A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. 

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s seminal novel, The Price of Salt, adapted by Emmy nominated screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, directed by Todd Haynes, Carol stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy and Sarah Paulson.

Join us at Unit Twelve for our special screening of this 50s-set drama which is an intoxicating triumph!

By night Alfred and Klara are pen pals who have never met but who are deeply devoted to each other. By day, Alfred and Klara are co-workers who, just as deeply, dislike each other in The Shop Around the Corner. Academy Award winner Jimmy Stewart stars with Margaret Sullivan as Alfred and Klara in this classic romance directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch. This day/night -- hate/love relationship cannot continue ... but will it be loving or loathing when Alfred and Klara discover the identities of their cherished pen pals?

This Lubitsch romcom a Christmas delight!

We are excited to be back at Cannock Library for a Christmas special screening of The Muppet Christmas Carol!

The Muppets perform the classic Dickens holiday tale, with Kermit the Frog playing Bob Cratchit, the put-upon clerk of the miserable, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine).

The film features lots of our favourite Muppet characters, including; Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and Sam the Eagle. Scrooge receives visits from spirits of three Christmases -- past, present and future and they show him the error of his self-serving ways, but the miserable old man seems to be past any hope of redemption and happiness.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a festive holiday classic, with something to offer audiences of all ages. Simply perfect... even for the those Scrooges amongst us!

Bookflix - read the book, watch the film… watch the film, read the book!

This screening is part of a programme of monthly screenings at Cannock Library where we bring films inspired by books, and books inspired by films to your Library for FREE!

If you are aged between 11-18 and want to help create your very own cinema club right here at Cannock Library please come along to the screening to find out more… or just come along, enjoy some tasty chocolate treats and watch a great film on your doorstep! 

To book a ticket, or for more information about how to get involved in Bookflix please contact Cannock Library on 01543 334525 or email cannock.library@staffordshire.gov.uk.

‘Delivered as part of Cannock Chase Libraries Know Your Neighbourhood Project. Funded by Department for Culture, Media and Sport, delivered by Libraries Connected in partnership with Arts Council England.’

Phantom Thread is a 2017 American psychological period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis in his final film role, Vicky Krieps, and Lesley Manville. The film follows an haute couture dressmaker in 1950s London who takes a young waitress as his muse.

Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with their distinct style.

Join us at Cannock Library, for a FREE screening of Wonka, a story about how the world's greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.

We will create a magical pop-up cinema at your favourite venue, as we screen the magical musical adventure Wonka! This wonderful films tells the story of how Willy Wonka changed the world of chocolate one delectable bite at a time.

Well, there’s chocolate and there’s chocolate…

Bookflix - read the book, watch the film… watch the film, read the book!

This screening is part of a programme of monthly screenings at Cannock Library where we bring films inspired by books, and books inspired by films to your Library for FREE!

If you are aged between 11-18 and want to help create your very own cinema club right here at Cannock Library please come along to the screening to find out more… or just come along, enjoy some tasty chocolate treats and watch a great film on your doorstep! 

To book a ticket, or for more information about how to get involved in Bookflix please contact Cannock Library on 01543 334525 or email cannock.library@staffordshire.gov.uk.

‘Delivered as part of Cannock Chase Libraries Know Your Neighbourhood Project. Funded by Department for Culture, Media and Sport, delivered by Libraries Connected in partnership with Arts Council England.’

Come join us at Unit Twelve for a unique event showcasing the film The Nettle Dress...

THE STORY

Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand, using only the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. This is ‘hedgerow couture’, the greenest of slow fashion and also his medicine. It’s how he survives the death of his wife Alex, which leaves him and their four children bereft, and how he finds a beautiful way to honour her.

'Grasping the Nettle' is at the heart of this story. The challenge of making zero carbon clothing means relearning ancient crafts: foraging, processing, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing.

Making a dress this way becomes devotional and healing.

‘While making the dress over all these years, I felt like I was being transformed by the nettles rather than the other way around,’ says Allan. ‘When Alex was ill and going through chemotherapy, as soon as I began spinning yarn, I felt calmer. It became much more than just a piece of cloth; it's been woven with the stories of people who know and love you.’

The dress is made up of 14,400 feet of thread, each one representing hours of loving attention.

Finally, the dress is worn in the woods where the nettles were picked, by Oonagh, one of Allan's daughters.

Director Dylan Howitt says: ‘This is a story about the deep value of creativity and imagination, and a slow, mindful craft that is more in tune with the natural world.’

Join us at Holy Trinity Church for a special 100th Anniversary screening of two Buster Keaton classic feature films - Sherlock Jr and The Navigator. We welcome back Australian-born London-based pianist/composer/improviser Meg Morley, who will deliver live musical accompaniment to both films!  

Sherlock Jr.

Buster Keaton’s third feature is a breathtakingly virtuosic display of every silent comedy technique imaginable, from his own formidable physical skills to some then ground-breaking camera trickery. The detective fantasy Sherlock Jr. largely takes place inside the head of a hapless and wronged cinema projectionist (Keaton) who dreams himself into the screen only to be flummoxed by the film’s editing.

The Navigator

Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Keaton) suddenly decides to propose to his neighbour across the street, Betsy O’Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. When Betsy rejects his sudden offer however, he decides to go on the trip anyway, boarding without delay that night. Because the pier number is partially covered, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy’s rich father has just sold to a small country at war.

These screenings will be accompanied by a live piano score, performed by BFI Southbank’s resident pianist Meg Morley. Since performing for her first silent film in 2016, Meg has quickly become one of the UK’s pre-eminent silent film accompanists, performing at various international film festivals and playing regularly at the London Cinema Museum. Meg is also somewhat of a mainstay of our Pocket Film Festival, having performed at every festival since 2017… This double-bill event is not to be missed!

We are delighted to offer a special 100th anniversary screening of Harold Lloyd’s 1924 silent comedy Hot Water.  This screening will feature a special introduction by Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of Harold Lloyd.

Hot Water is a hilarious domestic-life comedy directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor which features three episodes in the life of Hubby (Lloyd) as he struggles with domestic life with Wifey (Jobyna Ralston) and his in-laws.

It is the only film where Harold played a married man, as he felt that being a single romantic guy chasing the girl had more comic value!

We welcome back Australian-born London-based pianist/composer/improviser Meg Morley, who will deliver live musical accompaniment to Hot Water.

Meg has regularly performed at various international film festivals and received numerous solo piano commissions. We are proud to say that Meg has performed at EVERY Pocket Film Festival either performing as a solo artist, as a duo or as part of her jazz trio. This year she will provide live piano accompaniment to a series of classic silent films celebrating their 100th anniversaries.

Ray Johnson presents At the Pictures: A Century of Cinemas in the Potteries and Newcastle

Moving Pictures first came to the UK in 1896. People saw early film shows affectionately called the flickers in local town halls and other kinds of premises, and in fairground booths called Bioscopes. We see and hear the last surviving bioscope organ in action - it played in front of Staffordshire showman Pat Collins’s booth.With a history of accidents and fires, the Cinema Act of 1909 said that films could only be shown in custom-built Picture Houses or Cinemas, and George Barber opened the first cinema in the Potteries in October 1909.

Within a couple of years, dozens of small picture houses had opened locally and their numbers grew over the next two decades - the Roxy, Rex/Rio and Picturedrome in Newcastle are featured.

There are interviews with many involved in bringing the magic of the movies into people’s lives: managers, projectionists, usherettes and cinema-goers themselves. A typical cinema organ is played for us by the last of the Odeon organists.

There is a selection of archive film trailers and cinema adverts.This is a combination of history, anecdotes and personal reminiscences plus photographs and rare archive film which brings alive the days when it was a real treat to be "at the pictures".

Join us at Stone Library as we bring a pop-up cinema to your Library! Stone Library ran a vote to see which book related film you wanted to watch… So as voted for by YOU the Pocket Film Festival will be screening Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical! 

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical tells the story of an extraordinary girl, with a vivid imagination, who dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.

This will be a FREE screening, so is sure to be popular with children and families alike. Places will be limited, so to book your place please contact Stone Library on 01785 895585 or email stone.library@staffordshire.gov.uk.

Blood Tea and Red String is a surreal handmade stop-motion fairy tale for adults created and animated entirely by director Christiane Cegavske over a period of 13 years. It tells the story of aristocratic white mice who commission gentle oak dwelling artisans to create a doll for them. When the Oak Dwellers fall in love with the doll they refuse to give her up. Resorting to thievery, the jilted mice abscond with her in the middle of the night. The Oak Dwellers must journey through their mystical and dangerous land to reclaim their love.

The film is dialogue-free, which has enabled it to reach audiences worldwide and allows viewers to find their own interpretations of the story.

This special screening will include a live musical accompaniment by Rosie Brownhill, a folk and traditional inspired multi-instrumentalist from Staffordshire. Rosie will be accompanying the film with new musical material, playing a mixture of instruments including penny whistles, finger style guitar, and chord organ.

We have teamed up with Staffordshire Film Archive and Staffordshire County Council’s Heritage & Archive Service to bring you a special screening of ‘The Story of Cinema in Stafford’.

This documentary charts the history of local cinemas and features interviews with many involved in bringing the magic of the movies into people’s lives: managers, projectionists, usherettes and cinema-goers themselves. A typical cinema organ is played for us by the last of the Odeon organists. There is a selection of archive film trailers and cinema adverts.

This is a combination of history, anecdotes and personal reminiscences plus photographs and rare archive film which brings alive the days when it was a real treat to be "at the pictures".

Before the screening there will be a 30-minute talk by Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Heritage & Archive Service about their astonishing records relating to the history of Staffordshire, and the cinemas and theatres in the town of Stafford.

Tickets are £3 for this event. Please pay on the door. For more information please contact Baswich Library on 01785 663355 or email baswich.library@staffordshire.gov.uk.

Join the team from the Archives and Heritage Service as we take a tour of the sites of cinemas around Stafford town centre and explore their history.

Tickets on sale from the 26 August here…

Thelonius “Monk” Ellison is a literature professor and novelist whose highbrow fiction works sell poorly.

Angered by the accusation that his writing ignores ‘the African-American experience’, Monk pseudonymously pens a stereotypical ‘Black’ novel which gains widespread acclaim.

Soon he’s complaining to his agent: “The dumber I behave, the richer I get.” This delightful satirical comedy is an Oscar and Critic’s Choice winner for best adapted screenplay.

“Elegantly walking a line between absurdist satire and family drama, this is a clever send-up of how the broadness of Black culture gets reduced to cliché.” (Empire).

Years before he becomes the president of Panem, Coriolanus returns to District 12 to find he is to mentor Lucy Gray Baird for the 10th annual Hunger Games.

Who will be revealed as a ‘Songbird’ and who will be exposed as a ‘Snake’?

Compare and contrast book and film, with plenty of copies of Suzanne Collins’ thrilling novel available to borrow on the evening or pop in to read in advance.

Alternatively, just sit back and enjoy the free popcorn, sweets and soft drinks!

Or contact Cannock Library on 01543 334525 or email cannock.library@staffordshire.gov.uk to book your seat.

We will be turning Unit Twelve into our own Pocket Video Store to showcase this sequel to the massive 1985 hit film, which celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2024!

Time doesn’t stand still for Marty McFly, as no sooner has Marty returned to the present than Doc Brown re-appears in his time-hopping DeLorean to tell him his son is in trouble. Marty must travel thirty years into the future to save his own children from going to jail.  

Meanwhile, the aged Biff Tannen steals the Delorean time machine to return to the Fifties and make his younger self rich, creating an alternative 1985 timeline in which Marty's father, George, has been murdered.

It's playtime! In this short film programme to be enjoyed with the family, toys and games take centre stage. A kite brings a boy and his grandfather closer together, a knitted toy dinosaur lives an epic adventure, and Cowboy and Indian from the delightful series A Town Called Panic go back to school. This event will also give you the opportunity to discover the museum's amazing toy collection!

Local artist, Ruth Allen will provide a fun creative activity, suitable for all the family, inspired by toys and games! Using collage and coloured pens, create blocks of colour and pattern and draw with pens to make your own masterpiece!

The Brampton Museum holds the fantastic Toys Gallery – a must-see extensive toy collection, filled with teddies, dolls and games up to 150 years old.

This is a free drop-in activity. No need to book, just turn up!… or you can book in advance on the link button below…

Join us at the fantastic Unit Twelve, the home of our Pocket Film Club, for a FREE drop-in activity…

Create an 80s style Paper TV, complete with changeable, collaged screens in a FREE drop-in workshop run by Iain Perry and the Unit Twelve team. This free drop-in art activity sponsored by Pocket Film Club is inspired by the 80s film they will be showing in the evening, so this will have a true 80s punk/diy zine feel! 

Come and join us on a journey celebrating planet Earth! These animated short films take us through oceans and mountains, from Arctic landscapes to colourful Colombia. What is our relationship to our environment? How can we take better care of it? The characters in this programme - a grumpy bear, a panicked crab and a sleepy stone, to name only a few - will give you food for thought.

Local artist, Ruth Allen will provide a fun creative activity, suitable for all the family, inspired by our environment and the world around us… Using collage and coloured pens, create blocks of colour and pattern and draw with pens to make your own masterpiece!

This is a free drop-in activity. No need to book, just turn up!

Bob Marley: One Love (silent screening) – with pre-film reggae set by DJ Dekker from 7PM onwards

Our first screening of this year’s Pocket Film Festival promises to bring the party to you… we are screening Bob Marley: One Love at Stafford’s premiere craft beer bottleshop and taproom, coffee shop, events hub rolled into one.

The film Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life and music of the icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, discover Bob’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.

Produced in partnership with the Marley family and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as the legendary musician and Lashana Lynch as his wife Rita.

Join us from 7PM for a special pre-film reggae set of sure-fire classics with DJ Dekker… who will serve up a healthy dollop of reggae, ska and good time vibes… possibly including some Marley inspired hits!

This screening of Bob Marley: One Love will be an outdoor quiet screening (weather permitting). For this screening our audience will listen to the film through wireless headphones, which will provide them with a unique immersive cinema experience… all the better to hear the music through!

This vibrant film follows Georgie, a 12-year-old girl, who lives happily alone in her London flat following the death of her mother. She makes money stealing bikes with her best friend Ali and keeps the social workers off her back by pretending to live with her uncle. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality…

Scrapper is the feature debut from 29-year-old Londoner Charlotte Regan. The film brims with a youthful energy and packed full of ideas and fun. 

It is definitely worth watching this tender sweet comedy debut feature about a fragile father-daughter relationship.

The Straight Story is a David Lynch film based on the true story of Alvin Straight's 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower. 

Seventy-three year old Alvin Straight learns that his brother Lyle Straight, from who he has been estranged for ten years, has just suffered a heart attack. Alvin wants to make peace with his brother before it's too late. As he doesn't possess a driver's license and since his eyesight is bad, he decides to make the trip driving his aged riding lawn mover, hoping he reaches his brother before any of them give out for good….

This brilliant true life road trip tells a story that touches all those Alvin encounters on a journey he just had to make.

God's Own Country the directorial debut by Francis Lee about a young sheep farmer in Yorkshire whose life is transformed by a Romanian migrant worker.

Johnny lives on the family farm with his father, Martin, and grandmother, Deirdre. Much of the day-to-day running of the farm falls to Johnny. He numbs his frustrations with binge-drinking and casual sex, until he meets Gheorghe, a Romanian migrant worker, who is hired as extra help for the lambing season. Johnny’s fling with Gheorghe, the Romanian worker, reawakens his love of the land…

This is a captivating and beautiful film, which tells much more than a story about passion in the Pennines…

SUNRISE is a silent monochrome melodrama by FW Murnau about the rekindling of true love. In a lakeside village, a farmer is seduced away from his wife by a beguiling woman from the city who convinces him to murder his wife so they can live together, but things turn out a little differently…

Directed by German genius F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) in his Hollywood debut, this silent art movie has a fairytale story with subtle performances, technical innovations and a remarkable evocation of moods and passions. 

One of the most imaginative films ever made and probably the greatest ever made about love.

For our second Candid Community Cinema Club screening we are having a nineties November film night! And what’s one of the best 90s films… of course it’s Reservoir Dogs.

We kind of think this isn’t up for debate, as Quentin Tarantino's feature-length debut really was genre defining, and shocking in all the right places.

The film

When a simple diamond heist goes wrong they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover police officer. None of the six criminals know each other's true identity.

The film incorporates many elements that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling. The film is regarded as a classic of independent film and a cult film.

Our Candid Community Cinema Club is made possible with support from Film Hub Midlands through funds from the National Lottery. Film Hub Midlands support people to watch, show, and make films in the Midlands.

We are kicking off our MONTHLY Candid Community Cinema Club with this stone cold British Folk Horror classic.

So, to celebrate the films 50th anniversary (I know right!?), we are screening The Wicker Man… and it’s also almost Halloween, so this is also a great excuse!

The film…

A Police Sergeant flies to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a missing girl, only to find a strange, isolated community who insist that the girl never existed. Stranger still are the rites that the inhabitants now practise on the island. 

Our Candid Community Cinema Club nights are made possible with support from Film Hub Midlands through funds from the National Lottery. Film Hub Midlands support people to watch, show, and make films in the Midlands.

No Pocket Film Festival would be complete without a performance by the sublime Meg Morley. This year we are really excited to welcome back Meg again, to deliver a live accompaniment to "The Passion of Joan of Arc”, a film which is widely considered to be the best silent film of all time.

Director by Carl Theodor Dreyer the film tells the story of the doomed, but ultimately canonized 15th century teenage warrior. The screening will take place at Holy Trinity Church, Eccleshall where Meg will bring the festival to a close with a sublime live piano accompaniment to this silent visual masterpiece.

We are also proud to be screening Ten Degrees of Strange - Lynn Tomlinson, (WINNER, Best Commissioned Animation, Ottawa International Animation Festival 2021), before Dreyer’s masterpiece.

‘Close’ is a beautiful film about friendship and responsibility, and follows the intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys. This Cannes prizewinner and Oscar nominee for Best International Film is exquisitely acted and evokes the fragile beauty of boyhood.

This screening will be an outdoor quiet screening (weather permitting). For this screening our audience will listen to the film through wireless headphones, which will provide them with a unique immersive cinema experience!

Before our screening of Close will also be showing Love in the Midlands courtesy of our friends at The Media Archive for Central England (MACE).

Come and join us for this FREE drop-in activity where there will be all sorts of short films and creative activities available with the aim of encouraging children to explore, learn, create, and play.  

Step into the shoes of our little heroes in this family-friendly short film programme that gives a nod to Staffordshire's once thriving shoemaking industry.

Anna Vasof displays her fabulous inventions in Down to Earth. A tree jumps into a pair of boots and goes to explore the world in the lovely animation One, Two, Tree. Step by Step follows the epic journey of a little rain boot trying to find its way home... Put on your trainers or rollerblades, and follow us on these fun and sweet adventures!

The full programme of films we will be showing are:

• Down to Earth - Anna Vasof / Austria / 2014 / 4mins

• One Two Tree - Yulia Aronova / France, Switzerland / 2015 / 7mins

• You Sold My Roller Skates? - Margaux Cazal, Jeanne Hammel, Louis Holmes, Sandy Lachkar, Agathe. Leroux, Léa Rey-Mauzaize / France / 2020 / 6mins

• Approaching the Puddle - Sebastian Gimmel / Germany / 2015 / 7mins

• Marcel the Shell With Shoes On - Dean Fleischer Camp / United States / 2010 / 4mins

• The Pocket Man - Ana Chubinidze / France, Switzerland, Georgia / 2017 / 8mins

• Louis' Shoes - Marion Philippe, Ka Yu Leung, Jean-Géraud Blanc, Théo Jamin / France / 2021 / 5mins

• Kicking Rocks - Yutaro Kubo / Japan / 2013 / 5mins

• Step By Step - Théodore Janvier, Fanny Paoli, Emma Gach, Anabelle David, Julie Valentin, Claire Robert / France / 2021 / 8mins

There will be arts and crafts activities galore, young explorers can make and create before sitting down to watch a fun filled selection of colourful shorts to tickle the whole family!