To mark the end of the 2012/2013 Heritage Lottery Funded project Movies & Memories, Screen Archive South East hosted a project finale to celebrate the work that has been achieved and to thank all the participants that have taken part over the past 12 months.

The finale was held in the Worthing Dome on Thursday 27th June 2013. Guests were invited from the four towns Shoreham-by-Sea, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and some guests travelled from even further afield across the region Southampton, Eastbourne, Worcestershire and Croydon.

Over 90 guests attended representing all of the ways in which people were able to get involved; volunteers, day centre customers and staff,  people who had participated in reminiscence sessions, individual interviewees, representatives from local history societies, project staff and representatives from the project’s partners West Sussex Record Office and Worthing Library.

The evening was hosted by Dr Frank Gray and Elaine Sheppard, Sara Duffy and Gillian Edom plus special guest Alistair Fairley from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Compilations of archive films with oral histories that were gathered during the project were played to the audience.

Here are some responses from those attending the event:

“Stimulating, exciting, worthwhile. Pleasing that ones own unique life expereince has been preserved in a small part”

“The project was very important because it drew attention to the significant, the ordinary and the everday. I hope that the enthusiasm will lead to other smaller projects organised by groups or volunteers.”

“The whole thing was marvelous thank you”