When the Movies Were Young.

From the very first moving pictures to the extraordinary pioneers who transformed them into entertainment — an evening of wonderful old films, laughter and fascinating stories from the audience. Not every journey takes me across an ocean.

Sometimes it takes me just a few miles down the road — and recently that meant an evening in Ambrosden and my talk The Silent Movies: Pioneers, Pictures and Visions.

Getting everything set up proved to be rather more of an adventure than anticipated!

But eventually the projector behaved, the pictures appeared on the screen and we were off — back to the extraordinary early days of cinema.

We met the pioneers who first realised that moving pictures could tell a story, discovered how films went from tiny fairground attractions to enormous picture palaces, and watched just how inventive those early filmmakers really were.

What I particularly enjoyed was the conversation afterwards.

The audience ranged across the generations, and people remembered films they had watched years ago, shared their own stories and asked some fascinating questions.

There was plenty of laughter too — exactly the sort of evening I love.

Because these talks are never really just about the films.

They’re about the memories they stir, the stories behind them — and the conversations they start.

Sometimes the shortest journeys lead to the best stories.