Friday 18th/ 8pm/ £4/£3
Grey Gardens
Albert and David Maysles/ 1976/ USA/ 94mins

The set is a disintegrating Long Island mansion. The characters are eccentric mother and daughter Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale, the Marble Fawn, two brothers with a movie camera and a horde of cats. The costumes are revolutionary. Tonight we celebrate two staunch women whose lifestyle defied convention and who seemed to be united against the world. Derided on its release as voyeurism and exploitation, The Maysles brothers' fascinating portrait changed documentary film making forever. Like it or not, reality TV started in Grey Gardens. Fancy dress encouraged.

'The sagging flesh, the ludicrous poses, the prized and private recollections strewn about among the tins of cat food - everything is grist for that merciless camera' Walter Goodman, NY Times film critic, 1976
'All this talk about the film exploiting us. We didn't exploit David and Albert and they didn't exploit us. Two highly talented people met up with two highly talented ladies and collaborated on a new kind of motion picture.' Edie Beale, letter in response to Walter Goodman, 1976