The Other Cinema

Fresh from those brains residing behind the square-eyed team at Secret Cinema, we are presented with The Other Cinema, a brand new live and immersive cinema experience. While us London dwellers are rather spoiled by the plethora of pop up cinema, transporting us into the frame in all manner of inventive costumes and ruses, anyone outside the capital seems to have been neglected by this cinematic trend.

Enter The Other Cinema. Aiming to create a global network of pop up cinemas, reinvigorating the sense of community and social adventure that once accompanied going to the cinema before multibuys and multiplexes. Each month, The Other Cinema will screen a classic film in a unique location whether it be former picture palaces, libraries, churches, parks, universities, hospitals and even oil rigs. One can only hope transport is included in the ticket price for the latter…

While one of the defining factors of the zeitgeist that is ‘Secret Cinema’ is the participatory factor, The Other Cinema wants to take it that bit further and encourage anyone to run their own cinema screening.  Creator and founder of Secret Cinema and Future Shorts, Fabien Riggall sees The Other Cinema as a way to ‘bring back the idea of local cinema and allow the most important films, both old and new, to get seen and talked about.’

Getting everyone talking this Valentine’s Day, and hopefully a sign of the great things we can expect from the projector, The Other Cinema launches with a spectacular screening of David Lean’s Brief Encounter at the stunning art deco East End theatre, The Troxy.

As we’ve come to expect, this is a live and immersive cinematic experience in this former Picture Palace as The Other Cinema returns The Troxy to its former glory complete with usherettes, live music and an organist. And of course, dressing up is wholly advocated with guests being encouraged to don old school black-tie and carry a flower for a lover or a stranger… There will also be simultaneous screenings of Brief Encounter (pictured) taking place in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Norwich.

As one of my all time favourite films, I am inevitably going to be somewhat biased at this screening. And with no lover to give my flower to (though possibly a little too late for that, methinks) I instead plan to embrace The Other Cinema for it’s true aspiration, as an innovative emerging platform for cinema fans to live the dream and the movie.

Like it’s now less-than-secret forefather, The Other Cinema looks set to sell out but with a five-day run from 14 – 18 February, there’s hope for all you cinephiles and first-daters eager to impress to join this exciting new community.

Book your tickets here.

The Other Cinema will be screening Brief Encounter from 14 to 18 February at:

The Troxy
490 Commercial Road
Shoreditch
E1 0HX

Tel: 020 7790 9000