ICO News
- Are you a woman in a senior management position in film exhibition looking to take a giant leap forward in your career? Applications are now open for the ICO’s renowned Women’s Leadership training course. Apply by 8 October!
- Our Core Skills for Cinemas webinars are back! These online sessions provide practical training for people working in film exhibition. Our first session is on Thursday 7 October, where we’ll be joined by thrive’s Maurane Ramon who’ll be providing her advice for starting and developing a successful membership scheme.
- We’re looking for Trustees to join our board! We’re especially keen to hear from people under 30 and those who reflect more widely the communities we serve in the UK. The deadline to apply is 8 October, find out more about the role.
- Our current BFI NETWORK Officer is going off to work on a production, so we’re looking for someone to fill their role for six-seven months while they’re on sabbatical. Read more about the vacancy here. Apply by 4 October!
- 19 months since the first lockdown, we conducted a survey in August to gauge the continuing impact of Covid-19 on the independent cinema sector. Although most cinemas have reopened, we found a strong picture of the continuing uncertainty and challenges faced by venues. Read the full report here.
- Thank you to everyone who joined us either in person or in Bristol for Inclusion & Diversity Screening Days this month, our first-ever hybrid event. We’ll soon be announcing details of our next two upcoming Screening Days events, so make sure to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you don’t miss out.
- This month we were delighted to screen two films by Margaret Salmon, one of Britain’s most vital cinema artists, on our virtual platform – The Cinema of Ideas. We’ve got lots more events coming up over the next few months, sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date.
- We’ve published a guide to Good Governance for Exhibitors which addresses the value of governance and signposts some useful resources for organisations who want to start thinking about their own governance.
Opportunities
- The Film & TV Charity has released two publications on anti-racism in the Film and TV Industry. The first, written by Sasha Salmon, is an in-depth thematic exploration of experiences of racism amongst 55 people of colour from the industry. The second, by Dr Clive Nwonka and Professor Sarita Mailk, is a review of the principal diversity policies, schemes and initiatives of the past 20 years. You can read both of these on the The Film & TV Charity’s website.
- Film Hub London’s next Exhibitor’s Breakfast will take place on 12 October at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, providing a morning of presentations and networking to discuss innovative initiatives welcoming audiences back to screenings across the UK. Register here.
- To commemorate this years’ Poppy Appeal, Wartime in the South East is an archive compilation programme available for venues to book between 25 October – 31 March 2022. Curated by Film Hub South East, this short film encompasses footage from across the region during the wartime period and features a newly commissioned score by silent film musician, Stephen Horne. See details here.
- Creative Scotland have released The Illustrated Freelancers Guide, an accessible, practical resource to legal rights, professional troubleshooting and good practice for creative freelancers, written by Heather Parry.
- The UKCA has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society and the BFI Film Audience Network to produce a Dementia Friendly Screenings Training Video, to help cinemas and their staff programme and run DFS and relaxed screenings.
- Lost Connections is a new, archive-based short film about our extraordinary collective experience since March 2020. Now available to watch on BFI Player, the short is completely free to book for online and in-venue screenings from July 2021. See booking details here.
- Following the festival earlier this year, Cinema Rediscovered has launched a UK-wide tour of highlights available for exhibitors to book until the end of October, including the late Melvin Van Peeble’s The Story of a Three-Day Pass. See details of the tour here.
- The 2021 UKCA Conference is taking place from 19-20 October 2021 (Cineworld at the O2, Greenwich) and will be focused on what more the cinema sector may do to re-engage audiences following the COVID-19 pandemic. To express interest to attend, email: ukcaconference@cinemauk.org.uk
- Tickets are now available for the Cinema For All Community Cinema Conference, which is running from 12-14 November and will showcase a wide range of stories and voices from the community cinema sector and beyond. Book your ticket here.
- Film Hub Wales has launched The Whole Story, a new platform featuring interviews, podcasts and more, designed to promote films with Welsh connections and the exhibitors screening them. Explore it here.
- Living Proof is a new touring film programme from Scotland’s Moving Image Archive and Film Hub Scotland that explores the country’s complex relationship to the global climate crisis through film and music. If you’re interested in screening the film at your venue or festival then check out the expression of interest form here.
Good reads/watches/listens
- On the late Melvin Van Peebles’ The Story of a Three Day Pass
- An archive of Black films from 1915-1979 currently streaming
- On Film TikTok
- On the young curators starting their own streaming platforms
- On the challenges the pandemic brought to DIY cinemas
- On the history of black horror
- On making film history more inclusive
- On adding young people to your board
- On Somalia’s first public cinema screening in 30 years
- On the surreal, satirical lens of Binka Zhelyazkova, Bulgaria’s prolific female director
- Remembering Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Tributes to Michael K. Williams
- Tsai-Ming Liang on slowing life down
Cover image: Flee (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen), courtesy of Curzon Artifical Eye.