Posts by Liza Patoux

Congratulations to Ely Cinema for being set to go digital seven months ahead of schedule, having secured funding to support the conversion.

The Cambridgeshire cinema, which has been fund raising since January to supplement its own resources has just received a grant from the Fens Adventurers fund, with a local businessman loaning the remainder of cash required.

The cinema will switch to digital in July, and will be closed for a few weeks while their old 35mm projector and sound kit are upgraded.

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Cinemas across the UK are to broadcast live private viewings of the British Museum’s major exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum on 18 and 19 June.

The exhibition, which runs until 29 September, is the first ever held on these important cities at the British Museum. Focussing on the Roman home and lives of the people who lived nearly 2000 years ago in Pompeii and Herculaneum, the unique live broadcast event will take cinema audiences back in time in the company of renowned experts and practitioners who, alongside live performances of music, poetry and eye-witness accounts, will bring to life extraordinary objects, some never seen outside Italy before. Interviews throughout the exhibition will be intercut with stunning specially recorded films in Italy, showing Pompeii and Herculaneum and the sleeping Vesuvius.

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The Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne was built in 1936 as a combined cinema theatre and the tradition of showing both films and live stage shows continues to the present day. Big audiences for major shows were traditional at the Tivoli and the theatre has once again achieved the status of a major 500 seat venue. Local people enjoy the finest and latest films available with full surround sound.

DCM Close Up spoke to the Tivoli’s Theatre Manager, Charlie North Lewis, on his career in cinema and why the Tivoli has become such an integral part of the local Wimborne community.

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Showcomotion Young People’s Film Festival returns to the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield from Saturday 6 to Sunday 21 July with another terrific line-up of film screenings for schools and families. The first weekend of public screenings kicks off on Friday 12 July with a special preview of From up on Poppy Hill, the new film from the renowned Japanese animators, Studio Ghibli, due to be released in the UK in August. It is a beautifully animated coming-of-age love story set in 1963 as Japan reinvented itself after the devastation of World War Two.

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Robert Redford’s Sundance film festival is back in London for the second year this week for a four-day stint at The O2 between 25 – 28 April. As well as the UK premières of American independent films fresh from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, there will be panel discussions and filmmaker Q&A’s. The line-up features a series of music gigs making the event a real intersection between the arts.

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Riverside Studios is a unique arts and media centre on the banks of the Thames in Hammersmith, comprising two main performance studios, a cinema, a TV studio and production galleries, numerous offices and a large contemporary Restaurant and Bar, a Film Cafe and River Terrace.

DCM Close Up spoke to the Riverside’s Cinema Director Shira MacLeod on her career in the arts and what’s coming up at one of London’s most eclectic venues.

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William Pryor, Director and Booker at the Lynton Cinema in Devon talks to DCM on his love of the Big Screen and how he started out in the industry.

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The Queen has been described as the ‘most memorable Bond girl yet’ for her role opposite Daniel Craig in the Olympics opening ceremony after receiving an honorary BAFTA award.

Actor Sir Kenneth Branagh presented her the award at a Windsor Castle reception last week in recognition of a lifetime’s support of British film and television.

‘Several of my colleagues want you to know that, should you wish to take it further into the world of British films, they have a number of scripts with them here this evening,’ Branagh joked.

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The BFI opened its doors last week to some of the UK’s sharpest creative minds to discuss the issues and opportunities that 3D film-making presents. Headlined by Ang Lee and David Attenborough, the two day event took an in-depth view of the vast creative possibilities 3D is opening up to enhance the art form of film since the advent of digital film-making techniques.

DCM’s Commercial Director, Joe Evea, took his place on a panel dedicated to “Making 3D Sell” alongside Luke Beauchamp from Compendium Media, James Stewart from Geneva Films and panel chairman Danny Edwards, editor of Shots magazine.

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DCM welcomes the Curzon Eastbourne to its estate following its conversion to digital last year.

Originally named the Picturedrome, the historic site opened its doors in 1920, when it showed silent films accompanied by piano until the advent of talkies in the 1930’s. Widescreen and cinemascope took over in the 1950’s before the arrival of Dolby sound in 1967 when the cinema changed its name to the Curzon. In 1973 the Curzon tripled its capacity to three screens and last year’s conversion to digital is the latest innovation in the cinema’s 93 year history.

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