Hold on to Your Hankies, Morris is Coming

After a phenomenally successful tour of town and village halls across southwest England at the beginning of the year, the word of mouth sensation that is MORRIS: A LIFE WITH BELLS ON finally comes to a cinema near you.

A heartwarming feature-length comedy about an avant-garde Morris Dancer, Derecq Twist, and his fight to modernise Morris Dancing. From England to America, from tragedy to love, MORRIS is a celebration of life, eccentricity and what it means to be English. But most important of all, it is just plain funny. You can’t help but smile at a bunch of grown men flailing about with hankies and sticks.

The film was spurned by the big distributors as ‘too niche’ despite its website generating 100,000+ visitors a week, and a cast that includes Derek Jacobi, Harriet Walter, Naomie Harris and Greg Wise. We think the big boys have missed a trick and that MORRIS has all the makings of a cult classic: a film made from the heart about a subject matter that resonates so strongly with a specific section of society. Except I have a feeling that this ‘section’ might be a lot bigger than you expect.

In its very short life to date, and with zero marketing and advertising spend, the film has registered on the radar of BBC News, The Chris Evans show, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, This Morning, CBS News, The Independent,  The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun (“What a Bell-ter”), The Sydney Morning Herald and The Brisbane Times to name but a few. There is the obligatory Facebook group with close to 4000 members and a petition to get the film distributed with over 8000 signatures.

Picturehouse Cinemas have struck a deal with the filmmakers to screen the film on Sunday 27 September, ‘St. Morris Day’, at several of our cinemas around the country. To pay tribute to the original fans and to celebrate the place where interest in the film began, the countryside, we decided to screen the film outside London first (apart from a London premiere), which is the opposite of the traditional pattern of releasing a film. Fear not Londoners, it will be coming to selected cinemas (hopefully) near you soon.

“The movie world’s best kept secret. A real hoot. I finished watching it… my cheeks aching!”
Alan Titchmarsh

Cinemas screening MORRIS on Sunday 27 September, ‘St. Morris Day’

• The Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen
• The Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
• Regal Picturehouse, Henley
• The Cameo, Edinburgh
• Cinema City, Norwich
• Exeter Picturehouse
• Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford
• Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Southampton
• Stratford-upon-Avon Picturehouse
• City Screen Picturehouse, York

Morris: A Life With Bells On Official Website