A little miracle: Plymouth Arts Centre indie cinema reborn

Plymouth Arts Centre cinema is reborn in the new location of Plymouth College of Art in what is nothing more than a little miracle.

Thanks in no small part to the indie-film loving population of Plymouth and beyond, the Plymouth Arts Centre cinema has managed to relocate to the college.

A massively successful and generous crowd-funding campaign helped secure the move.

…this place feels really exciting

“It’s oddly bitter sweet,” Anna Navas, film progarmmer at Plymouth Arts Centre cinema D&CFilm. “We’re really sad to be moving out of the Looe Street building, because we’ve been there for such a long time, and that’s where I started my career. But this place feels really exciting.

“The new cinema is absolutely wonderful.”

We caught up with Anna on the morning of the eve of the first outing for the cinema (a VIP launch no less). Even with the tight deadline looming, Anna heaped praise on those who supported the move, not least the crowdfunders and the Plymouth College of Art people themselves, who not only offered the space to the indie cinema, but have also helped smooth the transition.

“It’s been brilliant”

“It’s been brilliant. I feel like we’ve got two really good teams who are going to work really well together. And the cinema just looks great,” said Anna, who is allowing elements of excitement into the epic journey.

“It’s a proper cinema that we’ve built,” said Anna. The cinema team have bought their digital projector, fitted-up cinema surround sounds, installed a whole new rake of seating and built a new screen.

Creating a new cinema

The Plymouth Arts Centre cinema will be using a converted lecture theatre space in the evenign and weekends for their films. At other times, it reverts to its original lecture theatre use.

“They’ve let us turn it into a cinema, which I think their students are going to love. It’s going to make their lectures a bit more comfortable (but now it’s possibly a bit more easy to fall asleep in).”

The set up allows the Plymouth Arts Centre cinema to stay independent of Plymouth College of Art.

“We’re keeping our identity, but it’s allowed us to continue. Which feels like a little bit of a miracle,” said Anna.

The move was made necessary when Plymouth Arts Centre lost its visual arts funding, and it became clear drastic changes would have to be made. It looked like there was no future for the cinema.

“We approached Plymouth Art College expecting them to say that it wasn’t possible, but they said ‘yeah, what can we do to help,'” said Anna.

It’s been a real slog, but a happy, exhausting one.

Ground-breaking programming

The cinema will run along the same lines as they did in their Looe Street venue. And that means great films, fab innovation and more of its ground-breaking programming.

Now as they settle in they want feedback so that they can ensure they are hitting all the right notes to their film-loving audience.