Archive for April, 2008
Picturehouse Cinemas has launched its own-brand water to raise funds for its charitable projects in West Africa. 10p from every bottle of water bought at one of their cinemas will be used by Picturehouse Cinemas partners, Plan UK, to provide bore holes in the Dosso region of West Niger, which is one of the driest regions of the world with only 800mm of rainfall a year.
Plan UK is a child-centred charity and much of their emphasis is on helping children and their families benefit from the project by being fully involved in the creation and management of the new facilities. Picturehouse Cinemas felt that this child-centred and educational approach was particularly sympathetic to its own values which led them to chose Plan UK to be its main company charity.
Lyn Goleby, Managing Director of Picturehouse Cinemas, said “Cinema is a universal language in bringing the world together. We felt that it was time to stop just watching other people and time to start making a difference.”
Picturehouse Cinemas will make the most of the unique opportunities it has to keep its audience informed of the project’s progress. Sir Bob Scott, the Picturehouse Chairman, said “Technology is making the world a smaller place and we will use our cinema screens to bring our customers together with families in Niger. We will show regular updates on screen about the project and are hoping that when it’s complete we can use our satellite network and digital projection facilities to bring the realities of the audience contribution live into our cinemas so that audiences can really feel involved”.
Laura Whitby of Plan UK said, “We are very excited by this project and urge everyone to visit their local Picturehouse Cinema, if only to buy a bottle of water!”.
Picturehouse audiences will also be able to read about the project’s progress at: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/water
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The chiseled-faced, ruggedly handsome actor, renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, died on Saturday at his Beverly Hills home, aged 84. He had been diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease. Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty years.
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Heston’s movie career took off with The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and reached light speed with Ben-Hur (1959). Although he has played a pantheon of larger-than-life roles, such as Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson, he usually prefered to talk about the day-to-day daily grind of the movie business, and especially credited the writers and directors he worked with for much of his success. Though aging gracefully, the venerated Heston had lately been more interested in promoting right-wing political issues than acting, including being an unapologetic gun advocate.
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