The reel thing... an independent spirit that is keeping cinema tradition alive

LIKE many retirees living in and around the Calder Valley, Marion Read spends her Thursday mornings at the cinema.

For years now, the 83-year-old has been a regular at the “elevenses” screenings at the Hebden Bridge Picture House, meeting up with friends, enjoying the free tea and biscuits, and most importantly, watching films.

“I have been coming here for decades and I always come to the Thursday screening,” she says. “When it first started, sometimes there were only three or four of us in the crowd. I never thought it would last.

“I come here on my own and there used to be a group of us that sat together in the back row. One day, a gentleman was walking past us to get to his seat, and he said: ‘Don’t worry about moving your legs ladies, I will just step over the cauldrons’.

“We all laughed. That sort of set the tone for how it is really. It always takes me back a bit coming here – it is very comfortable for an old cinema.”

It may not occur to Marion and her friends, as the lights dim and they settle into their seats, but they are at the forefront of an independent cinema revolution currently taking place across Yorkshire.

Attendance figures stand at their highest in years, while nostalgic films such as The King’s Speech and The Artist have prompted audiences to turn away from multiplexes and back towards the independent cinemas and picture houses dotted around the region.

Many people cite a weariness at overpriced tickets, sticky carpets, and being bombarded with constant adverts as reasons behind the new lease of life for the smaller silver screen. No more so is this rebirth in evidence than at the Hebden Bridge Picture House, built in 1921 it now attracts more than 50,000 visitors a year, up from 35,000 a decade ago.

From next month, ownership of the 900-capacity building will be transferred to Hebden Royd Town Council from Calderdale Council on a 125-year lease, after residents raised £81,000 to take it over for themselves.

As part of the move, there are also plans for its biggest refurbishment since 1978 and the cinema will soon see its current second-hand 60-year-old 35mm film projectors replaced with state-of-the-art digital technology costing £50,000.

“To me, the picture house is not just a cinema for the people of Hebden Bridge, it is a focal point,” says its 32-year-old projectionist, Nigel Royal, of nearby Todmorden. “I started off in large multiplexes and I think they have lost the connection with cinema-goers.

“Here there is a warmth, people know each other, it is almost like an old-fashioned tavern. That is why there is this rebirth taking place.

“When I first started, art house and independent cinemas were frowned upon, now people are starting to realise what gems we have. I think people are moving away from the big Hollywood corporate market and embracing more independent cinema – 3D has played a large part in that. Our audiences are growing because we are showing something different.”

Nigel was brought in three years ago to assist the picture house’s veteran projectionist of more than 40 years, Roger Bogg, who was renowned throughout Yorkshire for his dedication to film.

But just a few months after his appointment, Roger was found dead in the projection room. The 63-year-old died of natural causes.

“Roger was very old school and we had different approaches,” says Nigel. “This was Roger’s domain, he lived and breathed this place and worked every day of the week.

“Since he passed away, other people have said they have seen and heard things. He used to carry a very large bunch of keys, and people have said they can hear them jangling from rooms in the building.”

Yorkshire has a rich film heritage dating back to 1888, when the pioneer Louis le Prince recorded footage of Leeds Bridge. It is said to be the earliest ever production of moving images on film, and represents a landmark in cinema history.

In the early 20th-century, scores of cinemas and picture houses sprung up across Yorkshire, with the arrival of Pathe newsreels and, from 1927, “the talkies”, paving the way for a glorious few decades of film.

The influx of servicemen to the region during the Second World War also helped provide a roaring trade for many cinemas, with even small towns often having more than one in competition.

Yet in the latter part of the century, audience numbers dwindled, with many old art deco cinemas converted into bingo halls or demolished all together.

Yorkshire was hit particularly hard in the decline, and even today there are still only 4.8 screens per 100,000 people, against a national average of six.

North Yorkshire, meanwhile, has an average of 4.1 full-time screens per 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) compared to the national average of 22.3 screens per 1,000 sq km.

However, one building that survived the cull is the Ritz, in Thirsk, which celebrates its centenary this year. It is the longest entirely volunteer-run cinema in the country and has been kept open due to the support of the local community for the past 16 years,

The recent success of the cinema, which is kept open seven days a week by its 75-strong army of volunteers ranging from teenagers to pensioners, means it too has now made the transition to digital after applying for support under the Digital Funding Programme.

Volunteer Marc Davies, who works as the Ritz publicity officer, says: “When we started, the first film we ever showed they were queuing round the corners. Then further down the years, the figures were disappointing.

“Sometimes I would go into films and I would be the only person there – although that was rare. But then a few years ago, the figures started growing and haven’t stopped.

“Two to three years ago, attendance figures were 15,000 a year, now they are 20,000. People come here from all over North Yorkshire and the Dales.

“Nostalgia has played a big part in our success. A lot of people here appreciate what we are doing, that the cinema is worth supporting and it has got a nice feel about it. The audiences we largely get around here are middle aged people and children.

“Teenagers are much more inclined to travel a lot further to the big multiplexes in York and Middlesbrough. But we are starting to make inroads into that.

“It is so much better to see these historic buildings this way, than converted into a bingo hall or demolished. This resurgence is important in protecting a major part of Yorkshire’s heritage for the future.”

Attracting teenagers back to independent cinemas away from the multiplexes is widely acknowledged as the major challenge to maintaining the success of the past few years.

And the fragile state of Yorkshire’s renaissance is no better seen than at the site of the Bradford Odeon, which was built in 1929 and contained more than 3,300 seats as well as a ballroom, but now lies derelict, riddled with asbestos.

Yet despite the fate of the Odeon, in 2009 the city was nominated as the world’s first UNESCO city of film and next month, hosts the 18th International Bradford Film Festival which is taking place in a number of independent venues across West Yorkshire, including the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds, and Hebden Bridge.

If the ghost of Roger Bogg was still stalking the picture house, jangling his keys and looking at the crowds thronging into the building he devoted his life to keeping alive, he would perhaps be forgiven a small chuckle.

And then silence please, the cameras are still rolling.

Bringing film to rural areas

THE cinema resurgence has been helped by a £1.2m scheme by Cine Yorkshire, launched in North Yorkshire as one of three rural pilots in the UK, to ensure films are easily available for isolated areas.

As part of the scheme, state-of-the-art digital projectors and sound systems have been installed at a host of village halls and community centres.

A rural film project, called Screenwaves, was set up last year in response to figures that showed 73 per cent of North Yorkshire residents have not been to the cinema in the past year, with special screenings in the likes of Fountains Abbey and Howsham Mill near Malton – the only hydro-powered cinema in the country.