A SUMMER SEASON
CINEMA RETURNS
Since bidding a sad goodbye to our beloved cinema on Deptford Broadway, and with all the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, our programmers had been feeling in limbo, a little lost. But as soon as the opportunity arose to celebrate the return of cinema, we came together to plan a summer season of pop-up screenings in collaboration with The Albany and Deptford Lounge.
In past times, our eclectic programme has usually been curated by a diverse bunch of individuals, but for a change we opted to programme together as a collective. It was with some trepidation that we ventured out from the safety of our isolation – How would audiences feel about watching movies together in these times? Would they even want to come to the cinema at all? And what would people want to watch after such a terrible year? With that in mind, we aimed to make this new season accessible with a summery vibe, while still including films with that sense of contemporary edge one has come to expect from Deptford Cinema.
The first film of the summer season, Black Panther, was screened outdoors in the Albany gardens on a balmy summer evening. It was a really lovely event – so good to be showing films once again, welcoming back old audiences and meeting new movie goers.
Every film can be watched for what it is, without any context from director, actors or programmer. But sometimes it’s great to share personal responses to movies. Deptford Cinema is all about the social aspects of film and we believe passionately that it’s a shared experience - even though it has felt very solitary in recent times. So, here are some of our volunteers’ thoughts on the summer season – Rob reflects on Queen and Slim, Sunil writes of his experience watching Do the Right Thing for the first time and Ben talks about his experiences on the set of Here for Life.
Queen & Slim [2019] dir. Melina Matsoukas
Rob
My decision to volunteer at our first indoor summer screening was motivated by what the volunteer body had chosen to screen. With a vague awareness of some of the wider issues explored in Melina Matsoukas' 2019 road movie 'Queen & Slim', I arrived at the event having intentionally avoided any online reviews or trailers. Instead, I wanted my first-time viewing experience to be free of outside influences (well, at least as much as can be possible) allowing the occasion to perhaps challenge my own preconceptions and viewing perspective. It's also just more fun when you have no idea of what you're in for.
As an entertaining popcorn movie, I found the whole trip gripping from start to end. As a romantic road movie its success hinges on the relationship that develops between the two lead characters played by Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen) and Daniel Kaluuya (Slim). The performances are brilliant, the characters real and relatable. Queen is particularly fascinating as we learn more about her own past as the film progresses. Everyone here is on a journey, back into their personal and collective histories. A journey which at times feels very uncomfortable.
I found the director's careful handling of the film’s themes concerning race, violence and poverty nuanced and powerful, clearly resonating with the troubles of our time. There is a filmmaking precision here that felt at once brutally direct and painful; the opening scene - somehow eerily familiar and yet more violent than imaginable - is unforgettable. At the same time the director constantly displays a willingness to address the complexities and contradictions of the drama, the characters and the issues under examination.
A film like this isn't designed to produce a surprising ending. There's a sense throughout that we know how this is going to end. But like all good (road) movies its all the stuff that happens in-between that we remember. So as the closing credits roll, what are we left with? In the end, love might be all we have that we know and feel to be true - nothing else is ever exactly what it seems. A profoundly moving and meaningful film in these discombobulating times.
Do the Right Thing [1989] dir. Spike Lee
Sunil
I first saw Do the Right Thing as a teenager. My film-loving uncle, always keen to overlook age ratings, rented it on VHS for the whole family to watch. There I was, watching Spike Lee rubbing an ice cube on Rosie Perez’s exposed breast which filled up the entire screen with my sister, mum and dad. That scene is probably not what most people think of when they think of this film. Mostly they think about race, specifically racial tensions. And of course, it is about that. But when I later saw it as an adult, I realised it’s also a sad film with an underlying dismay about those tensions. I don’t believe it’s trying to stoke up tensions, as many claimed when it was released. It’s a film that shows how easily they can be inflamed, how delicate the social contract can be. There are various moments in the film I still find maddening, but I like the fact it doesn’t try to neatly parcel its characters or events.
The film ends with quotes from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, but it actually made me think of another King quote: “there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth”. Do the Right Thing isn’t free of violence (though as a film viewer, you don’t have to partake in it, just observe and feel it) but it does support the idea that growth can only come from tension, from our comfort zones being challenged.
Do the Right Thing is showing on Saturday 21 August at Deptford Lounge. Doors 6.30pm. Film 7pm.
Here for Life [2019] dir. Andrea Zimmerman
I talked to Ben Smithies, who is both a Deptford Cinema volunteer and an actor in Here for Life, for his thoughts on the film.
Caroline: So, you once described the film when in production as a kind of Bicycle Thieves for our time. Could you expand on this now the film is finished?
Ben: Well, I think the starting point was basically that we all really, really loved the original film. It was made quite a long time ago now, but we studied it carefully, watched it and took it apart, so to speak (and I even used to live in Rome, so I was familiar with a couple of the locations…) That was just a starting point. We didn't try to recreate the film, we took it as an emblem of quality in terms of a new way of making cinema, getting cameras actually out on to the streets, Neo-realism, and also focusing with great sincerity on issues of social justice.
Caroline: How do you feel about how the film was made, the role of the actors and their stories? Can you describe the process of making it?
Ben: It was a long process spread over many months, and going even further back than that, in the sense that many of us knew each other from the theatre troupe, Cardboard Citizens. On the one hand, we were involved in rehearsals and blocking for what turned out to be a theatrical interpretation of The Bicycle Thieves, which we did actually perform in reality in Nomadic Gardens, an alternative community space. On the other hand, we are also invited to share our own personal memories, and sometimes these emerged into workshops - for example, the betrayal of the son by the father happens in the film when he strikes his son unreasonably and so we looked a lot at the theme of betrayal. And there were also one-to-one interviews conducted in our homes, which were pretty autobiographical. So, the film straddles an uneasy line between drama, documentary, and very slightly fictionalised threads, all of which are interwoven into a tapestry, which includes somewhat surreal dreamlike sequences.
When looking, for example, at the theme of gentrification, one of the vital questions is, whose story is being told? - and is it a story or narrative that is being forced on someone? In a sense, in this film, we were all invited to voice our own story - which then becomes the story of so many others.
The screening of Here for Life (Saturday 11 September at Deptford Lounge) has been postponed. We apologise for this change in our programme and are currently contacting and refunding those who bought tickets. Here for Life is available to rent for EST and TVOD in the UK across the majority of platforms including Sky, Amazon, Apple, iTunes, Google Play, Curzon and BFI Player. We plan to screen the film with Q&A when we have moved into our new venue.
