Deptford Cinema is now the oldest operating cinema in Lewisham, built by the community, for the community. The programming of events and films is open to anybody to show the films they want, and the cinema is a hub for all things film in Lewisham.
Deptford Cinema is now the oldest operating cinema in Lewisham, built by the community, for the community. The programming of events and films is open to anybody to show the films they want, and the cinema is a hub for all things film in Lewisham.
Deptford cinema trained volunteers to set-up and launch a travelling cinema to engage with and cater for the older people of the community, encourage their involvement with the cinema programming, and strengthen associations between younger and older community members (a planning meeting which attracted 30 mainly new volunteers). Filmbankmedia funding helped purchase the equipment to make this happen. This included a projector, screen and sound system, covered licencing costs to make screenings free and funded the refreshments. Screenings so far have included: That’s Entertainment, 9 to 5, The Great Escape, High Society and Stan and Ollie.
We witnessed the real impact the screenings had for some older people in our community, and given us an opportunity to breakdown our own unconscious biases about older people.
We got to talk to people who don’t usually come to the cinema (I learned all about one man’s adventures of being stationed in the Arctic Circle during WWII!) and in most cases they voted for the film screened. This also presents opportunities to partner with organisations across the borough, discovering and getting involved with different events and festivals – really felt like we were contributing as a community cinema and there are now endless possibilities for reaching out to less engaged elements of our local community.”