Viva Lewes Issue #128 May 2017

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BRICKS AND MORTAR The Depot Cinema Architect, Stefanie Fischer “It’s designed beyond the requirements of building regulations with an eye to achieving best practice,” says Stefanie Fischer, of Burrell Foley Fischer, responsible for designing The Depot Cinema. Which is architecture-speak for ‘we’ve pulled all the stops out to make it extremely sustainable and accessible.’ I don a hard hat, hi-vis jacket and steel-toed boots and Stefanie shows me around what is still a busy building site, exactly six weeks before the first screening. She answers the obvious question with some confidence. Yes, they’re on track to be open to the public on schedule (May 27th). The main delay was caused by council quibbles about parking which, she reveals, didn’t take into consideration the sort of people who use Picturehouse-style cinemas. She escorts me into a building that is really taking shape, pointing out each of the three screening rooms, the educational workshop and its ‘breakout’ space, the bar restaurant, the mini bar, the ticket office, which bit of the outside space will be orchard and which will be wild meadow. She shows me the fine flint work ‘The Flint Man’ has done, and which of the roofs will have grass on it. You get the feeling that the architect-client relationship has been better than normal, and that BFF have been given support to be ambitious with their plans. Her company is a veteran of scores of other cinemas and arts building designs, she tells me, citing the Picturehouse in Exeter, Norwich Cinema City, Harbour Lights in Southampton, the Rio in Dalston, the Ciné Lumière in London and a few more. She says each project has been very different from the one before it, but that this one – needing to blend in with a lot of surrounding listed buildings to the sensitive requirements of the South Downs National Park - took a lot of planning time indeed. The three screening rooms, housed in the shell of the original Depot building, have already been carpeted, as I look round, but are yet to have their “very comfortable Quinette Gallay” seats installed. The rooms are named after the colour of their screens. The Purple Screen (140 seats) is the highest-spec one with the Dolby Atmos sound system; the Blue Screen (130) and the Black Screen (30) have to settle for Dolby Surround Sound. Workmen are tacking artwork onto the wall: digital reproductions of figure paintings the artist Julian Bell daubed on the Depot walls when it was his studio. In the foyer, Stefanie tells me, will hang a large print by Stephen Chambers, Big Country. The first ever screening will be a private one for Stefanie and the team involved with the construction of the building. She doesn’t know which film will be on (“that’s for Carmen to decide”); ideally she would sit in a central seat at a 60-degree angle from either side of the screen, which offers the ‘best optical experience’. When I tell her I always sit at the front she tells me that there will be footstools in front of those seats. That, for me, is the icing on quite a cake. Alex Leith 90
TRADE SECRETS Carmen Slijpen Creative Director, Depot Cinema Photo by Alex Leith The Depot Cinema will open to the public on May 27th, with a crazily mixed weekend of films, before we move into a normal week of programming on Tuesday 30th. Lewes Community Screen is the charity that runs the Depot, an arts venue with a responsible and sustainable outlook; we are set up to serve the whole community with a diverse range of films. We will also run a café-bar-restaurant, and an educational workshop space. We have three screens that will be in use all week, from 2pm to beyond 10pm for the main programme, with specialised screenings some mornings, too. We’re aiming to show between five and ten different films a week. The café/restaurant will be open for breakfast, and until the cinema closes. We will programme a mixture of mainstream movies and arthouse movies. It’s important to point out that Star Wars-type blockbusters cost a lot more than other films, and usually insist on having long runs, so in the interest of keeping a diverse programme we will probably book such movies after their first run. For me the magic of the cinema comes out when you watch a film with other people. I rarely laugh in front of the TV on my own, for example, laughing as part of an audience is a tremendous feeling. We hope that many people will consider watching films in the cinema more frequently. The Depot is a high-spec cinema. Screen One is equipped with a 4K projector and a Dolby Atmos sound system, which creates the ultimate immersive experience currently available in cinemas. More and more films are mixed in Dolby Atmos, and I aim to show this off as much as I can, because subtle sound can be very evocative and stir deep emotions. We’ve worked hard to be fully accessible, with everything on the ground floor and central viewing positions for wheelchair users, dementia-friendly screenings, braille signage throughout the building, infra-red hearing loops etc. We will include a good deal of ‘Cinema+’ in the programme; this means Q&A sessions with directors, workshops connected with films, event-related seasons, etc. I’m also interested in using cinema as a spark for social change, working with Amnesty, refugee groups and Transition Town Lewes, etc. Our restaurant manager spent 25 years in New Zealand, and he’ll introduce ‘Australasian’ cuisine to Lewes. We’ll source seasonal, locally produced food. 50% of all the drinks will be organic; the rest biodynamic or locally produced. We’re hoping to pull in cinema goers, of course, but also people coming just to eat or drink. The onus is on trying things out, being progressive, daring, looking forward and not being afraid to make mistakes. And of course, not to lose sight of the main reason we’re here: entertainment. It’s all very exciting. Interview by Alex Leith 91
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128 VIVALEWES EDITORIAL My family a
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THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST: RACHEL
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COLUMN David Jarman Peggy in the mi
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COLUMN Chloë King More brain than
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ON THIS MONTH: LITERATURE Daniel Ra
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ON THIS MONTH: MUSIC Every Sort of
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52 Cliffe High St, Lewes . 01273 47
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Page 52 and 53: Lewes Little Theatre THE HOME OF LE
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Page 58 and 59: live music Chris difford & glenn Ti
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Viva Lewes Issue #128 May 2017

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