Lockdown 32/47 – Movie Magic
Day 32 of my diary of a LOTR Fan Museum owner during our national lockdown (extended from 28 to 47 days: 33 at level 4, 14 at L3) – in NZ we’re uniting as a country to beat Covid-19 to break the chain and save lives, but …
I’m constantly juggling my new job, STAY HOME, be kind, with grieving/scheming etc what to do about the loss of my old job of running The One Room Fan Museum. This makes me crazy sometimes.
The focus of the new job is a mix of diversion and anxiety about the future vs poring over what’s happening with Covid-19 – the horrific death toll; dire economic impacts; different approaches to lockdown; astonishing international events.
The focus of the old job is racking my brains for what if anything can I do to keep the Museum going until there’s any prospect of tourism resuming in maybe 18 months (optimistically).
I’s like Sam says, I keep going because I am holding on to something.
Yesterday, I received the most amazing email from a Polish association of Tolkien fans about the Museum’s documentary film.
The film is a 30 minute story of my fellowship’s Once in a Lifetime adventure when the LOTR movies premiered in Wellington NZ in 2001-2003. It’s professionally made entirely within our fellowship group as we’re lucky enough to have all this talent within our circle. Over the last couple of years we’ve shown the film in the Museum but also shared it with just a few beyond this. We shared it last year with a Polish Tolkien fan group who also generously subtitled it in Polish (thanks Halina!). This year, we received a second request from the elder of another Polish Tolkien fan group who wanted to surprise his group with a showing. The group recently saw the film in a closed screening, with each of them in their own home separated by lockdown.
Yesterday the group emailed me about their experience saying …
"It was a unique experience for our group which strongly affected us and brought back this wonderful spirit that we all feel from the Professor’s stories. Even some tears were shed seeing your joy of being fans of both the books and the movies …
"[T]ime suddenly stopped and many of us remembered what it was like in our cases. What were our first memories of crossing the gates to Middle Earth many years ago. For some of us it was like going back thirty years and remembering the beginnings of Polish film clubs and fandom. Your experiences reminded us of what it’s really all about. What it was always about. It was about the joy of being a fan and about the possibility of sharing our passions with others."
Yes Sam, sharing our fan experience via the Museum is worth fighting for!! Thank you so much Drużyna Pyrlandii for bringing this home to me during this hard time.
I wish all of you experiencing the real harshness of the current virus and lockdowns to have some times when the sun shines through and you see the good in this world, even if it’s small stuff. The ability to communicate with each other and share emotion is so important right now. Best wishes, Kathy xx
