100 YEARS OF COMMUNITY CINEMA, 2025
In September 2025, I was lucky to work on the exhibition at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK, where Cinema For All put together a walk trhough 100 years of community cinema. Curated by Dr. Matthew Rule-Jones.
100 YEARS OF COMMUNITY CINEMA – THE EXHIBITION
Cast your mind back 100 years...
There are no Oscars, no BAFTAs, no film institutes, no archives, no film magazines. Films are shown in vast theatres holding thousands. Projection equipment is heavy, expensive and fixed in place. The reels themselves are black and white, printed on volatile cellulosenitrate, screened by a projectionist working beside an escape hatch – just in case. The first
‘Talkie’ is still three year away and many of the great filmmakers and actors of the 20th century have not yet been born.
In 1925, a pioneering group – including filmmakers Ivor Montagu and Anthony Asquith, exhibitor Sidney Bernstein, critic Iris Barry, artist Augustus John and economist John Maynard Keynes – founded the first film society in London. Their vision was simple but radical. To create a space where avant-garde cinema, overlooked by the commercial mainstream, could be shared and celebrated. Soon, an entire movement of volunteers all over the UK began curating andscreening films themselves.
A century later, over 1600 volunteer-led cinemas flourish across the UK. They project onto pull-down screens in village halls, inside old theatres and cinemas, in converted warehouses and even against whitewashed walls in empty shopfronts. These groups combine passion for film with the desire to build creative, inclusive and diverse communities. They provide affordable, local, welcoming spaces where people come together as audiences. In doing so, they shape the film industry, expand access to cultureand transform lives.The movement proves that anywhere can be a cinema – and anyone can choose the films.The materials on display in this exhibition represent only a snippet of that history. They are drawn from the collections preserved by
Cinema For All – programmes, posters, letters and ephemera that capture what was screened, how films were chosen and ho audiences were nurtured. Yet much is missing. Whole histories, communities and personal stories remain unrecorded. That is why Cinema For All, together with our academic partner Dr Matthew Rule-Jones, is working to gather oral histories, suppor groups in preserving their own archives and creating new projects to recognise the extraordinary legacy created by volunteers. Stay tuned.
For now, though – we’ll see you in the cinema.
Jaq Chell, CEO, Cinema For All
SPONSORS AND FUNDERS
The 100 Years of Community Cinema Exhibition is proudly sponsored by MPLC. MPLC (Motion Picture Licensing Company) has grown to become one of the world’s leading non-theatrical licensing companies and staunch champions of volunteer-led cinema. We are delighted to be supported by MPLC for this incredible milestone, a century of passionate volunteers bringing film to their communities.
Many thanks to the supporters of the 100 Years of Community Cinema project - the BFI, Awarding Funds from the National Lottery, particularly Sarah-Jane Meredith and Francis Fanning. We are grateful to our Patron, Ken Loach for a recent fundraised donation, which has partly supported this exhibition.
THANKS AND CREDITS
Huge and very special thanks to the curator of the exhibition Dr. Matthew Rule-Jones and our producer for the 100 years project, Jocelyn Chandler-Hawkins. We are very grateful to Stroud Film Society for the recent donation of theirarchive materials.
Immense gratitude to all who helped us put the exhibition together - Thomas Griffin and Tim Eve for working on the install and Peter Martin and Rosie Muir at Site Gallery for the loan of display materials. Deepest thanks to the Cinema For All team - Abi Standish, Ellie Ragdale, PatGreenhough, Sarah Williamson and Astrid Barker-Smith, and my personal ever loving thanks and respect to the best artistic eye in town, Lucie Kordacova.
