Bingo Girls of the UK

Where there is Bingo, There is Love

When one thinks of bingo, he paints a picture of a social gathering on his mind. Somehow, all of us know that bingo is not just another game. It's a culture, and from the film "Town Hall", we will learn that it is a very healthy culture.

Town Hall is a documentary made by some Colby College students. It exposes the beauty of bingo in Waterville. It shows how this simple game has shaped and improved the lives of many.

Bingo has indeed improved the lives of many people in Waterville, but not only in financial terms. Sure, to win the bingo jackpot is great, but something more important happens each night people gather to play bingo. This is what you will see in this documentary film.

Because this is documentary, there are no scripts. Everything you see is in its natural form. No fictional characters, no fake stories. Everything is real, and that is the significance of this film. You will get to see bingo in its truest form.

A lot of bingo players interviewed in that film attest to the beautiful things bingo has brought into their lives. The most important being the sense of belongingness. Some of the interviewees claim that before their bingo life, they were nobody. Sure, they have work, they have their family, but they do not have a true community. They felt like they didn't belong to anything.

Testimonies from different bingo players show that bingo has given them a bigger family. A lot of these players are retired individuals, who felt like they were already forgotten by the society. They thank bingo for giving them that sense of belongingness they yearned for.

Because players in a bingo community are close to each other, they become aware of each other's existence, of each other's life. A member knows details about another member's life, which resembles the picture of having a family. In effect, the bingo community, to them, is a just a bigger family.

Bingo players, because of this bingo community feel once again that they are important. When they do not show up in one session, other players begin to worry for them. They are always wanted, they are missed, therefore they are loved. This is the most important reason why these people keep coming back to bingo halls. This reason proves to be far more important than any bingo jackpot that anyone can win. After all, how does one buy a family?