminology may be new, the concepts of persecution, oppression and ostracism are essentially as old as the human race itself. Ever since human beings started forming themselves into groups or communities, we have been deciding who should then be excluded from those groups or communities. 

There is absolutely nothing new about the "public shaming of those deemed moral transgressors" as the New York Times once described it.

The films I have chosen for this series all deal with these ideas in one way or another. Some of these films are going to be controversial. Some of them are extremely hard-hitting, while others are pure escapist fun. Doubtless there will be a few issues (and people) explored here that some of you will feel deserve to be cancelled, while others epitomize the very definitions of totalitarian oppression.

That's the point.

A good film, like any work of art, should promote discussion and reflection. Silencing a voice does not make a problem go away, and it is difficult to grow as a culture if we actively make ourselves smaller.


Starting with our first film on the 12th of January, I hope to put the Culture back into Cancel Culture.

I look forward to seeing you there!

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