deptford cinema

During my work with the Star and Shadow Cinema and as part of the Kino Climates network, it had often been commented that there was no cinema in London which operated along the framework we had been collectively developing, despite London’s status as a European cultural hub. I moved to London with (amongst other things) the express aim of starting a cinema that would provide this and be a contribution to the capital’s film ecology.

In late 2013 I assembled a small group of people who were interested in setting up a cinema along the lines described. We identified a building in Deptford which had been derelict for fifteen years or so - the location was important because Deptford is in Lewisham, which at the time was one of only two London boroughs with no dedicated cinema of any kind. I designed a model which would allow us to take a long-term commercial lease over the building, renovate it for our purposes and then to operate as a non-heirarchical volunteer-run arts organisation. We carried the first stages plan out as a small group, but the aim was to grow the organisation into a large group of volunteers from the local borough and across the city who would build and operate the cinema together.

On 12th July 2014 we held our first public meeting, where the project was outlined to a group of 50 or so volunteers who were in attendance. From that date onwards we held weekly public meetings, initially using a consensus methodology I had based upon work at the Star and Shadow and other projects, and slowly adapting this model to the needs of the group and our activities.

Over the following year the building was renovated including a 40-seat screening room, bar/social space and ancilliary facilities. Almost every aspect of this was undertaken by a growing group of volunteers, numbering nearly 1000 people who had been involved in some capacity or another by the time the first stage of construction was complete. I brought in friend and architect David Dobereiner who worked with the group on the initial plans, which were then adapted by the group into a practical model which could pass building control and be carried out by the group.

Parallel to this building work we set up a programming group, where we developed methods for programming a venue together based upon co-operative, non-heirarchical principles. The first screenings took place on the ground floor of the venue whilst it was a building site, and were used primarily as a way to get people involved in the organisation. Once the screening room was complete it became much easier to constantly programme, and the cinema moved from being an organisation in set-up to a functioning (though very DIY) cinema with constantly improving facilities.

We also developed ways to run the organisation together. The weekly meetings were, and still are, the heart of this - open public events where every key decision about the operation of the cinema is made, and where every attendee has an equal say over the cinema’s operation.

Over the next few years the organisation continued to develop: programming increased from a very early average of one screening a week to a full programme with films and events every night of the week. We fostered partnerships with organisations across the city and far beyond, and won numerous awards for our programming and organisation. We successfully raised money through numerous rounds of crowdfunding and public grants to improve the building’s facilities, the quality of film projection, our community work and more.

The cinema is now a much-loved part of London’s film ecology, celebrated locally and across the city, and known for its work much further afield.