A Trip to Pervert Pictures
In our ‘Launch’ training sessions, which we deliver to the newest community cinemas, we often conjure up the image of a really miserable day. A dark and gloomy Thursday in November; the Monday after the clocks change in Autumn; the week after the film you are screening suddenly pops up on iPlayer (we’ve all been there). We do this to hammer home what challenging external factors a film programmer can be up against, and how our film choices have to be pitched just right to lure someone out of their comfort zone and brave the elements.
It was one of these days that I took my tiny car up the M1 to Leeds, battling gale force winds and sideways rain. What could have tempted me away from an afternoon in front of the TV with the cats? A double bill of queer vampire films from the 70s, of course!
Pervert Pictures (in the running for top name, if we ever introduced an award for that), has been putting film screenings on in Leeds for nearly 3 years. Focusing on unearthing gems that explore erotic, disturbing or provocative cinema, they have built a programme of controversial cinema to be viewed outside of their sensationalised context and into an open-minded space for discussion and appreciation by contemporary audiences.
I was, I must admit, a little intimidated by the prospect of showing up to this event. What if every-one was super cool and followed the dress code of 60s blue eyeshadow and vampiric capes? What if everyone had an extremely high-brow vocabulary to discuss the film with? I hastily back combed my hair a little as a last-minute nod to Sharon Tate in Fearless Vampire Killers.
What I found at the sold-out screening was a welcoming, fun and chatty community of people connecting over these two films, who crucially, braved bad weather, Sunday buses and slightly uncomfy seats to watch the films together, as an audience. As I sat with my mug of peppermint tea and a chocolate bar (very important to sugar up for a double-bill), I relaxed and reflected on this volunteer-led screen in the context of all which came before it. Whilst Pervert Pictures is undoubtably an example of a more recent style of community cinema, of which we have seen many emerge in the past 10 years – based in a city centre, a pop-up screen in a bar, programming to fit a theme - I was delighted to see that many of the more traditional elements of a film society persist. We were handed high quality programme notes, the presentation of the film was top notch, there was a spoken introduction, subtitles were used, and even cake was available!
Having spent so much recent time in the Cinema For All archive preparing for the 100th anniversary of the first film society, I also found my mind wandering to the stories of the many community cinemas of the past who screened similar content - banned films being legal for film societies to screen in the era prior to the 2003 licensing changes. So much changes, but so much stays the same.
After the screening I had a quick chat with the organiser Katherine (in which I might has implied I was a vampire myself) bought a couple of pin badges and headed back South to Sheffield, heart full of community spirit and love for this job I am lucky enough to have… as well as a car full of pals suddenly excited by the idea of setting up their own community cinema. No rest for the wicked *transforms into a bat and flies away*.
Words by Jaq Chell.