I’d like to describe to you two different cinema experiences I’ve had recently. My hope is that it sheds some light on unappreciated community and, if I’m lucky, accidentally says something profound in the process.
My hopes aren’t high for the latter.
In August, I saw the already infamous Fantastic Four (the poster said Fant4stic?) at a nearby multiplex. Everything was clean and smelt of popcorn, the theatre was vast and the screen was the size of a double decker bus.
As an experience, going to the multiplex is one of my favourite ways to hang out. Call me antisocial, call me lazy, I’d much rather see a film with friends than go shopping or go swimming (god forbid, exercise!).
More recently I somehow ended up at a community cinema screening, after wandering across a job advert for the sector (full disclosure everyone – I’m applying for it). The film was called Dummy Jim and was shown in an upstairs function room of a side alley cafe. This was do-it-yourself cinema.
Community cinema is nothing new, but as a film nerd it is something of a revelation to me. Organised by community groups, their idea is to bring films into communities, rather than leave them in the multiplex. As that guy who is constantly trying to talk endlessly about film I recognise my friends’ glazed expressions that means I’ve gone on too long. In community cinema though, anyone could be that guy.
I’d barely been sat in my chair (which I’ll come to in a second) for two minutes before the lady next to me struck up a conversation about the film and the event. It was a film about a deaf Scotsman who cycled to the Arctic Circle, and the cinema club did screenings about once a month at different venues around the city.
There was an unmistakable mend-and-make-do vibe to the whole affair. No two chairs were alike (I naturally picked the least comfortable in the room) and the film was beamed to us on an overhead projector, though it took a few attempts to get the sound to actually work.
The film was attended by an eclectic bunch of various ages. If I was expecting a room full of hipsters I was thankfully mistaken. By the time the credits rolled my back was killing me, but I was pretty sure it had been worth coming.
If all that I’ve described sounds like hell to you, that’s fine. I don’t think multiplexes should be abolished or that the next Avengers movie ought to be replaced by a black and white silent movie about trombones. The summer blockbuster, with its CGI and Hollywood mega-stars, has its place. Anyone who’s read anything I’ve ever written on Cultured Vultures will know I’m a fan.
Like I said earlier, I may have a conflict of interest here, but I find it hard to believe a film like Dummy Jim would ever be shown at a mainstream movie theatre. The director, who was at the event for a post-film Q&A, even hinted as much. Which is a shame because the film, though obviously constrained by its budget, does a lot of interesting things with sounds and is held together by a consistent and engaging tone.
Despite my obvious bias what I’ve seen of community cinema makes me think there are smaller films that need it to exist. These days what most of us think of as small films are made by movie studios, who then leverage the director into making big budget action fare (See Josh Trank jumping from Chronicle to Fantastic Four, or Gareth Edwards following Monster with Godzilla). Small films have become a stepping stone, which is a shame.
Not that community cinema is always about small films, or even new films. Last year a film club in my city screened Home Alone as their big Christmas movie. Still, if Dummy Jim is anything to go by, it feels like some indie films (real indie films, where the director maxes out their credit card or the shoot can’t afford catering) might sink or swim on whether community cinemas give them a platform.
Nothing will stop me from seeing the new Star Wars when it comes to commercial cinemas of course. I can’t help it. At this point, Disney could reveal that Michael Bay was secretly its director all along and I’d probably still be tempted. Even so, I wonder what it would be like to watch Star Wars in a community centre surrounded by a local community? Can someone make that happen?
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