Open Cinema

  • Covid-19 Update from Open Cinema CEO Christoph Warrack

    For those of us working in the community sector, this is a time of deprivation, which adds to that experienced by many we support. It is a time of anxiety and uncertainty, hardship and strain. It is not without blessings. Nature has very quickly got on the rebound. The schisms of Brexit in the UK have been healed at a stroke, it would seem: we are all now in this together. 

    And we all owe a profound debt of gratitude to our health and social care workers, who are at the sharp end of this situation, protecting the most vulnerable, at great personal risk. Open Cinema has worked with the NHS to distribute health information films to street homeless people, and is ready to do so again after the lockdown restrictions are sufficiently eased for us to do so.

    Because our activities depend on communal gatherings and community spaces, which are all now closed, or in the language of the theatre, "dark"; and because our London office is now closed, we are now only available as an online or phone-based service. We would welcome any such approaches from people planning community cinema activities once they are again possible. 

    And we encourage everyone to do so: to use this time - where the demands of family and professional life allow - to think creatively about what matters to you and your community. This feels to me like a great global winter, or 'new year' moment, where we have the opportunity to reflect on what we wish to leave behind, and what we wish to build towards. 

    I wish everyone in our communities the resilience, fellowship, and inspiration they need to endure this pandemic, all good health, and the sure hope that we will see each other again, and renew our endeavours to create an inclusive and harmonious world.

    Christoph Warrack FRSA

    Founder and CEO, Open Cinema

    Thursday 23 April 

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  • OC on Expert Impact panel at British Library

    On 17 September, Open Cinema took part in a panel on impact ventures in the creative industries. Alongside founders from Karizma Kids, Made TV and Nice and Serious, our founder Christoph described the origins of Open Cinema in a combining of passion, skill and addressing a pressing challenge. There were some candid moments, a lot of laughter and wisdom in the exchanges between audience and impact founders. 

    The event was hosted by Expert Impact is a 'human lending library', where world-class social and and commercial business leaders give their time to help impact founders address a critical question in their organisation's development. All those on the panel are alumni of the programme. They are currently accepting applications and you can find more information here: https://www.expertimpact.com

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  • Open Cinema is 10!

    Under the banner of the Open House Film Club (running continuously to this day), we held our first community screening for a gathering of homeless men and women in Lent 2005. This actually makes us 14 and a quarter! But the voluntary project became a registered social enterprise on this day in 2009. 

    The film we presented was Mel Gibson's brutalist, Aramaic-language The Passion of the Christ, and since hosted by St Patrick's Catholic Church in Soho Square, we thought we might only be able to show religious films. The programme quickly evolved to more fully respond to the interests and ideas of its members, many experiencing the programmer's role for the first time. 

    So was unfolding the founding ideas and ethos of Open Cinema: participatory, inclusive, responsive cinema - just as it should be!

    The last ten years have seen us move from Soho to Bethnal Green, back to Soho, to Bermondsey, Shoreditch, Sheffield, and now Somerset House in central London. 

    We've worked hard to propel young people into work and street homeless people into employment; we've shown and made films in the Houses of Parliament; participated in the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad (with a screening at the Royal Opera House of films made by homeless people from all over the world); collaborated with major brands, charities and universities; we've won our share of awards; we've shared our learning with peer organisations; and we've mentored, apprenticed and given the first rungs on the employment ladder to dozens of gifted young people. 

    But above all, through contributions to panels, forums, conferences, expert panels and consultations, and collaborations with academic researchers, law firms, business schools and government departments in the UK and internationally, we have championed the idea that community is at the heart of cinema; that without community, cinema risks perishing, and without locally owned and managed cinema, communities suffer exclusion and the loss of vital social and economic benefits. 

    Here then to the next 10 years (and the next 14 and a quarter), during which we hope to focus increasingly on the environmental crisis, and help communities address it by connecting them with the best films, speakers and resources in this all-defining area of the coming decades. Cinema as a business model may have had a wobble around its centenary. But its role in helping communities gather, explore, celebrate and imagine is more important now than ever.  

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  • OC Finland making strides

    OC Foundation's first country-level franchise has launched its first community cinemas in Helsinki and East Finland, with discussions underway about a first franchise agreement to create the regional network Open Cinema Oulo, for the eponymous region in the north of the country. For more information you can follow the ace OC Finland time via the following links

    www.opencinema.fi 

    www.facebook.com/opencinemafin 

    www.twitter.com/opencinemafin 

    #opencinemafin

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  • This Way Up 2018

    Open Cinema was at the fifth This Way Up conference - we've only missed one - in Liverpool on 5-6 December to discuss the evolution of cinema, and how it can favour communities. 

    There was an excellent, highly informed and entertaining presentation from Celluloid Junkie's Patrick von Sychowski, surveying big trends including 4D, the (fading?) US phenomenon of MoviePass, the advent of the £40 movie ticket (at the new Odeon Leicester Square), dynamic pricing and (of course) windows. 

    In a fireside chat, Clare Binns, head of programming at Picturehouse, took flack on their living wage policy, while returning none (nor any statement at all on this).

    There was a terrific and important session on carbon literacy for cinemas, with a best-in-class case study from the ever-groundbreaking Depot in Lewes. 

    But our favourite presentation was from Tour de Cinemas (pictured), a two-person road trip across Europe to find the most creative grassroots solutions to dynamic local cinema. Watch that space for ideas on your community's. 

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  • ACCESS VFX Month storms the UK!

    Access VFX began in 2016 as a one-day event at The Mill in London, bringing young people from outer London boroughs into the Oscar-winning effects studio. In 2017 this was expanded to a week, included the collaboration of around 15 VFX and animation studios, and hosted two Open Cinema events (see OC Blog). Open Cinema by then was a member of the advisory group.

    But this year the initiative became a movement, hosting events in ten cities and reaching thousands of young people with events, opportunities, networking and access to the much sought-after runner, internship and apprenticeship programmes of over 30 world-class visual effects studios. 

    Some industries might be said to talk a good game on diversity and inclusion. Young people from communities across the UK are now winning bright creative futures through Access VFX. 

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  • BFI tells cinemas: go forth and diversify

    BFI FAN - the film audience network for UK cinemas - today launches a tool kit to help exhibitors and programmers bolster the diversity of their programming and audiences. 

    The resources include over 300 guides, training manuals and briefings. They are housed at inclusivecinema.org, will enable people running multiplexes or community cinemas to welcome more people to their spaces, from a broader range of backgrounds, and to encounter a programme more reflective of the world around them. Good news, we think. 

    You can download a BFI press release with further information here.

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  • Building Scotland's Community Cinemap

    At the 2016 Community Screen Forum (CSF; see previous blog post), colleagues from community cinema networks agreed that there needed to be better information-gathering by the sector, and a better idea of the landscape and potential of community cinema. 

    Over the following year, representatives from North East Arts Touring, Driftwood Cinema, Indy Cinema Group and Open Cinema were convened by Creative Scotland, and a bid launched to Interface, which facilitates collaborations between research institutes and commercial or public sector organisations. The bid was successful! 

    Work began, with researchers at the University of Aberdeen and software architects at the University of Aberdeen. Open Cinema was funded separately by Creative Scotland (now Screen Scotland) to create an API of its digital platform for community cinema. 

    This July the first version saw the light of day, for now internally. We have mapped the locations and screening activity of 87 community and independent cinemas in Scotland. Once the project reaches the end of the funding period this September, project partners are seeking to develop the software into a listings app for community cinema in Scotland - something delegates at this year's CSF were also unanimous in calling for!

    For more information email info@opencinema.org.

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  • 2018 Community Screen Forum

    In 2005, when the first Open Cinema (then Open House Film  Club) screening took place, community cinema wasn't really a 'sector'. Beyond the British Federation of Film Societies (now Cinema for All), it was more of a backwater of cinema, with local enthusiasts undauntedly keeping alive the flame of projected film. 

    Since then, an emphatic flourishing of organisations, programming, and audiences has taken place. Over thirty organisations were present at this year's forum, the majority representing a local, regional or national network of community screens, plus researchers, enthusiasts, and a Japanese cinema architect.

    There were keynote presentations by Stephen Follows on data, and Michael Pierce on Scalarama (coming round again this September) and reinventing organisations. Dr Stuart Hanson from de Montford University presented research on the contribution of cinema to local economies - including fascinating nuggets such as that cinemas on high streets make people walk instead of drive, and support local shops instead of chains. 

    Also offering updates in a future-focused year were the BFI, Regional Screen ScotlandFilm Audience Network, Film Hub Northern Ireland, and the Independent Cinema Office.

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  • Open Cinema Finland launches in Helsinki

    Open Cinema Finland is live! After four years of development, a great launch of the franchise in Helsinki on 6 June gathered stakeholders from the film, community and education sectors, all excited by the beginning of a new framework for cultural inclusion across Finland. A screening of the award-winning, autism-focused documentary My Secret Forest was followed by a remarkable Q&A with its subject and star, Lauri, and with its producer Sara-Helena Rawat. Open Cinema founder Christoph was also on hand - after a customary smoke sauna and sea swim - to introduce the origins and some future directions for this network of distributed innovation. Kiitos!


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  • Production starts on impact film for the Churches Conservation Trust

    We've been approached by the CCT to help report on their impact to communities, funders, policy makers and the public. Working once again with Liverpool-based filmmaker Paul James Furlong of Opus Media, as well as filmmakers in Ipswich and London, our production office is at work on a film to help this vital community cause. More on this thread to follow...

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  • OC CEO puts question to John Major on Brexit

    Former prime minister Sir John Major made a formidable intervention on Brexit in a speech hosted by the Creative Industries Federation at Somerset House today. In the audience was our CEO Christoph Warrack, who asked the following question: "At the moment it seems as though every time a risk of leaving the European Union is highlighted, it simply strengthens the resolve of those committed to doing so. Do you think that the collective creative skills of those represented here could be doing more to describe the risks and opportunities of leaving and remaining?" Major responded that yes, "its important that captains of industry do more to speak up". 

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  • OC moves to Somerset House!

    Here's the line-up of our office premises so far

    - Durham Yard, Bethnal Green: September - December 2009

    - 50 Frith Street, Soho: January - July 2010

    - Swan Mead, Bermondsey: August - October 2010

    - 8 Hoxton Street, Hoxton: October 2010 - March 2011

    - 10-16 Scrutton Street, Shoreditch: March 2011 - March 2014

    - Sawmill Lane, Helmsley: March 2014 - September 2015

    - Impact Hub Westminster, Westminster: September 2015 - January 2018

    And now, we are thrilled to have moved to the mighty Somerset House, home to over 300 creative businesses after occupation by the Royal Navy (we are in the former cartographer's room) from the 1770s to the 1920s; and by the Inland Revenue from then until they were finally evicted by John Major (who we actually met in our first week here!) in the early 1990s after an outcry from the creative industries about the waste - it was by then only one third occupied and the great courtyard which now alternately hosts gigs, screenings, a fountain and an ice rink, was a car park - of these precious central London asset. The team now rubs shoulders with a cloud of creative innovators and socially minded ventures. 

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  • Creative Scotland funds Open Cinema

    After 18 months of discussions facilitated by Creative Scotland's head of education Scott Donaldson, among member organisations of the Community Screen Forum, this month we received funding from Creative Scotland to develop an API (application programme interface) for our community cinema CRM (customer relationship manager). Lost you? It gets better...

    Funding agency Interface, who facilitate action research projects between universities and businesses, convened the project at the instigation of Creative Scotland, to create Community Cinemap, a platform mapping and empowering community exhibitors in remote parts of Scotland. More on this thread to follow...

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  • Jawbone Star Johnny Harris at St Mungos Recovery College, 7 Dec 2017

    Last night the Open Cinema film club at St Mungo’s Recovery College Rushworth St welcomed boxer, writer and actor Johnny Harris for a very special screening of his incredible film Jawbone (dir. Thomas Napper, 2017). People using St Mungo’s services from all across London filled the screening room and made a fantastic atmosphere for what was a memorable night.

    Jawbone tells the story of former youth boxing champion Jimmy McCabe (Johnny Harris), a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill (Ray Winstone) corner man Eddie (Michael Smiley) and promoter Joe (Ian McShane). Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.

    In the Q&A Johnny revealed that the film is heavily auto-biographical. Johnny dropped out of school at 13 and fell into homelessness and addiction but was also a champion boxer. He was so open and generous during a Q&A that lasted over an hour, discussing addiction, recovery and the challenges of writing, making and starring in this amazing film. As Emily Catlow, the coordinator of recovery college, said after the screening: ‘It was such a great evening and I am very sure that [Johnny] connected with and inspired every single person in that room. It was the highlight of the Recovery College term and will be talked about for years to come’.

    As with all Open Cinema events the screening became about so much more than the thrill of meeting a star of the screen. It was all about connecting over shared experiences and a shared enthusiasm for the power of film to highlight all the struggles, challenges and joy of life. Jawbone and the discussion that followed highlighted the incredible struggles people go through and the heroism of those go out of their way to help and support others. There were many powerful and cathartic moments in the film and the post-film discussion. We’d like to extend a special thanks to Johnny, listening to everyones questions, stories and opinions.

    We’d also especially like to thank everyone who attended for being such a great audience! Johnny commented many times that the questions being asked were fantastic. As we look forward to 2018, we can’t wait for many more evenings like last Wednesday.

    Will Swinburne, Open Cinema Network Manager

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  • Youthbank International's Night of Ambition

    Our founder Christoph Warrack flew to Northern Ireland to present on the role and meaning of ambition in social enterprise. 

    Hosted by the international youth empowerment funder Youthbank, a range of speakers brought energy and dynamism to the audience of young and hungry innovators, including through a series of creative exercises exploring practical solutions to pervasive social challenges. 

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  • This Way Up 2017

    There isn't another gathering like This Way Up for UK cinema exhibitors. A long way from CineEurope, the UKCA conference, Cinema For All or the Distributor Slate Day, TWU met its fourth year in Hull, during the city-encompassing UK City of Culture celebrations. 

    The sector is full of good people working hard to bring great cinema to audiences of every shape, size and geography. Hosted by the incomparably genial James Mullighan (Shooting People, EIFF, Cork FF), the conference saw terrific presentations from Jenny Sealey MBE of disability champions Graeae Theatre Company on equality, Together Films' Sarah Mosses on the uses of social media technology, and a laudably frank and forthright Simran Hans of the Guardian on ethics in cinema. 

    Release windows and e-Cinema remained firmly among topics that shall not be broached. And the UK's broadband infrastructure was roundly derided as a disgrace to an advanced economy and a major impediment to the democratisation of cinema. We also got the chance to meet the team at Cinegi, with whom we're now firm friends.

    You can watch films of each of the two conference days here, and above is a picture of second-to-none exhibition ninjaMosses at work.

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  • "The Social Entrepreneurs" enters production

    Open Cinema was approached earlier this summer to produce a film by Julienne Lam and Sallyann Tingle. Graduates of LSE's masters programme on the psychology of social entrepreneurship, the duo sought to bring to a wider audience the stories of determination and impact which characterise the social entrepreneur's journey. More on this thread to follow...

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  • "Havens" screening and skills panel at Double Negative

    The second screening of the participatory film Havens which we produced with Macmillan participants, each with experience of cancer and mental health challenges, was in the plush surroundings of the main screening room at international visual effects studio Double Negative. 

    After a screening of D Neg's promo reel, featuring their work for movies including Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ex Machina, Havens was presented, after which a panel of skills leaders discussed routes into the film industry for those from more diverse backgrounds. 

    Speakers included D Neg VFX Producer Melinka Thompson-Godoy; Tim Hunter, head of education at BAFTA; Janey de Nordwall, director of marketing industry awards hosts British Arrows; and James Weddup from the BFI Film Fund.

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  • Macmillan premiere at BFI

    After 12 weeks of workshops, peer mentoring and creative devising, participants on the Macmillan / Mental Health Foundation / Open Cinema filmmaking programme proudly presented their film, "Havens", to a packed Blue Room at BFI Southbank. 

    Presented as part of National Inclusion Week and with support from Access VFX, this powerful short film explored the strategies for survival and growth of those experiencing both cancer and challenges to their mental health. 

    Following the screening, participant filmmakers contributed to a Q&A also featuring representatives from Macmillan Cancer Support and the Mental Health Foundation. 

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  • Beliefs Values and Worldviews at Work - RSA event

    Our CEO Christoph participated in a panel on Worldviews at Work as part of Ten Years After The Crash, a whole-day event at the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London. Other contributors to the day included former chancellor Ed Balls, former Downing Street communications director Alistair Campbell, and commentators Martin Wolf and Robert Peston.

    Also on the Worldviews panel, moderated by Goldsmith University's Maria Power, were Paula Vennells, CEO of the Post Office, and Asif Sadiq MBE, head of diversity and inclusiveness at EY. 

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  • Video for Good at Google

    We were thrilled to be asked to present at the beautifully-organised Video for Good conference at Google UK HQ in London's Kings Cross. 

    Our presentation was on participatory video, and how charities can use the method to engage both supported people and staff in a creative process exploring issues of shared importance. 

    While at Google we were given a tour of their YouTube studios, where were impressed to find diverse local students and community members making free use of their world-class media facilities. 

    You can view the slides from the presentation here.  

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  • We join Access VFX!

    In the lead-up to our presentation of the Macmillan / Mental Health Foundation film at the BFI in National Inclusion Week 2018, we joined the working group of Access VFX, a grouping of world-leading visual effects and animation studios seeking to make their recruitment practices as inclusive and reflective of diversity as possible. As one Oscar-winning employer remarked, "the more diversity, the more talent". More on this thread to follow...

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  • This is Liverpool film launches

    This month our filmmaker Paul James Furlong completed work for Power to Change on This is Liverpool, a film exploring the remarkable stories of community business success in the city. 

    These are stories of community groups who have not stood by while urban decay progresses where state and private business have failed, but taken ownership and management into their own and their communities' hands. Organisations covered included Granby Four Streets, The Baltic Triangle, Homebaked, The Florrie and Alt Valley Trust

    You can read a blog here on the topic by Mark Gordon, Communications Director at Power to Change, the national lottery fund for community business, for whom Open Cinema has been producing a series of impact and advocacy films. The completed film can be watched here.

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  • Machine, Platform, Crowd talk at The RSA

    Representing Open Cinema International, the foundation's technology company, our CEO Christoph was in the audience of a talk at The RSA in London by MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson. 

    The focus was his new book, Machine, Platform, Crowd, co-authored with Andrew McAfee, about the history, current state and future potential of technology for individuals and communities. The binaries the book presents are between Mind and Machine, Product and Platform, Individual and Crowd, and it suggests a balance between each each is vital amid a general shift from former to latter in each category.

    In the Q&A, Christoph asked the author if a tendency towards monopoly in technology economies was innate, and whether instead a gearing towards inclusive economy could be sought. Brynjolffson did not, in Christoph's view, provide a satisfactory answer, suggesting that societies were the net winners even from tech monopolism. 

    An extract from the talk can be seen here.

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  • Open Cinema mentors Black Country Touring

    This month we commenced a six month funded mentoring programme with Black Country Touring, who bring professional theatre and dance to local communities across the Black Country and West Midlands of the UK. They are increasingly offering community cinema, and will be consulting Open Cinema for the rest of this year on methods of participatory delivery and impact reporting.

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  • OC attends pioneering environmental documentary format

    On 9 July, members of the Open Cinema team were present for a community screening of "Tomorrow", a French, crowd-funded documentary on local solutions to the environmental crisis. 30 local people attended the event at the Best Western Hotel in Tiverton, Devon, and after a screening a lively debate about next steps ensued. 

    We encouraged the organisers to propose a screening for the Tiverton Town Council, which subsequently took place, with channels of communication now active between event organisers Tiverton Area Communities Transition and councillors with responsibility in these areas. 

    The trailer of the film can be seen here.

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  • OC visits Helsinki, Midnight Sun Film Festival

    By OC CEO Christoph warrack

    I pulled the short straw and flew to Helsinki last week for meetings with the Open Cinema Finland team!

    We then flew north across the land of 100k lakes (and several billion trees) to Rovaniemi in Lapland

    followed by a drive to Sodankyla, passing my first reindeer friends


    for three days at the fabled Midnight Sun Film Festival.

    Founded by the late Peter von Bagh with Aki Kaurismakï, and now in its 32nd year, the festival has hosted filmmakers including Francis Coppola, Agnes Varda, Victor Erice, Werner Herzog, Abbas Kiarostami, and many others intrepid enough to make the trip, all rewarded by the other-worldly light of Lapland at this time of year.

    The sun doesn't set over the festival, so the screenings - of hand-picked Finnish, new international and archive cinema continue through the night. The undisputed highlight was a presentation of the 1925 "Phantom of the Opera" with a barnstorming Lon Chaney as the Phantom, and a live orchestral score.

    We were staying with friends of OC Finland CEO Jaana Merenmies, at the forested lodge of the chief medical office of Lapland. After a long day at the festival, dinner would start at around midnight, followed by a sauna and then a walk across the rose-lit hilltops.

    I'm looking forward to the office draw to visit Midnight Sun in 2018...


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  • OPEN CINEMA ANNOUNCES FIRST COUNTRY FRANCHISE

    Three years after a presentation (on 'distributed innovation') at the European Social Franchising Network Conference in Gothenburg, Open Cinema is thrilled to announce the launch of our first country-level franchise: Open Cinema Finland. Working with a great team led by experienced social entrepreneur Jaana Merenmies, the first venues will be launching in Helsinki in early 2018, followed by further sub-franchise venues and networks.

    As it celebrates its first hundred years, Finland has a hard-won international reputation for social equity and innovation. We are extremely proud to be launching our first franchise in this wooded Nordic country of 5.5m and 100k lakes, where - our favourite fact of 2017 - there are more saunas than cars!

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  • April 2017 - Open Cinema letter in the Guardian

    On 1 April - and easily distinguishable from some of the excellent April Fool's jokes this year - the Guardian published a letter from Christoph on the health of UK cinema exhibition, written in response to a letter (here) from the CEO of the UK Cinema Association, Phil Clapp.

    We await Phil's response...

    Read Christoph's letter here.

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  • ​March 2017 - Deutsche Bank DBACE awards judging

    Open Cinema is one of the judges on the film section of this year's Deutsche Bank DBACE awards for creative enterprise. Winners to be announced in April....

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  • ​February 2017 - New cinemas launch, OC wins 2 international awards!

    Open Cinema this month launches new community cinemas at the St Mungo's Recovery College and at Evolve Housing in Bromley. Ed Stoppard (The Pianist, Upstairs Downstairs) was on hand to help launch Open Cinema Bromley, presenting short film Mate and chatting to members about acting for video games, and how to take the first steps into the industry. Later in the month we'll be opening a groundbreaking community cinema at the St Mungo's Recovery College. More on this to follow...

    Great news reached us from GHP Pharma in Australia where we'd won two awards in the international Social Care Awards 2017, for Social Enterprise Communications Excellence, and for Best Media for Development Company 2017. Thanks to everyone who nominated us and to the panel at GHP. This one goes out to our communities!

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  • November 2016 - Open Cinema makes films for Power to Change, and contributes to research

    Following the film we made to celebrate the launch of the Power to Change Institute (you can watch it here), Open Cinema has made two more films for the community business-focused lottery fund, and has four more in production. We'll post links to these as they're released.

    This month also sees the publication of the Institute's report on the Community Business Market. The report was composed by researchers at Social Finance, and we contributed data and analysis along with colleagues at Bigger Picture Research and Arts Council England. You can find more on the report over on our Impact page.

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  • ​October 2016 - Open Cinema wins RSA Scaling Catalyst Award

    The Open Cinema has bagged the top RSA Scaling Catalyst Award, from a competitive field of over 30 fast-growing social enterprises. Worth £10,000, the award has helped us develop the new foundation website (launching soon, with support from the amazing Assemble), and co-author a bid with a lottery fund to create a national network of community businesses. We'll be blogging in December about the work the award has supported, and look forward to seeing it boost our impact in 2017 and beyond.

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  • ​September - UK Arts and Homelessness Forum convenes for first time

    Over thirty peer organisations who work with the arts to improve the lives of homeless people met at Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to share ideas, experience, fellowship and plans. The project has emerged from the Homeless Link-led Get Creative (download report here) to whose advisory committee Open Cinema was a contributor. We look forward to the next quarterly meeting, to welcoming new members, and fostering a national and international movement of arts/homeless practicioners.

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  • ​August 2016 - Jerry Rothwell helps change the world at St Mungo's

    St Mungo's in Chancery Lane, London, have been running a season called How to Chane the World, featuring classics like Dr Strangelove, Big, and the 3hr 30mins Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. But the centrepiece took place on August 29 when Grierson-winning director Jerry Rothwell (Deep Water, Town of Runners) appeared to introduce and discuss his documentary history of Greenpeace, the Sundance-winning How to Change the World, which opened Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2015. Our regulars, some of whom remembered the first actions Greenpeace took to stop whaling and artic drilling, engaged Jerry in conversation about the film, the season, and the world.

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  • ​July 2016 - Digital Pathways Showcase at BFI Southbank

    On 4 July, the BFI hosted the first Open Cinema Digital Pathways Showcase. 60 delegates from over 20 organisations watched four short films from two groundbreaking new 'tech inclusion' programmes on which Open Cinema has been working with partners including the Tinder Foundation, Homeless Link, Evolve Housing + Support, Richmond-upon-Thames College, Living Networks, and with support from funders the Big Lottery Fund and Cisco Systems.

    A panel made up of leaders from these organisations engaged in lively discussion of the issues of digital skills and an inclusive economy with an audience of programme participants and other invited guests following the screenings. Refreshments were served to an electronica soundtrack and much constructive hobnobbing took place.

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  • ​June 2016 - OC coordinator wins Housing Heroes Award

    George Bageya, our outstanding cinema and peer mentoring coordinator at the Evolve Open Cinemas in Stockwell and Croydon won the Apprentice of the Year award for the London region in the Chartered Institute of Housing's Housing Heroes Awards. He then went on to win the national award at the annual ceremony in Manchester on 27 June. The award was presented by broadcaster and former member of parliament Gyles Brandreth. Hats off to George!

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  • ​May 2016 - Pathways to Your Future commences at Cisco Systems

    Open Cinema's latest Enterprise Film Programme - training young people excluded from education, work and training in life, media and enterprise skills, launched at Cisco Systems in Feltham, in partnership with Living Networks. The programme runs for 12 weeks, and offers participants the opportunity to graduate to a paid, accredited, three-year apprenticeship at Cisco Systems.

    Work created through this and the Reboot UK programme (see this page next month) will be showcased at BFI Southbank on 4 July 2016. To attend, please email rsvp@opencinema.net.

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  • ​April 2016 - Platform launches with Ping Pong Screening at Impact Hub Westminster

    Open Cinema International's new digital platform for community cinema powered its first ticketed screening, at the Impact Hub Westminster. Ping Pong (2012), directed by Anson and Hugh Hartford, tells the story of eight participants of the World Over 80s Table Tennis Championships. The screening was preceded by an exhibition match - and open challenge! - by members of the Veterans English Table Tennis Society (VETTS), and followed by a Q&A with the players and producer Beadie Finzi.

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  • ​March 2016 - Open Cinema presents at the RSA on the Sharing Economy

    On 15 March, The Royal Institute of Arts Manufacturing and Commerce held a packed gathering on the ultra-live topic of the sharing economy. OC CEO Christoph Warrack was there to present on Open Cinema as a sharing economy platform alongside great social ventures Lend and Tend, LiftShare, Library of Things and GrubClub. The RSA's senior researcher in the economy, enterprise and manufacturing team Brhmie Balaram was there to summarise research they have recently published (here) into developments in this area.

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  • ​February 2016 - Creative England invest in Open Cinema International

    OC International is currently raising its seed equity round, and was glad this month to confirm Creative England as the first investor, through its Strategic Partnerships Fund, with funds originating in the BFI Lottery Film Fund.

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  • ​December 2015 - OC meets the Prince of Wales

    Open Cinema, a supported venture on the Business in the Community arc programme, was featured in a showcase to celebrate the creation of 1,000 jobs through the programme. During the event, HRH the Prince of Wales stopped to ask our CMO Ben Hirsch about our work, the kind of centres we work in and the pricing we're able to offer community members, and concluded that our work was "fantastic".


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  • ​September 2015, Part 2 - OC Features in The Key Fund 2015 Impact Report

    The Key Fund have published their Impact Report for 2015, which discloses a record-breaking year of lending to social businesses, and the fact they are now the UK's biggest social investor by deal volume. Open Cinema was supported by the Key Fund through the Dotforge Impact accelerator, and was subsequently the recipient of second-stage investment by the fund. You can view or download the report here, and the feature on OC on pp23-4.

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  • ​September 2015, Part 3 - OC's Legal Team Win 2015 Lawyer of the Year Award

    At a glittering ceremony on 24 September, a brilliant, multi-field team of lawyers from international practice Latham & Watkins LLP's London office have been awarded the top Lawyer of the Year award for their work with Open Cinema. Hyo Joo Kim, Aoife McCabe, Katie Peek and Frances Stock were honoured for their focused and complex guidance of the evolution of Open Cinema over a two-year period from a non-profit structure to a group comprising a charitable foundation and a for-profit digital company. Open Cinema will be presenting at their office in the City of London in late October on the latest developments and the impact the collaboration has had.

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  • ​September 2015, Part 1 - Is September the Busiest Month?

    Non-stop action at OC HQ this month. Christoph signed the Founders Pledge at Founders Forum, committing 5% of personal revenues from any future exit to frontline development causes. We also presented on Open Cinema's participatory filmmaking programmes at the international Visual Methods Conference in Brighton. Later OC took part in a social innovation brainstorm hosted by the brilliant Swarm for Macmillan.




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  • Ju​ly / August 2015 - Hiring and Scaling

    The summer of 15 has been spent building the team, further developing the forthcoming digital platform, and preparing our first international market entries (beyond the UK and Ireland). We've been receiving amazing support on these developments from the Impact Hub Scaling Programme.

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  • ​June 2015 - Bloomberg Demo Day, Key Fund Investment

    At the conclusion of the Dotforge Impact accelerator, Open Cinema was one of ten ventures presenting prototype platforms to investors at the super-swish London headquarters of Bloomberg. Subsequently Open Cinema received a seed funding commitment from the social investor The Key Fund.


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  • ​May 2015 - Open Cinema at Digital Shoreditch

    Open Cinema was at Digital Shoreditch 2015 in May to present to an audience of 200 on our plans to help democratise cinema. The 10 minute talk by CEO Christoph Warrack, entitled "Anywhere is a Cinema, Cinema Can Be Anything", can be seen here.

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