Manchester University Film Society 1987-94: or How to Sacrifice All Your Spare Time and Your Degree To a Student Society
This blog is a bit of a love letter to my long-departed youth, and something I've been meaning to do for a few years now. I moved to Manchester in 1987 to study for a BA (Hons) in American Studies. It was a great course, which included a year studying at Pennsylvania State University, and I thoroughly enjoyed it (possibly something to do with going as a slightly mature student instead of straight from school). The course, though, was not the most important thing in my life at that time. That was Manchester University Film Society, in its 42nd season when I arrived (I often think there must have been a certain Douglas Adams-based relevance to that fact) and it proved to be the single most important thing that could have happened to me. I joined the society (colloquially referred to as FilmSoc or MUFS) during Freshers week, pretty much on the basis that they were showing Dougal and the Blue Cat later in the year. I also went along to the Cheese and Wine evening, as the committee we...