It's a Wonderful Life!
A reworking - in classic Hollywood style - of the impact of one honest man’s life in a small town community. Its message is heart-warming and shows how much poorer that community would have been if he had not lived.
And its screening at Ribchester Village Hall this December brought another community together. This time to raise funds for two very worthy local causes. The collective generosity of those who attended the evening raised more than £500, which is to be divided between the appeal for new changing rooms for Ribchester Football Club and for the Village Hall’s deficit on the cost of recent renovation work.
Here's how one local resident summarised the experience and the film... "It was a joy to see James Stewart’s portrayal of the Wonderful Life of George Parker [aided and supported by Donna Read as his wife] contrasted with Lionel Barrymore as the curmudgeonly and dishonest loan-shark who was holding the community to ransom. In the end, the citizens of the town literally repay their collective debt to George in the nick of time – on Christmas Eve! The story plucked the audience’s collective heart-strings, as Frank Capra intended, and the capacity audience showed their appreciation of the fable by giving it a sustained round of applause at the end – not a film audience’s normal reaction to the credit titles."
Further film showings are planned for next year.