Electric Theatre Cinema

Electric Theatre Cinema (ETC) were the amazed and proud receivers of the first innovation award. The award was aimed at supporting a local skate group to raise funds and awareness for a skatepark in the village of Marsden, where ETC is based.

The money went towards buying two gopro style cameras for the young people to make a film, 50 sets of headsets to screen a film of their choice in the style of a silent disco and further money on the creation of an event to attract young people from the village to the cinema and the future skatepark. On the 16th of September, 2017 we held the event. We set up a mobile skatepark on the proposed site, hired tutors to help improve skills of bmxers and skateboarders and  served hot dogs before screening the young people's film SKATE!. The young people chose Rogue 1 as the main film and we screened this to an audience of around 25. The event was was popular and a huge success with record numbers of young people and families attending during the day, sadly numbers for the main screening were disappointing.

ETC reviewed and evaluated the project and planned on how to proceed. it was (and is) important to us an organisation that we continue to support our aims of screening films that would otherwise be unavailable to local people. During the event, one of the young people became a volunteer for us and we looked at how we could develop from here. The organisation launched Shh cinema shortly afterwards. Shh cinema screens regularly at the Magic Rock Brewery in Huddersfield. Unlike our other regular screenings we predominantly screen cult classics, bringing older films to a younger audience. At every screening we are constantly rewarded with comments about how the audience had never heard of the film before and how much they enjoyed it. As their trust in us gets stronger the diversity of the films we can screen grows and the events are always sold out. We use the headsets for a more intense and personal experience and the bar remains open to the public - so foreign language films are out!

The music is an original score written and performed by one of the skater's band. We are very proud of all the hard work that went into creating this short film and dedicate it to Mark Lally who shot all the drone footage, supported us in so many ways throughout the project and sadly passed away later that year. The gopro cameras are available for anyone to use and we are excited that this year they are to be used by young people in the Holme valley to make short films with a professional film maker.

ETC are so grateful to Filmbankmedia for the amazing opportunity they have provided for the communities

The life of the project and the aims behind it still live on through both Shh cinema and the continued use of the cameras by young and budding film makers. ETC are so grateful to Filmbankmedia for the amazing opportunity they have provided for the communities in and around Huddersfield including, of course, Marsden. It was an honour to receive the innovation award and each year we are excited to see who the new recipients are and are always in awe of the continued creativity and imagination of community cinemas around the country. Thank you.