Love, Peace & Great Film: A Message From Our Founder
Dear Rooftoppers,
First and foremost, I hope you are okay and staying as healthy and well as can be. These unprecedented times represent a challenge to you, your family, friends and community like never before, and we must all look after each other in these moments of difficulty that are affecting everyone around the world.
I write this on the day that we were supposed to be opening our first venue for the season. We were looking forward to settling into doing our job of entertaining you and your loved ones, and above all, bringing you much joy and needed escapism through the medium of film. Unfortunately, we can’t do that at the moment with our Rooftops closed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t at least try to bring some warmth through our channels. I have been thinking of the best way to do this and our mantra (Love, Peace & Great Film) popped into my head as the perfect remedy. I offer the following to you, our beloved Rooftop friends:
LOVE
Love thy neighbour. Love thyself. There is no better time for this. The world is in greater need of love, compassion and kindness than ever before.
Perhaps FaceTime a friend and share the joy of your favourite movie that makes you feel love. Have a virtual cuppa or glass of wine together and nestle in from the comfort of your home. With love from Rooftop, here are some movies that immediately make us feel love (handpicked by our resident film programmer, Lesley) – all available for streaming on Amazon or iTunes:
1. Before Sunrise
2. Love & Basketball
3. The Notebook
4. What If
5. La La Land
Let’s put this virus in the corner for a bit! If you love to dance, now’s your time to learn the lift from Dirty Dancing, and don’t forget to post a video of course! Use the hashtag #crazyforswayze so we can see it. There might even be some free tickets heading your way for the perfect lift! Oh and please be careful. Being Jen and Pat in your lounge ain’t easy!
PEACE
Yes the world has gone mad, but try to not be too overwhelmed with the constant barrage of negativity and find peace, knowing it will hopefully come to end sooner rather than later. Nothing can break the human spirit.
Run a bath, light some candles, grab your laptop (no electrocutions please!) prop it up on the toilet (lid closed of course), and screen your favourite movie whilst sipping on and soaking in bubbles. Cheers to that!
If you need to get out of the house, find your favourite soundtrack and choose your favourite way to get peaceful in nature; hike or run, mountain or beach, and turn it up as loud as you can take (mindful of those ear drums though!). Close your eyes and let the music reach your soul! Singing or dancing like no one is watching also works a treat.
Equally, pull your favourite Jerry McGuire move – get out on the open road and sing your heart out to Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’!
GREAT FILM
One of the many reasons I love film is that it offers that escapism from the sometimes daily stresses of life. Now more than ever we need that release, and if we can’t do it for you from our Rooftops, then you’ll be damn sure we ain’t going to let that stop us.
Over the coming days and possibly weeks the Rooftop team will be sharing more content and fun ideas that will hopefully bring some joy to you and your loved ones. I hope you’re ready for the best films to test your dance moves, the best films to sing out loud to and much more. Watch this space…
In the meantime, we highly recommend you start a themed film club with your friends and discuss them together on FaceTime. Pick a genre, set a time and away you go. We’d sure love to see what you’re watching and hear your film critiques and favourite genres. Be sure to use the hashtag #lovepeacegreatfilm when you share! We’ll be using the hashtag as well to provide you all the great film content we can during this time.
And finally, if it’s social you want, then these clever people have created an outlet for social cinema whilst in isolation with a Google Chrome extension that lets people watch programmes simultaneously from different places. More info here. Film to the rescue!
Be sensible, enjoy what you can around you and take care of your body, your feelings and your heart…one day at a time.
Love, peace and great film – from the comfort of your home.
Gerry, Founder/CEO