Flix dates back to at least 1956 and is not only one of the oldest societies on the campus, indeed it is older than the Student Union building itself and the university. However very little is known about what has happened to Flix more than a few years ago. Unfortunately there is no documentation in the university archive and our own archive contains very little information. What is known has been provided in the next few paragraphs. If you have any more information or interesting stories about the society, it would be great to hear from you.
Flix is a relatively new name for the society, which took over from the previous title of LSU Film Society or FilmSoc on the 29th September 1989. Now the full title is Loughborough Students Cinema – Flix.
The society has had a number of homes in its history, including the EHB and T001, these are two lecture theatres on the campus. It moved to the Students’ Union building when it opened 21 years ago and this has been its home ever since. (So I believe). However the society has shown films in the college across the road from the campus, which happened in 1989.
While these days film nights are on Sunday and Tuesday, before 1987 there were films shown on Saturday nights. In 1978/1979 film showing nights were on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Tuesday evenings, in 1979/1980 the nights changed to Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. [I’m quite sure where the conflict in dates comes from].
1987 also saw a NO SMOKING policy introduced into the auditorium during film showings, a policy which now also requires people to turn their mobile phones off.
An interesting request was presented to Flix in November in 1988. A gentleman wrote wanting to know whether Flix was able to get hold of a poster for the ‘Empire of the Sun’ film, to give to his wife to be as a wedding gift.
October 1999 saw a long tradition in Flix was broken when we finally got committee T-shirts, these have been planned since at least 1985, if not before. Looking through old minutes of committee meetings, they seemed to be a matter which was raised every year, but never got any further.
Last year saw a small film festival organised in association with Flix. Plans are in progress for another festival next year.
A society as old as Flix has had a number of bad times, when it has had conflict from all sorts of people. At times this has been so bad that the society has been in danger of closing. But there is something about Flix and the dedication of various members of committee which have made sure that it has kept going. Folklore has it that at one stage there was a committee of only five, practically all of which were graduates of the university. However, currently Flix is on a high. The committee is more dedicated than ever before, membership is up on previous years and things are going well.
Written by Peter Knight