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Cinema DIY-style

Susannah Wright
17/ 4/2008

TWO pals who are taking on the multiplex giants by screening their own films in a rented church hall say they are reeling in cinema-lovers.

Chris Dee and Andrew Rafferty started Chorlton Film Institute 18 months ago because they felt there was an audience for cinema in the suburbs.

They decided they wanted to show independent films in Chorlton, because they weren’t always able to get to Manchester’s Cornerhouse cinema in the short time-spans during which many art-house films are shown.

The pair hit upon the idea during shared car journeys to Preston, where they both work as directors for Booths supermarket.

Chris, 39, who lives on Ryebank Road with his wife Gwenan, said many cinema goers prefered to see films locally rather than at ‘soul-less’ multiplex cinemas.

He added: "We would get home from work too late and end up missing films we wanted to see at the Cornerhouse so we decided to do it out own way.

"This way people are able to walk to a cinema on their doorstep and watch films with like-minded people - it’s great."

And despite the unusual location for a makeshift cinema - St Clement’s Church on St Clement’s Road - they believe they have found the perfect location. Andrew, 44, said: "To some people, showing films on an altar in a church might be a bit strange, but St Clement’s has been absolutely brilliant for us.

"The sound quality is fantastic because they invested in a new sound system a couple of years ago, and there’s always a good atmosphere.

"The only thing we don’t have is popcorn because it’s a nightmare to try and clean up."

Andrew, who lives in Hale with his fiance Alison and four children, draws up a shortlist of films he’s interested in watching, but a finalised list is decided by a committee. The first film they screened in September 2006 was 1980s cult classic, Rumble Fish, starring Mickey Rourke and Matt Dillon.

More recently, they have screened films such as Oscar-winning The Last King Of Scotland starring Forrest Whitaker and Away From Her starring Julie Christie. This month they will screen the rite of passage tale, Hallam Foe.

Running the film club on the third Thursday each month, they hire the films from an official distributor, and also have to hire a 12ft by 8ft screen with projection equipment, and the church itself.

In charging £5 per ticket, they need around 40 audience members to break even.

Andrew said: "For the first few months we bullied all our friends and family to come along, and then it dipped a little, so we had to subsidise the whole thing for about a year.

"But things have really picked up again in the last few months, and recently we’ve been getting 60 to 65 people in each time.

"We tend to get people from their 20s up to their 50s so there’s a real good community feel about it."

If the club continues to be successful, the pair say they will use any profit to reduce ticket prices in future.

For more information, go to www.chorltonfi.pbwiki.com.