Viva Lewes Issue #140 May 2018

ON THIS MONTH: CINEMA
Tomboy
Film '18
Dexter Lee’s May round-up
It’s only been a year, but it’s already hard to imagine
Lewes without its own independent cinema. May
sees Depot’s first birthday, and there will be a
(ticketed) celebration on the 31st to celebrate, with a
screening, buffet and DJ.
In this space we like to focus on the parts of the
programme you might miss if you blink: on the 1st
there’s a dementia-friendly screening of Calamity
Jane (with Doris Day in the title role) in which the
audience is encouraged to sing along, dance and use
all the props provided in the bag they’re given when
they arrive (see pg 15).
Another series is the ‘Let’s Talk About’ strand,
where a screening on a topical subject is followed
by a talk by experts. This month the subject is ‘gold’
and a screening of the documentary Daughter
of the Lake (date tbc) looking at the horrendous
consequences of using mercury in the gold mining
trade in Peru, is followed by Q&A session with
jeweller Alexis Dove, who recently travelled to Peru
to source fair-trade gold for her workshop, and
author Sarah Carpin. My Bicycle (5th) meanwhile,
is Bangladeshi director Aung Rakhine’s debut about
an entrepreneur who introduces a bicycle taxi service
to a remote Bangladeshi village.
Depot are screening French director Céline
Sciamma’s Tomboy (9th, above) about a ten-yearold
girl exploring her gender identity after moving
into a new neighbourhood, as part of Brighton’s
annual City Reads programme, a mini festival which
encourages Brightonians to read and discuss the
same book. This year said book is Sacred Country, by
Rose Tremain, on a similar theme.
A Chinese director, Xiao Pei, is coming to the
cinema to talk about a pair of documentaries, Our
Marriages, looking at marriages of convenience
between gay men and women in China, and Ivo and
Chrissie, on the lives of a Brighton couple (both
15th). And there’s a Q&A element to Depot’s latest
Sunday afternoon series, which features the work of
the pioneering husband-and-wife animation team,
Halas & Batchelor, with all three films introduced
by their daughter, Vivien Batchelor, culminating with
the masterpiece Animal Farm (20th, 27th, June 3rd).
The Education section of Depot offer a full
programme of events (pick up a leaflet next time
you’re there): May sees a series of three ‘screwball
comedies’ accompanied by interactive lectures,
namely His Girl Friday (10th), Top Hat (17th) and
It Happened One Night (24th, £40 for all three
screenings).
Depot’s youth programmers offer a screening of
the cult film Labyrinth (19th), starring David
Bowie, for which they are doing all the publicity as
preparation for taking over the entire cinema for a
day in July. And finally the latest in their sci-screen
series, is Ridley Scott’s return to form The Martian
(29th) starring Matt Damon. Which leaves us room
to wish them many happy returns, say well done to
Carmen Slijpen for a fantastically varied first year
of programming, and give a big thank you to all the
hard-working staff.
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