The Courtyard

**The Courtyard** is located on the border of the Thicket and Countinghouse in Blough City.

It is an outdoor park area with a light brown stucco Spanish-colonial style two-story church in the middle which has been converted in a civil centre (with the rectory serving as a guest office for whoever is renting the Courtyard).

The outdoor park area has palm trees and a big beautiful fountain in the middle, next to the church.

## Notable Events Held at The Courtyard

### Citywide Film Festival

The Citywide Film Festival was organized by Gale Green. It was attended by the emerging artist class of Blough City, and protested because the films shown have not been approved by The Cultural Trust.

The invitations (a single page invite with lime green design elements and black text on heavy, cream-coloured stock) were also not approved by The Cultural Trust, and it is likely that Gale had these printed elsewhere.

Logistically, they had set up a big screen with a clamshell-style stage over projector screen, and a temporary balcony area set up on the church for projector.

#### Films Shown at the Film Festival

##### Away (5:30pm)

Two men, two women, to a lakeside go, and find themselves a hostel by the shore, its windows wide. A jetty stretching out, and curling down, the seeds of sycamores alight upon the water without sound. For in their homes the water runs too warm and then at night, too cold, from faucets white. The duvets scratch. The kitchen radio can find no signal south of fifty five and north of fifty nine. The food tastes fine, if dry, perhaps, or undercooked, or bland. Each day the mail brings newer bills to pay. The bough cannot, of course, resist the break. The couples find themselves beside the lake.

##### The Still (8:30pm)

When winter came, my friend brought me a list of parts to buy, from hardware stores he knew. I had a truck. He had a little cash. He worked in Countinghouse, and passing through, I’d park the truck and pick up this or that. A heavy pot, a stand, some copper pipes. He stayed the night. I woke before the dawn, and poached an egg. I brought it back to bed. “I didn’t know you cooked,” he said, and then he pointed past my shoulder through the glass. The sun was rising, up above the hill. That evening in the woods, we built the still.

##### Producing The Boardwalk, A Q&A Session (9pm)

“Perhaps it’s time to take a break,” she said, and passing through the double doors I saw the light outside had changed - had come to dusk. The streetlights flickered all along the shore and men and women gathered up in coats and scarves were walking down beside the sea.  “It’s not for me,” I said, and shook my head. “Let’s get to work. I’ve never liked the beach.” She laughed and stepped outside. “It’s different here. The air is clear. The boardwalk has an end.” Behind us, in the dark, designers moved to fix the set, prepare another take. “Why did you leave?” I said. She took my hand, and pulled me through the lot toward the sand.

##### Aerial Footage of The Thicket, Preparation (9:30pm)

This film cannot be shown. We wish it could. Perhaps some years from now, and far away, a group that’s much like us will quieten down. The lights will dim, the picture start to play. We built an apparatus out of steel to hold a camera, fixed, beneath a drone. We set the lens, adjusted for the height. It leapt to flight, and northward, ventured out above the thicket. Kept a steady line. It faltered not, and for a time we saw a grainy picture, on our little screen, of miles of houses, miles of scrub, of brush. The signal stuttered, soon we could not see. It travels onward. Blind telemetry.

##### The Tunnel

The Tunnel is also know as The Blossum Tape.