At once a taut, deeply engrossing political thriller and one of the most fascinating films ever made about the inner workings of the press, Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men plays as part of our Wayback Wednesday series, celebrating the cinema of 1976.

Academy-Award winners Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star in this true story as Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. When they cover a seemingly routine story of a break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate office building, their reportage and subse­quent revelations move Congress to force the President of the United States to resign.

Step into the burgeoning British youth culture of the 1950s and 60s with this selection of excerpts from the BFI National Archive’s Associated-Rediffusion collection.

Launched in 1955 as part of the fledgling ITV. Associated-Rediffusion was one of the very first independent television companies that, among other achievements, shook up the world of documentary TV.

In this vibrant compilation, discover the rise of the teenager, the teddy boy and the coffee bar; the importance of pop music to the post-war generation; and the newfound freedoms that have come to define these landmark years in British cultural history.

Included titles:

Fan Fever (1956) - A spirited look at the rise of fandom amongst teenage girls, capturing the rising tide of pop obsession in dance halls and clubs.

This Week: Teddy Boys (1956) – A probing snapshot of the Teddy Boy subculture, spotlighting its bold style and the concerns it stirred nationwide.

Celebrity: Cliff Richard (1959) – An early portrait of Cliff Richard as he rises from Britain’s music scene to become a defining pop idol.

This Week: Leamington Spa Teddy Boys (1958) – A revealing dispatch from Leamington Spa, showing how Teddy Boy culture took root beyond the major cities. 5. Living for Kicks (1960) – 11 mins A vivid study of youth culture in Brighton as teenagers chase excitement and define their identities in a fast-changing consumer culture.

The Beat City (1963) – A fast-paced portrait of Liverpool which captures the energy of youth music culture as it surges through the city’s clubs and dance halls.

Franta and Ondra are inseparable twins, living away from civilization in the deep bosom of nature. Their daily routine, permeated with peace and harmony with the surrounding world, begins to crack under the pressure of internal contradictions. Franta longs for freedom, change and adventure, while Ondra clings to the safety of immutability.

However, their dual existence breaks like a mirror, the same appearance, different desires. In the silent embrace of nature, a fragile drama of separation, reconciliation and perhaps even reunion takes place.

A magical story about what remains when what held us together begins to disappear.

£5 for Friend of the Forum members!

In an era of great change and great beauty emerged the character of James McNeill Whistler. Considered by some to be one of the great innovators of 19th century art, he was a contemporary of the impressionists, much admired by Van Gogh and Manet. Boldly experimental and famously witty, Whistler disrupted the strict conventions of Victorian society in pursuit of a new cult of beauty, creating “art for arts sake” and earning himself a place in the history of great art.

Tate Britain is now holding the first major retrospective of Whistler in three decades. This blockbuster exhibition promises to reawaken the world to just how important Whistler is to art history, uniting world-famous masterpieces with rarely seen works.

Award-winner Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) plays the title role in this razor-sharp reimagining of Moliere’s classic dark comedy.

Telling the truth isn’t always that simple. Alice, a brilliant novelist, despises the carefully constructed lies of modern society. But the more she challenges those around her, the fiercer the backlash becomes. Soon, she must confront the price of speaking her truth in a world that would rather silence her.

Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Indhu Rubasingham directs Martin Crimp’s (Cyrana de Bergerac) highly anticipated play.

In the 72 hours leading up to D-Day, all the pieces are in place except for one key element – the British weather. Britain’s chief meteorological officer James Stagg (Andrew Scott) is called upon to deliver the most consequential forecast in history, locking him into a tense standoff with the entire Allied leadership. The wrong conditions could devastate the largest ever seaborne invasion, while any delay risks German intelligence catching on.

With only his trusted aide Captain Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) to confide in, and haunted by a catastrophic D-Day rehearsal, the final decision rests with Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser). With only hours to go, the fate of the war and the lives of millions hang in the balance.

A record of one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration, now considered the world’s first documentary feature, screening as part of Hexham Abbey Festival of Music & Arts.

In 1914, the Endurance sailed from Buenos Aires taking British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his 28-man crew to land on then cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Disaster struck and Endurance, trapped in pack ice, drifted northward throughout a long, dark Antarctic winter, the ship slowly being crushed by the ice. Onboard, pioneering photographer/film maker, Frank Hurley, captured sensational footage of the Antarctic, the ship and crew (who all survived) giving cinema audiences the first moving images of the staggering beauty of this remote and alien continent. This was as astounding then as seeing images of distant planets is to us today. The film, painstakingly restored to wonderful quality by The BFI National Archive, was a sensation and continues to be an astonishing feat of film-making telling of an astonishing feat of endurance.

With live music from Jonny Best, one of the UK's leading improvising silent film pianists and the founding artistic director of Northern Silents, this is an unmissable and memorable movie matinee experience.

See more at https://hexhamabbeyfestival.org.uk/