Sawston Cinema Archive Project » Archive

On the big screen

Cinema Archive Project — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:06:08 +0000

Our film, Projecting the Past, is being screened tonight to an invited audience and we are getting everything ready to show all the work we’ve done.

There will be a full report tomorrow, and we hope to be on BBC Look East soon too.Â But here’s the cinema looking at its best…

Working hard to get everything ready..

Cinema Archive Project — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:09:43 +0000

The first screening of ‘Projecting the Past’ is only two weeks away, and our first public screening is just a few days later, so the team at the Cinema Archive Project is working hard to finish the film and get it ready to show. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on too, including a fabulous collage of the project to go on the wall, presentation materials, trailers and even slideshows to show how hard we’ve all worked over the months.

John managed to interview some of us during this week’s project session.

Projecting the Past – first screenings

Cinema Archive Project — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:39:42 +0000

Projecting the Past will be shown for the first time at a special preview event at Sawston Cinema on July 2nd. The first public screening will be on July 7th – we hope you will come along.

Projecting the Past: Trailer by Sven Mattes

Looking forward to seeing the film

Cinema Archive Project — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:16:02 +0000

We have been working on our film about the history of the cinema in Sawston for several months with Peter Harmer, and this week we will get to see what it looks like, as we’re going to show an early cut at our regular film club meeting on Thursday. Apart from being really exciting, it will also give us a chance to see what we need to change in time for the firt public screening in July.

The project so far

Cinema Archive Project — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:05:17 +0000

This video of Alex and Reece talk about the project

Interview with Alex and Reece on Vimeo.

Film-making has begun

Cinema Archive Project — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:34:45 +0000

Peter Harmer outside the Community Centre

Local film-maker Peter Harmer has been working with the archive project team at our regular Thursday sessions to help us write and make a documentary about the history of the cinema.Â Last week we interviewed local people about their memories of the cinema, and this week Peter showed us how to use our camera equipment to interview people.

Kicking off the new term

Cinema Archive Project — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:47:06 +0000

Term has started at the Village College and we’re holding the first meeting of the archive project this afernoon. Julie Heathcote is leading a session about oral history, talking about how we can start to get information about the history of the cinema to use in making our film.

There are a load of us from the Village College, and some people who remember going to the cinema before it closed, all those years ago.

Interviewing local people

Cinema Archive Project — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:53:48 +0000

An important part of the archive project is finding out what people who used the cinema remember about it, so we have been talking to people who live in Sawston.

Getting ready

During our interview with Pearl we learnt that the cinema was always full and that it was very popular because there wasnâ€™t much else to do in the village.Â Â It was a very important factor of the village.Â This was different to now because they used to show the news, the main film and another film, instead of just one.

The cinema seemed important to her family because she was named after a famous actress.Â It would cost a sixpence for the front row, but it would cost more for the back rows.

Pearl said that the screen covered most of the back wall.Â She used to come with her older sisters, which was exciting for her.

When Pearl heard it was going to close, she was very sad.

Erin

Asking questions

The first film was shown in 1932 was called Dhark.Â It was a silent film but coming here was a step up from going into Cambridge.Â The cinema used to show a film every Thursday, Friday and Saturday but after a year there was a new manager that came in who showed a film every week.

Brogan

We sat in a circle

We were speaking to Doug and he says he lost his elastic toy plane up on the roof of the cinema.Â He told us that the films shown at the cinema were silent, black and white films, a bit like Charlie Chaplin and early Laurel and Hardy.Â He also remembered the usher and his name was Mr Garret.Â And the cinema had a pianist called Fred Samuel and a violinist.Â People would smoke at the cinema and the ashtrays were in the chairs.

I spoke to Paul Mann, 82.Â He was a very nice man, and he told us about how he met Pearl in the cinema, as his first date.Â You paid more to go further back in the cinema.Â There was no problem looking over people.Â The posters which advertised the cinema were yellow.

During our interview with Pearl we learned that the cinema was extremely important to the community.Â It was always full and the seats were cheap.

Talking about the old cinema

Pearl comes from a family in which cinema is of some importance.Â Pearlâ€™s mother named her after the actress Pearl White.Â Pearl also named her own child after the actress Valerie Hobbs.

Pearl had been going to the cinema since the age of five with her two sisters.Â During the Second World War Pearl loved going to the cinema during the black out.Â Often her sisters would abandon her in the dark then suddenly jump out at her!Â But they would always make up with the sweetest ice-cream.

Safiyya