LOCAL HERO

Each month, Empire puts a much-loved indie picture house in the spotlight

STORYHOUSE

Film and Digital Programme Manager Nicky Beaumont champions Chester’s boutique beauty WWW.STORYHOUSE.COM

What’s your history?

Storyhouse, which is a 92-seat boutique-style cinema, opened in May 2017. It’s a cultural centre also encompassing a library, theatre and restaurant space.

What’s special about your cinema?

It’s situated in a restored, 1936 classic Odeon. When you walk through the door, you’ve got the Odeon-style wood panelling from its Art Deco origins and there’s a big, sweeping red staircase to the screens.

How do you curate your programme?

We show a lot of British indie films, world cinema and foreign language titles as well as documentaries and classics. We tend to show a lot of weird and wonderful stuff: weird and wonderful is part of our DNA.

Share a memorable moment..

We do a lot of event-style cinema. In 2019, we worked with the BFI on their musical season and ran a series of 1930s musicals in the building. We turned the theatre area into a cabaret-style cinema with beautiful tables and live performances alongside a film showing.

How does the community play a role?

I think people have a real sense of ownership of the space. We have boards outside the cinema and people get to pin reviews up, or leave suggestions. Strong two-way interaction with our community is really important.

What plans are you making for the future?

We think social distancing will be with us for a while. We’ll be doing more outdoor screenings and drive-ins under our Moonlight Flicks brand. We will continue to work with distributors to screen films online as well as in our cinema, and again, we hope to turn our theatre into a cinema space to combat restrictions.