What the Gateway Film Festival is bringing to Peterborough in November

The festival opens on November 4 at 7pm with NEIL BRAND PRESENTS LAUREL AND HARDY.

The composer/writer/broadcaster/musician returns with an all-new show about the immortal comedy duo so recently portrayed in the hit film Stan and Ollie.

From their earliest days on opposite sides of the Atlantic in Music Hall and on the stage, to their individual comedy filmsbefore they were paired up by Hal Roach, and on to their silent masterpieces before the arrival of sound, Neil will tell the touching story of the world’s greatest comedy team, who could not have been two more different men!

Fully illustrated with stills, clips (both silent and sound) and Neil’s superlative piano accompaniment and culminating in two of the Boys’ best silent short films, Big Business and Liberty, this is a show that promises gales of laughter throughout, as well as getting under the skin of two warm, funny men who continue to make the world laugh when it needs it most.

The following day (November 5, 7pm) the feature is PRESSURE (1976).

Hailed as Britain’s first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest portrayal of disenchanted British Black young people. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, a bright son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents’ church-going conformity and his brother’s Black Power militancy.

As his initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere, potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek a sense of purpose in the streets and in chases with the police.

An angry but sincere and balanced film, Pressure deals with the identity struggles that children of immigrants have to face and Horace Ové makes the most of his combination of professional actors and local non-actors from the streets of London.

Run time: 120 mins (rating: 15).

THE CAMERA IS OURS: Britain’s Women Documentary Makers is the offering on November 9 (7pm).John Grierson is sometimes referred to as the father of British documentary and credited with coining the term documentary itself. But from the beginning, female innovators were at work within the genre, including Grierson’s own sisters Ruby and Marion, and their work is showcased alongside that of other pioneering female documentary makers in this revelatory programme of new digital restorations.

It begins with Marion Grierson’s lyrical and inventive Beside the Seaside (1935) which uses a witty array of techniques to stylish effect. In They Also Serve (1940) Ruby Grierson’s dramatised documentary is dedicated to “the Housewives of Britain”. A public information film by Brigid ‘Budge’ Cooper, Birth-day(1945) explores the mysteries of maternity – this is the real Call the Midwife! – while Kay Mander’s powerful Homes for the People (1945) uses the then radical technique of allowing working-class women to describe their own lives. Finally, the psychedelic spirit of the 1960s is ushered in by Sarah Erulkar’s Something Nice to Eat (1967), featuring Jean Shrimpton.

Please note that: Beside the Seaside and Birth-day include scenes reflecting harmful racist views that were pervasive at the time of their making.

Run time: 97 mins (rating: PG).

Finally on November 11 (7pm) is SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) – 70th Anniversary Screening.

Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor star in one of the greatest musicals ever filmed. Musician Don Lockwood (Kelly) rises to stardom during Hollywood’s silent-movie era paired with the beautiful and jealous Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). When Lockwood becomes attracted to young studio singer Kathy Selden (Reynolds), Lamont has her fired. But with the introduction of talking pictures, audiences laugh when they hear Lamont speak for the first time–and the studio uses Selden to dub her voice. Set during the advent of “talkies,” this film’s classic song-and-dance numbers celebrate the beginning of movie musicals.

Run time: 103 mins (rating: U).