Introducing the Deptford Cinema Podcast

What does a community cinema do when forced to temporarily close its premises?

In recent months, Deptford Cinema, like other community spaces throughout the country, has had to contend with Covid-19 and the effects of pervasive lockdown and social distancing measures. The challenge: How to remain active as a volunteer-based community while having to suspend our screenings and events at the cinema. At the end of March it was unanimously decided that we would migrate online and continue our activities as best as possible.

Coordination and Reorganisation
First and foremost, this involved reorganising our regular 11am Sunday meeting to take place through the teleconferencing platform Zoom. This remains our main point of contact between all volunteers and our weekly opportunity to organise projects and discuss how the pandemic is impacting the cinema. At the same time, we began to put in motion three initiatives that we hoped would help the cinema continue operating while under lockdown.

Online Content
The first to materialise was our streaming platform, DC on Demand, a weekly selection of films from around the world curated by volunteers. Our Journal was the next to emerge, a weekly blog to give volunteers the opportunity to present thoughts and ideas on Deptford Cinema and wider film culture.

Deptford Cinema Podcast
The third of our online triptych of projects is launched this week with the first episode of our podcast series. While the idea for a cinema podcast had been around long before the pandemic, it wasn’t until a nationwide lockdown came into effect that we really felt motivated to get this going. And so, after many weeks of planning, recording and editing material, we are pleased to announce the commencement of the Deptford Cinema Podcast.

In this first episode we introduce listeners to the community cinema, talking about what we do as volunteers and the kinds of events we help organise. We also discuss the current pandemic and its affect on not only the cinema's ability to screen films but also on the well-being of its volunteer body.

Why a Podcast?
In tandem with the podcast launch, I asked a few of our podcast volunteers to speak about the project, the creative process, why it was something worth doing and their hopes for it now and in the future:

I am hoping that the DC podcast will create a little social connectivity and discussion that is such a big part of what makes Deptford Cinema wonderful. My own motivation to delve into podcasting comes from missing the interactions at Deptford Cinema Film and Book Club, which took place every month. It always involved a post-screen discussion and sometimes an informal chat with a director or writer. The podcast seems to offer a way to reinvent some of these sociable aspects. For example, it was really great to make contact with author Anita Strasser when lockdown was at its height and record an interview with her via Zoom, which will be part of a future podcast. I believe this series of new podcasts will be another avenue of creativity and community that our cinema loves to foster. And it’s so great to hear people’s voices; it’s some kind of small comfort during these strange times. [Caroline]

The DC podcast is a beautiful example of adjusting to change in a positive and proactive way. By developing different ideas together as a collective it gives us all a sense of togetherness while also doing something that is fun, exciting and in the moment - without overthinking every single step. Celebrating creative energy as a group is positive, and even more so when we do something where the community benefits from it as well. By keep doing things it’ll mean that DC is still very present. When things hopefully get back to normal, we’re in a good place to revitalise the actual physical venue. [Vinnie]

I have only started programming when the lockdown arrived, so for me the podcast is a great way of staying creative. The medium allows me to combine different stories that I want to tell in a faster work process (e.g. compared to shooting a film) – I love that. [Nora]

I got involved in this project as I like listening to film related podcasts and have been looking for an opportunity to get involved in producing them for a while. Like all the activities around the cinema, the volunteers are always keen to collaborate, so the advantage is all the work can be shared around, and ideas work better when developed with others. One of the most appealing things about the cinema is not just screening films, but engaging with audience members in the bar area, sharing our love for film through discussion (and over a drink) with like-minded people, and I always find that encourages us to do more programming. Whilst in lockdown I think the podcast keeps that interaction going in a way, and going forward, I think we will be able to reach new audiences and contributors, boosting the cinema’s profile so we can do more. [Neal]

Online / Offline
Although lockdown and social distancing measures in the UK have relaxed somewhat since the initial conception of the podcast, here at Deptford Cinema we anticipate that the series will act as a useful online point of contact between the cinema’s volunteer body and our wider community of supporters, film fans and patrons. Social distancing is very much still in place and the very real threat of a second wave of infections remains, so coordination of our podcast work continues to happen online while the cinema space is temporarily off-limits. In fact, bound up in the actual production of the various podcast episodes, impacting even their particular feel and aesthetic, has been finding effective ways to work together remotely. Nothing can really replace the sense of shared community, the social interactions and serendipitous encounters that we as volunteers enjoy experiencing at the cinema; the reason why perhaps we chose to volunteer in the first place and the reason, I hope, why people come to the cinema. But in an age of pandemics and limited interactions, the online technology we currently have available to us helps provide useful ways for creating alternative modes of communication and cultural expression.

We hope you enjoy listening to us.

Make a podcast, get involved at Deptford Cinema.
Email: info@deptfordcinema.org