Our next two screenings at the Sawston Cinema offer excitement, passion and danger, though only one will make you laugh too.

On Tuesday May 19 we will be showing Wall-E, the tale of a robot that spends its time trying to clean up a polluted Planet Earth, while on Tuesday June 9 we’re showing Man on Wire, the astonishing story of the man who put a tightrope between the two towers of New Yorks’ World Trade Centre.

Both films start at 6.30pm, and tickets can be bought from Sawston Village College reception during school hours,  by calling Lesley Morgan on 01223 712825 or by emailing lesley@start-arts.org.uk  Tickets will also be available for sale on the door.

As we reach the end of term some of the cinema project team have been thinking about what we have done so far.

We have now finished the cinema and I have thoroughly enjoyed helping do it and I have found out lots of new things about cinemas. 

Hamish. Year 7.

With Pete we have been creating films and discussing all the jobs there are in creating a film.

James O’Dell. Year 7.

On the 27th of November which was on a Thursday the members from the Vital Communities team came to run a group of short movies. At the end we announced the winner of the best film and the director got an oscar award.

Reece. Year 7.

We’ve been doing the cinema project for almost a year. It’s been great – it’s so much fun showing films and making films.  We are showing Mamma Mia on December 16th – it’s going to be great. The cinema is great.

Lauren. Year 7.

We’ve been doing some work with Bill from the Cambridge Film Trust trying to bring the cinema back to life. Our first paid screening will be on the 16th of December – we will be showing Mamma Mia.

We have also done a screeing with Vital Communities and a ‘taster’ screening that was very successful.

Alexander Deloukas. Year 7.

We have finished the Vital Communities screening and now we are going to present an actual movie – and we are expecting 100 people.

Mitchel Harland. Year 8.

On the 27th of November we hosted Vital Communities movies. They were short movies made by young people and adults. It was unfortunate that only 11 people came.

Nicholas Drew. Year 7.

The doors of the community centre

Sawston Cinema will soon be opening again, with both digital and 35mm film projectors, a professional sound system and a full-size screeen.  The Film Club is about to start training in all aspects of running a cinema, and the Heritage Lottery Funded Cinema Archive Project is going to be making a documentary film about the history of cinema in Sawston and our work getting the cinema back again.

We’ll be posting photographs as the work proceeds, and inviting people in to have a look at the new cinema during September as we get ready for our first real screening later in the year.

Over the summer we’ll have the projectors and screen installed in the cinema, ready for training and our first show.  The projection booth was built before school broke up and now we have the 35mm film projector installed and are setting up the digital projector too.

Building the projection booth

The Sawston Film Club had its official launch on 7 November 2007. Before that, there had been lots of posters and flyers around the school telling us about it. They said anyone interested in cinema and films and film-making should go to the Youth Centre – the old cinema building – to hear about an exciting project to have cinema in Sawston again.

The posters said we could get involved in running the cinema so I decided to go to the meeting to find out more. At the meeting, Bill Thompson – from the Cambridge Film Trust – and Max’s dad – told us all about what we would have to do and learn to get cinema going again.

It sounded really exciting – and there were free sandwiches – so I decided to join the club and have been going to the meetings on a Thursday after school since then.

There are some more photos on our Flickr Page