How Films in Hartford started
The annual winter season of Films in Hartford is now in its fourteenth year, the thirteenth season having been rudely interrupted midway last March. The project was originally started after the much-loved Ritz cinema in Northwich closed and people were keen to explore the possibilities of having a local venue to show films. The Grange School kindly came to the rescue by offering its new, superb Theatre and a call went out for volunteers to organize the films themselves. Initially a three month trial was agreed, the trial being so successful, that a winter season took place and has continued since then, apart from the sudden break in the unlucky thirteenth year!
It is a non-profit making undertaking, posters, flyers and tickets made at home by the organizers, with the Grange School generously continuing to host each film, to the extent of turning the seating around to accommodate the new digital equipment provided by the film company, which was too cumbersome to be housed in the theatre’s projection room. The films have been so well supported in those past years that, despite the charges by the film company of £200 to show the film, plus 65% on tickets sold over that amount, profits have indeed been made of over £1,000 each year, which have been donated after each season to local charities.