The Beacon May 2012 - Beacon Parish of Ditchling, Streat ...

As part of the 700 th anniversary celebration, members of the History Project
have been tracing the history of Ditchling Fair and find a first mention of Harris’s
funfair in 1910. We are therefore delighted to announce that Robert Harris will
give a talk on Harris’s Fair in Ditchling on Thursday June 14 th at 7.30pm in the
Old Meeting House. Tickets are £6, including wine, from Ditchling Post Office,
Parkers and the Village Hair Studio.
We will also be hosting a ‘Ditchling Fair Show and Tell’ history morning at
Stoneywish on Friday 15 th June so please bring along your photos and share your
memories any time between 10am and 1pm. Entry is free with refreshments for
sale.
Next month look out for our Village History trail which will go up to coincide
with the famous Ditchling Fair Scarecrow trail.
If you would like to know more about these events or about Ditchling History
Project have a look at our website www.ditchlinghistoryproject.org or you can
phone me on 01273 845383.
Janet Cragg
Ditchling Film Society
On Thursday, 10 May 2012 we will be showing a film called Conversations with
my Gardener which is an affectionate French film about a flashy artist whose
wife is leaving him and whose mistress is having an affair. The artist, beautifully
played by Daniel Auteuil, leaves Paris for inspiration and returns to the village of
his childhood where he hires an old friend, a retired railroad worker, as his
gardener. Reunited through a series of naturalistic and yet increasingly intimate
conversations, the two men inform and reform each other’s lives just in time for
a startling denouement. With its beautiful settings, the film is a wonderful
appreciation of close friendship and simple rustic pleasures.
Director: Jean Becker. France 2007. 109 mins.
On Thursday, 7 June 2012 our film will be Budrus - a powerful documentary
account of the non-violent struggle by residents of a small town in the West
Bank’s Occupied Territories against Israel’s plans to re-route its “separation
barrier” which would deprive the community of 3,000 olive trees on which its
economy depends. Refusing to move, the townsfolk plant themselves in the
path of the bulldozers despite increasingly heated provocation. This involving
film is an eye-opener.
Directors: Julia Bacher. Israel/Palestine 2009. 70 mins.
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