December was a momentous month for the cinema. We finally moved out of our beloved venue on Deptford Broadway. It was a space that we built from scratch, with many days of DIY toil to make it the cosy and intimate place we all loved. Both audiences and volunteers spent many happy hours within its walls watching a diverse collection of hand-picked films. We will all miss our cinema so much.

But our story does not end here. We are now seeking a new cinema venue in Deptford. In the meantime, we will be programming pop-up films in the community, plus presenting a plethora of fascinating film-related content to watch, read and listen to here on our website.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us in the past five years, through the good times and more recent hard times. We promise to keep you posted as to all the exciting new developments.

So, as the lights dim, we will be remembering some really wonderful times through a series of Journal posts by our volunteers, with some contributions from past audiences. And readers, maybe you too have some good memories of the cinema - a movie date, an awe-inspiring film or a great post-film discussion. Please send a few sentences, marked ‘DC Memories’ to info@deptfordcinema.org - and your reminiscences will be published here. We would love to hear from you.

Art House Cinema

Sadly, the moment has come for us to leave our venue on Deptford Broadway. I will miss my beloved little community cinema so much. I spent a very exciting, wondrous three years, attending Sunday meetings, DIY building sessions and screenings. I met friendly, generous, supportive, creative people and I have learnt a lot.

Deptford Cinema gave me a freedom. One of the aims of cinema is to be non-hierarchical. As a creator you can do whatever you want. The most surprising ideas are welcome. For me, film programming was the most important thing. I wanted to show films made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit. When I joined the cinema as a volunteer I aimed to screen the best films by my favourite art house directors.

I started my journey with films of the great Polish filmmaker, Żuławski. During the retrospective, Passion and Possession, I was lucky to screen five of Żuławski’s most critically acclaimed films. His last film Cosmos (2015) was introduced by honoured guest, Dr Michael N. Goddard, an expert on the writings of the Polish modernist writer, Witold Gombrowicz, on whose work the film was based. Żuławski, who passed away in 2016, was not a very well-known director in the UK. His cult horror drama, Possession (1981) was banned as a ‘video nasty’ in the ‘80s. I was very pleased to present some of his masterpieces for the first time at Deptford Cinema.

My second programme featured the independent American film director Harmony Korine. One summer weekend in 2018 we showed three of Korine’s films: Mister Lonely, Spring Breakers and his unique, uncompromising debut, Gummo (1997). These screenings were supported by an exhibition of artworks by illustrator and printmaker, Chloe Smith. Twenty-six images from Smith’s screen-printed concertina book - A-Z of Harmony Korine https://www.chloesmithillustration.com/a-z-harmony-korine were displayed in The Corridor Gallery at the cinema. What a pleasure!

Inner Light: The Films of Carlos Reygadas was my third choice of programme, dedicated to an outstanding Mexican filmmaker, whose profound, poetic, intimate cinematic world I have always admired. We were very delighted when Reygadas accepted our invitation to be an honoured director-patron of Deptford Cinema.

Now we are looking for a new venue. I hope we will open soon. On my list for future screenings are Vincent Gallo, Alan Clarke, Werner Herzog, Wong-Kar Wai and talented documentary filmmaker, Roberto Minervini. I can’t wait to put the films of these brilliant auteurs before a new audience.

Deptford Cinema Forever!

Sandra

Fry Ups and Zooms

Believe it or not, we have only been at, I don't know, maybe ten cinema events before lockdown. Therefore, we don't have that many memories, but they are good ones:

-DJ. Don Filipe at the Labyrinth event. And we finally managed to understand how the bar worked that night!

-Vinnie's Sci-Fi bass clarinet extravaganza....and finding out there is another bass clarinet guy at the cinema.

-The first person from the cinema we met was Pedro. And he became a fan of the Theatre Match, our improvised comedy game, always having the best laugh. Unfortunately, he often had to volunteer at the bar, so we lost our best audience member!

-After Sunday meetings, we would often pop to Jenny’s with other volunteers. The first time, realising we were in London, I said, "No butter on my toast, please" and they said, “No worries, if you are vegan, our butter is vegan." Vegan butter in a greasy spoon!

But the good memories didn’t end with the cinema closing. Even after everything migrated online, we had some great times:

-The first real live Zoom meeting. That felt very innovative and new and fun seeing everyone on there.

-The new creativity we found in lockdown: the new Podcast, Quiz (don’t forget the Halloween Quiz with live music, Bloody Nora and all the dressed-up contestants), DCOD, and Instagram events.

-The take-down was fun too, including destroying the floor downstairs and having Chinese afterwards and decorating the big shop window with past film posters with Caroline and Sandra.

-Our socially distanced Sunday meetings in various parks during the summer.

Nora and Vinnie

Fanny and Alexander

One of the fondest memories I have of the cinema was Christmas 2019, when I organised a screening of Ingmar Bergman's classic Fanny and Alexander (1982), the final film in my year-long Bergman season. I wanted to organise a Swedish "fika" - coffee and cake break - for the intermission. Only mine would be mulled wine instead of coffee, and cake bought from Waitrose instead of the muffins I had ambitiously hoped to make beforehand. It was cold outside and the cinema was almost full. As the film began a group of us volunteers assembled upstairs for our own helping of cake and wine. A big turnout tonight, we said to each-other, let's celebrate. We chatted and nibbled and sipped, our eyes drawn to the TV screen in the bar as Bergman's opulent Christmas party began. Magical memories of films and friends.

Rob

In Kharms Way

I arrived as a volunteer to help out at a multi-media night organised by Charlotte (another volunteer) without really knowing what it was going to be about. On arrival I noticed a couple of references to Russian avant-garde absurdist poet and writer, Daniil Kharms, in a flyer, which interested me as about 25 years previously I had seen a truly brilliant Theatre de Complicité production called 'Out of a House Walked a Man' based on his works. But I got busy with the bar so didn't read further. A very interesting and unusual crowd turned up and things soon got pretty hectic. One or two asked had 'Ted' arrived, but I didn't really put two and two together until the performance started, when I went downstairs and realised that 'Ted' was Ted Milton whose extraordinary band Blurt were legends in my far-off punk rock youth. What's more he was performing excerpts from his work 'In Kharms Way', that I had vaguely heard about some years before, but hadn't followed up. Which in the end didn't matter as Ted and his collaborators had brought the show to Deptford Cinema - a dizzying night of insane sax, art installations, skewed electronica and stunning cut-up video projections. An evening of brilliance (for me) conjured out of nowhere. It's not my only great memory of Deptford Cinema, but definitely one I will long remember.

Phil

We Will Find a Way

When the cinema started, about 5 years ago, I dropped in on an open day and was impressed by what the volunteers were doing. So I turned up for a work session and spent an enjoyable day helping to build the disabled ramp up from the entrance. I made a donation and it was mentioned that Deptford Cinema could name the toilets after me (oh, the fame!) I've been back a few times and have enjoyed the films, but never remembered to check out the toilets...

Hopefully, the cinema will find a way to survive and prosper

Pete D.

Crouching Tiger

I've lived around the corner from the now 'old location' on Deptford Broadway for five years and two memories stand out:

Taking my flatmate to see Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (his first time) and him being inspired to delve into Hunter S Thompson's back catalogue as a result.
Seeing one of my all-time favourite films - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - with a friend who is perhaps less used to suspending her disbelief and really couldn't understand what all the fuss is about. I'm not sure our relationship has ever recovered!

And generally, it has always been one of the local places that lifts my spirits whenever I walk past or come inside; great atmosphere, friendly people and positive vibes for the community. I walked past the other day and saw it empty and the posters taken down from the window and really felt the loss. I hope you find another local location soon! I can't wait to come and see it.

Nick

We wish all our friends, volunteers, audience and supporters many more magical movie nights in 2021.

DEPTFORD BROADWAY MEMORIES II