No, just a mix up at The Barrels

10:01am Thursday 22nd May 2008

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LIGHTS, camera, inaction – the attempt to show a “notorious” film at a popular Hereford pub became a story in itself, several stories in fact.

The Barrels in St Owen Street, has been at the centre of conspiracy yarns that don’t quite knit together.

But licensee Peter Amor is amused to find himself cast as a counter-culture stalwart standing up to sinister state forces when the reality, he says, is probably not much more than a mix up.

Peter planned to show an obscure, underground documentary called On the Verge that has been a feature of the alternative cinema circuit across the country this year. The 90-minute unclassified movie shows how a small but committed group of activists based in Brighton took on an international arms manufacturer and, in the process, their local police.

On the Verge has earned a kind of notoriety over allegations that police and local authorities have stepped in to stop it being shown wherever it has gone.

Though the screening was advertised on flyers around Hereford, Peter never got to show On the Verge at the Barrels because Herefordshire Council said he risked prison if he did. At a meeting of the council last Friday, one member asked why.

Councillor Gerald Dawe wanted answers about the council’s stance on “censoring” political films and the tough line it seemingly took against Peter.

Coun Dawe was told that the film was stopped because The Barrels was not licensed to show it, with Peter warned that prosecution, and the possibility of prison, were among the penalties.

Councillor June French, cabinet member for corporate and customer services, said that it was not council policy to censor political films.

“The Barrels was not licensed for showing films. The penalties for breaching that licence were detailed as is normal in these circumstances, following principles laid out by the Home Office,” said Coun French.

And that, said Peter, is pretty much how it was. For all the conspiracy theories that have sprung up since, Peter thinks the details of any licence the pub had to show films were blurred when the bulk of licensing responsibilities passed from the police to the council.

“We had a visit from the police licensing officer who had no problem with the film being shown,” he said.

On the Verge is believed to have had a public screening “somewhere else” in Hereford since. Peter had a private viewing – on DVD in his bedroom.

“Why there’s so much fuss about it I don’t know. If we could have shown it, we would have shown it,” he said.