Screen break for election hopefuls

Mar 28 2010 by Nigel Green, Sunday Sun

A CINEMA has come up with some unusual stars to reel in the viewers and try to make them more interested in politics.

The managers at The Forum, in Hexham, Northumberland, have invited four parliamentary candidates to nominate their favourite films.

And the would-be MPs will be given the chance to give a 15-minute speech before each of their movies is shown during four nights in April.

The idea comes from the Hexham Community Partnership which runs the cinema and uses the profits to pay for events in the market town.

Partnership Officer Tamsin Beevor said: “We’re hoping it will bring more people into the cinema. But the events are also designed so that more people – particularly young people – will engage with politics in the run-up to the election.”

Independent candidate Steven Ford has picked the 1964 comedy Dr Strangelove, starring Peter Sellers. It will be shown on Sunday, April 25, at 5pm.

Conservative candidate Guy Opperman has nominated The Shawshank Redemption, a 1994 American film about a man who spends two decades in prison for murdering his wife and her lover. It runs on Monday, April 26, at 7.30pm.

Lib Dem candidate Andrew Duffield will be showing The End of Poverty – Think Again.

Made in 2009, the feature-length documentary is narrated by Martin Sheen and looks at solutions to poverty in the Third World. It will be shown on Wednesday, April 28, at 7.30pm.

Finally, Labour candidate Antoine Tinnion has chosen the classic 1949 thriller The Third Man, which is set in Vienna and stars Orson Welles. It will be shown on Thursday, April 29, at 7.30pm.

Tamsin said: “We think these evenings will prove very popular.”

Meanwhile, can you come up with a film suggestion for your favourite – or least favourite – politician?

The Forum is offering four free tickets and a crate of soft drinks for the reader with the wittiest suggestion. Entries to Film Competition, Hexham Community Parnership, Forum Cinema, Market Place, Hexham, NE46 1XF.