The Filmhouse Re-Opens

 

Rejoice as the Filmhouse re-opens.

After a three-year closure due to pre-existing financial issues combined with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Edinburgh cinematic institution The Filmhouse reopened on Friday, the 27th of June. Due to a combination of business backing, government grants, crowdfunding and protests, the Filmhouse has finally rejoined Edinburgh’s cultural firmament.

Originally built as a Presbyterian church in the 19th century, the Filmhouse became Edinburgh’s first dedicated arthouse cinema in 1979. The area around it on Lothian Road is a major thoroughfare, known for a ‘lively’ nighttime scene. It has long been a significant spot for culture – The Usher Hall (which also hosts Napier graduations), the Lyceum, the Traverse, as well as sadly departed music venues like Henry’s Cellar Bar and The Citrus Club.

In its new incarnation, the building has undergone comprehensive renovation inside, with all three cinema screens refurbished. The largest screen, cinema 1, now looks better than ever. The much-loved café also returns, as well as spaces for film education. On that last point: Edinburgh film-maker Charlotte Wells (best known as the director of Aftersun), in an interview with Sight and Sound, described the crucial role of the Filmhouse in her artistic education:

When I was about 14, I took part in an Ideas Factory competition where we had to pitch an idea for a short documentary; I pitched one about female footballers and got an opportunity to meet Nick Broomfield, who did a masterclass, and Mark Cousins. Through that, I found a place on the Filmhouse’s Scottish Kids Are Making Movies (SKAMM) initiative…Discovering what it felt like to point the camera wherever you wanted to shoot, and to work collaboratively, was a very early introduction to filmmaking, which was like any art form when I grew up – it was not considered a viable career. SKAMM provided a vision of filmmaking as a possibility. As did walking through the Filmhouse doors every Saturday morning.

Cinemas are palaces of dreams – intimate places, where people gather to see the vision of a director and the collective work of a cast and crew manifested on the big screen. You can watch pictures from a range of time periods, nationalities, big names and small names, the established classic (the Filmhouse’s first screening on re-opening was Cinema Paradiso), as well as the up-and-coming creative force (it is back as the main host of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which is primarily focused on new work). They are also, of course, places for communities to come together, to celebrate culture and to thrive. Edinburgh – like any city – needs this. Support it if you can.

 

by Kieran Curran

Photo by Jeremy Yap

 

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