This documentary was screened at the Hyde Park Cinema in Leeds and accompanied by a talk by its director Tom Lawes, with an opportunity for questions. It is a must for film buffs, especially if you go back a long way. Basically the film presents a sketchy history of Britain’s oldest cinema, The Electric in Birmingham. It was opened in 1909 as, for the first time, the British state laid down basic standards for cinemas, including it should be remembered, safety rules which evolved into a system of censorship designed to protect ‘public morals’. The Hyde Park provided a great venue for this film about its slightly older relative – five years in fact.

The film uses a varied approach which provides an interesting take on a simple history for most of its 90 minutes of running time. The title comes from a recurring sequence where a group of long-time film projectionist sits round a table in a public house and both reminisce and comment on their trade and the industry. They offer a range of experiences and opinions. One member sits silently through it all, only opening up in a face-to-face interview with Lawes. This is Les, who apparently was the whiz at fixing 35mm projectors; “he would turn up with parts for a projector and a couple of spanners in a plastic bag” and he always fixed the problem. The director also commented that he did speak once at the round-table, where he held forth for 20 minutes, using up large amount of gigabytes on the digital camera.

The comments on the trade and industry are revealing. These include brief but direct explanations of the old quota system for British films: the use of ‘barring clauses’ for new releases that limited independent cinemas: the percentage takes enforced by distributors, amazingly Grease in 1978 was 95% of the box office take. Then, for the newsreels in the 1950s there were special inserts sent by plane and collected from the local airport to cover major events like the Grand National.

The history of the cinema is filled out by some archive material, though unfortunately little survives from it earliest years. There are also interviews with both staff and patrons of the cinema from its earliest days. In the silent eras it was a film theatre like thousands of other around Britain. The ‘electric’ title pointing to the source of power, but was also an iconic social referent as the new type of power spread across the land. There was a refurbishment in the 1930s and some old archive film remains of this: as do the beautifully prepared plans. From then on it was part of a chain of Newsreel Theatres which also offered cartoon entertainment. Its position opposite New Street Station was typical of this type of cinema in urban areas.

Later it became part of the 1970s ‘multi-screen’ change, with a lower and upper auditorium. For a time it was part of the Canon Circuit, when I remember it as being rather like a wooden box with not particularly good soundproofing. And in the late 1980s and 1990s it served as venue for porn movies. Definitely the lowest quality of film output.

Tom Lawes bought the near-derelict building and undertook a major refurbishment, which was completed in 2005. His explanation of how he raised the funds for this was both interesting and amusing. Less amusing was his recounting of how a ‘cowboy’ scaffolder wrecked the 1930s mosaic frontage of the cinema. Still it re-opened, originally with an auditorium and a recording studio above, Lawes’ prime interest. Since then the cinema has flourished, it now has two auditoriums and still retains the studio. It combines a digital auditorium with a traditional 35mm auditorium.

The two theatrical formats were a talking point in the film. The Hyde Park’s chief projectionist Allan Foster gave a short explanation on the new digital DCP format before the screening. And the little circle of projectionists in the film commented and slightly disagreed about the changeover. Both HD versions and 35mm prints can vary widely in their quality: as one projectionist pointed out the most frequent problem for digital screening in a multiplex is the wrong aspect ratio. However, it is still true overall that 35mm has the edge, though 4K and then 8K digital will probably change that. More problematic is the reservoir of old films, still on 35mm. This format may well proved more enduring than the new digital. Certainly it requires great care, attention and resources to transfer these effectively to digital. One hopes and prays that we will not see a repeat of the changeover from silent to sound, when between half and two-thirds of film output was pulped or lost. The poster for the film carries the question, ‘As cinema enters a new era will a century old trade be left behind.’ Worryingly in the film we learn that at least at one venue ‘technician’ has replaced the title projectionist. However, I do know a number of working projectionists, some considerably younger than the group members in the film, who are skilled in both sound and silent 35mm projection.

So the film both records and comments on an industry now in its 117th year. Appropriately the ends the film with a visual tour of the some of the old remaining cinemas from the past. This does, though, rather dissipate the effective recording and commentary of earlier in the film: as does an insert on the Imax format, which none of the cinemas seen in the film can accommodate. But it remains a fascinating portrait and commentary.

Tom Lawes talked about the film and the projectionist group on Radio 4’s The Film Programme (31 May 2012), which is also available as a podcast on the BBC WebPages.

Trailer: