From Borehamwood To Hollywood 2014 & 2015

As part of our celebrations of the centenary of film-making in the local studios we again built on our partnership on The Elstree Project with the University of Hertfordshire’s film & TV course faculty and students of its School of Creative Arts.

Working closely with Howard Berry, senior Lecturer at the University, we helped create our own feature-length film.  Based on highlights from a selection of unique interviews carried out during The Elstree Project, the film traces from 1914 the growth, survival and current resurgence of local film-making as well as more recent television productions.

Dame Barbara Windsor graciously agreed to introduce the film, sharing narrator honours with Paul Welsh.  From Borehamwood to Hollywood’s premiere was held in October 2014. 

Almost 500 people attended the first 2 screenings, commenting that:

• “I thought the film was great – informative, humorous and with some lovely ‘inside stories’”
• “It was a great evening. You certainly had a lot of support. The film was very well put together” – Pat Strack, Mayor of Elstree and Borehamwood
•  “Thank you for inviting me to the showing of this quite remarkable and historic film. 90 minutes never went by so quickly!”  – Carey Keates, Mayor of Hertsmere Borough Council
• “What a superb documentary! Your interviews and editing were truly excellent – it’s a great homage to a legendary British film studio. Elstree’s roller coaster history was beautifully and captivatingly conveyed.  I do hope there will be a DVD version available.”
• “Great anecdotes from famous faces and fascinating chapters from the past 100 years”

We arranged further screenings in 2014 and 2015, with local screenings at Borehamwood’s Community Centre (96 Shenley Road) being free of charge.  The film has also been screened at The Cinema Museum in London and at other cinemas.

Over 1,000 people have now attended screenings of our centenary film and we have also received over 1,500 hits at our on-line version.