Without the glossy production values that come with screening in a multiplex, film clubs like Speed and Strike sell themselves on their ability to curate interesting lineups of films. “I try to bring in a theme”, Phoebe says, “whether that be ideological, like in our first season, ‘Rotten Britain’, or something more formal, like the ‘Time and Meditation’ series that focused on slow cinema. It’s also about pairing films that people might have heard of, like Goodbye Dragon Inn, with lesser known films like Gus Van Sant’s massively undersung Gerry.”
Speed and Strike occasionally exhibit films in collaboration with Paraphysis Cinema, a queer cult cinema project in Liverpool run by Holly Rowley. Holly inspired Phoebe to start her own film club, and has worked tirelessly over the last two years to build a network of independent programmers throughout the region – via an active Discord community, newsletters and a screening calendar. She sees the emergence of film clubs as part of a wider shift in how audiences engage with cinema. “People are starting to realise that you can’t just sit on Netflix and scroll through films, hoping to find something good. You’ve got to put in the effort and go to the cinema, or go to your local film clubs”, she explains.
The screenings are often free of charge to attend, or charge a small fee to cover the cost of hosting the event. This means that “it’s important to find venues who are into supporting local DIY arts and film curation”, Holly says. “Quarry (on Hardman Street in Liverpool) is the big one, for when I have money to put things on. Otherwise, Kitty’s Launderette (a worker’s cooperative in Anfield) is a beautiful community space, and it’s also a working launderette in the day. It’s cozy, you can make tea and coffee and everyone has a chat and sits against big washing machines.”
It’s no secret that independent venues are struggling to keep the lights on, in an era of exorbitant city centre rents and savage cuts to arts funding. In Phoebe’s opinion, those who set up film clubs do so in opposition to an industry that is hostile to affordability. “All the old cinemas are now Wetherspoons, a lot of us aren’t in a position to get professional film jobs, and the long aftermath of Thatcherism has left us without any community centres that we could use. We’ve just got to put these things on and try and build our own network of people who are trying to challenge that model”. Holly is interested in the idea of “a film cooperative specific to Merseyside,” lamenting that some of the only widely available places where screening films could be possible “are churches, which might be difficult if you’re trying to screen pornography.”