In London’s sub­urbs, com­mu­ni­ty cin­e­ma is alive and well

The vol­un­teer-led not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion Talkies is prov­ing that com­mu­ni­ty cin­e­ma still has a stake in the ever-evolv­ing, increas­ing­ly cen­tralised film­go­ing expe­ri­ence. Bring­ing film to parts of Lon­don that are beyond the reach of expen­sive mul­ti­plex­es and inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma chains, Talkies reg­u­lar­ly pro­grammes events at venues across Palmers Green, Enfield and Winch­more Hill. ​“We are unashamed­ly sub­ur­ban,” says founder David Williamson. ​“We are def­i­nite­ly not Hack­ney, or Shored­itch, or the West End, or South­bank. Nor are we try­ing to be.”

A retired schools inspec­tor, David found­ed Talkies sev­en years ago after hav­ing run a small local film club with friends for around 10 years. ​“We went around each other’s hous­es, and when we came to yours, you chose the film and pro­vid­ed the food,” he explains. ​“I began to see the ben­e­fits of using film as a com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment mod­el. Talkies gives the game away in its name – we see it as a social occa­sion, inter­rupt­ed by a film.”

In 2005, UK Film, Film Lon­don and the BFI joined forces to pro­duce a report on the impact of local and inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma, exam­in­ing all sorts of fac­tors from the social, cul­tur­al and envi­ron­men­tal impact to mon­ey flow. The report found that this type of film­go­ing ​“enhanced local cul­tur­al life,” ​“fos­tered a sense of place,” and played ​“an impor­tant social inclu­sion role” – all of which are sen­ti­ments echoed by David.

“The point of com­ing to our events is that we are not a mul­ti­plex. You come and there’s peo­ple you’ve seen before, and you meet new peo­ple. We absolute­ly make time for, and encour­age, the social aspect.” Talkies mar­kets their screen­ings as social occa­sions, encour­ag­ing audi­ences to con­nect not only with the film but each oth­er. To help achieve this, they’ve rein­tro­duced a facet of the film­go­ing expe­ri­ence that has longer been out of fash­ion, the inter­mis­sion. ​“Purists would say that’s a ter­ri­ble thing,” David says. ​“But that’s what cin­e­mas used to do – chang­ing the reels and sell­ing ice cream.”

Films are cho­sen by vol­un­teers, of which Talkies has around 35, who cre­ate a longlist and then vote on what to show, strik­ing a bal­ance between British inde­pen­dent films and world cin­e­ma with the occa­sion­al Hol­ly­wood movie thrown in for good mea­sure. Screen­ings are entire­ly not-for-prof­it (“even vol­un­teers pay for their own tick­ets, noth­ing is free”) and all pro­ceeds go into Talkies’ annu­al short film com­mis­sion scheme, which gives emerg­ing cre­atives mon­ey to make films based on sub­ur­ban sto­ries. They’ve fund­ed 23 short films this way, pro­vid­ing men­tor­ship and vital resources to film­mak­ers, many of whom have gone on to screen their work at film fes­ti­vals around the world.

Along­side their reg­u­lar pro­gram­ming, Talkies also hosts site-spe­cif­ic or col­lab­o­ra­tive film events. They’ve screened Ken Loach’s The Spir­it of ​’45 at a Labour Par­ty event, the 1916 doc­u­men­tary The Bat­tle of the Somme with a live orches­tra on the anniver­sary of the bat­tle, Cabaret with a local cabaret club pianist and cabaret artist per­form­ing in the inter­mis­sion, and even a psy­che­del­ic night cen­tred around ear­ly Pink Floyd videos. This month they’re screen­ing the goth­ic silent clas­sic Nos­fer­atu in a local church with a live organ­ist play­ing an impro­vised score.

Rais­ing the cul­tur­al cap­i­tal of the so-called ​‘sleepy sub­urbs’, Talkies proves that com­mu­ni­ty cin­e­ma isn’t a staid, tea-sip­ping affair; it ele­vates the cin­e­mat­ic expe­ri­ence and brings com­mu­ni­ties togeth­er. ​“This mod­el works,” David says, ​“because we give love and get it in return.”