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14
September 2013
ASPS Film Screenings and Reunion
Saturday 21 September: 10.30 am - 5.30 pm, Arts Centre, Abingdon School
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of
Abingdon’s first film,
Ut Proficias
, 1953,
made by ASPS (Abingdon School
Photographic Society), and directed by
Michael Grigsby, OA 1955, the School is
hosting a reunion with lunch and screenings
for all those who made, appeared in,
contributed to, or merely remember with
interest the films produced at Abingdon in
the years between 1953-2003 (when the
present Abingdon Film Unit began). We will
be showing all the recently digitized 16mm
films held in the School archive and are keen
to meet those associated with the making
of these films so that we can find out more
about them. And, if anyone can shed light
on the whereabouts of Thanks a Million! or
any other ASPS film we have not mentioned,
we would be delighted to hear from you!
If you would like to come and haven’t yet
been invited then please make contact as
soon as possible with Jeremy Taylor, Master
in Charge of the Abingdon Film Unit.
n
ou of the past
The expedition members
at Mastuj
A History of Abingdon
School in 63 Objects
This online history has now entered
its final phase, which will bring it up to
the present day by the end of term via
two world wars, seven Heads and the
expansion of the School from fewer
than 120 boys in 1914 to 950 at the
beginning of this academic year –
objects are uploaded every Tuesday
and Thursday to the website.
n
Across the Roof of the World
Hugh Leach, OA 1953 has recently donated to the School his record of the 1994
Abingdon School expedition he led from Naltar to Mastuj in North West Pakistan. The
diary and slides document the exceptional challenges the group of ten boys, one OA and
one master faced in their trek across this remote region, a trek which involved traversing
mountain passes along paths sometimes no more than a foot wide with raging torrents
several hundred feet below, fording waist-high, ice-cold mountain streams and ascending
sheer ice faces.
Although thoroughly exhausted, the group appreciated the specular scenery of the
Himalayan, Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges, the hospitality of the local people, their
contentment in simplicity, and the lesson that an expedition is not about the survival of
the fittest but about the strong helping the weak knowing that the roles could be reversed
the next day.
n
Michael Grigsby
Memorial Service
3 pm Wednesday 9 October at St Martin-
in-the-Fields, London WC2N 4JJ. Michael’s
family extends a welcome to everyone,
particularly members of the ASPS, Unit 4
and the Abingdon Film Unit.
n
Watching the
filmmakers
The filmmakers
Digitised Films in the School Archive
Ut Proficias (1953)
Achilles and the Gryphon (1954)
Seed Germination (?)
No Tumbled House (1955)
BBC film of Roger Bannister running the first
sub-4-minute mile (1954)
Abingdon athletes running from Westminster
to Abingdon in 1963 (meeting Airey
Neave and James Cobban)
Into the Dark (late 50s)
Yours is the Earth (late 50s)
Three’s a Crowd (late 50s)
The Building of Little School (mid-late 50s)
The Conversion of the Old School Room into
the new Library (early 60s)
The Visit of Princess Margaret in 1963
Letters to America (1963)
School Trip to Sicily (1963)
Chameleon (1967/68)
Undated material from the 70s/80s and
perhaps even the 90s.
