News

Autumn-Winter 2024

The Way We Live: A free two-day filmmaking workshop for young people from Plymouth!

The Way We Live

This Thursday (31st October) and Friday (1st November), Imperfect Cinema will be hosting a two-day free of charge filmmaking workshop at The University of Plymouth especially for young people from Plymouth aged 16-18!
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Over the two days we’ll explore creative writing, sound recording and filming together in the creation of a brand new film in which will be screened at the University’s Jill Craigie Cinema in January 2025!
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The film will be written and filmed by the workshop participants under the guidance of experienced professional creative writers and filmmakers, and will focus on our participants hopes, dreams and aspirations for a future city of Plymouth, in addition to expressing their contemporary experience of our city.
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Lunch and refreshments will be provided completely free of charge! To register (it’s free!) please use the link below:
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For further information & the schedule for the two-day workshop please contact dan.paolantonio@plymouth.ac.uk.
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  • When: From 10am – 5pm, Thurs 31st Oct – Fri 1st Nov 2024
  • Admission: Free of Charge (including lunch & refreshments)
  • Venue: University of Plymouth

Spring – Summer 2024

New Imperfect Cinema Film: RE/POSIT/ORY


  • RE/POSIT/ORY

    Produced by Imperfect Cinema, with music composition and sound design by Patrick James Pearson, this new five-screen film was commissioned by The Box and has been in development over the past eight months as a part of their Reimaging the Film Archive programme, which is funded by the National Lottery and the BFI Screen Heritage Fund.

    RE/POSIT/ORY is a five-screen film installation by Allister Gall and Dan Paolantonio, co-founders and co-directors of the Imperfect Cinema film collective. Drawing from the extensive resources of the  The Box Film Archive, the film seeks to reimagine the archive as a place of memory, absence, beauty and loss.

    A black and white image of a textile loom

    Working solely with archival 16mm and 35mm film footage that shows Plymouth and its surrounding area over a century, RE/POSIT/ORY examines the nature and purpose of moving image archives and their role in and significance to contemporary society. Central to the film is the exploration of issues of community, representation and diversity, and the challenging of historical and current power structures. What can we learn from the archive about the past, and how might this inform our future?

    The film was directly informed by the reflections, discussions and ideas that emerged from a series of workshops facilitated by Imperfect Cinema in collaboration with a group of global majority people with lived experience of racism. It also included members of Culture Club, a group that is working actively with The Box to interrogate its collections and exhibitions through an anti-racist lens.

    A black and white image showing a close up of someone's hands using a sewing machine

    During the workshops, Léonie Prentice one of the lead participants highlighted the collection’s duality by sharing the realities of global majority groups depicted in the clips, stating that: ‘The clips specific to the global majority were at times harrowing,’ but also mentioning the joy of seeing a South Asian family playing in the snow.

    ‘The moving image has the power to tell a story without words – a sentiment often felt among underrepresented communities. The moving image collections at The Box record people and lives in motion. They’re evidence of undocumented communities and hidden treasures. RE/POSIT/ORY offers a window into the archive – uncovering what was, hinting at what can be and making these discoveries visible for everyone to engage with’ 

    (Zahra Khanum, RTFA Discovery Media Assistant)

    RE/POSIT/ORY will be screened throughout the summer of 2024 in The Box’s Media Lab gallery. The film is 15 minutes in duration and plays on a loop throughout the day.

Autumn – Winter 2023/24

Major New Film Commission for Imperfect Cinema!

Reimagining The Film Archive

Imperfect Cinema are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a film commission by The Box / BFI to create a new five-screen film installation to be screened in their Media Lab Gallery in Summer 2024.

Our film will explore the degree to which regional life and attitudes have changed over the years, providing a fresh view into the archive that speaks to relevant and important issues of our time.

Expect more updates on this exciting project as it develops soon!

Saturday 27th January 2024, from 6pm

Join us for Cinaesthesia!

Imperfect Cinema partners with Alternate Sensory Reality for a series of three participatory screening events entitled CINAESTHESIA, which will explore the relationships of sensory experience with the world of moving image and sound through experimental approaches.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

How can the sensory perception/subjective experience be communicated and challenged by filmmaking? How does film allow us to connect to others and the world by exchanging subjective realities?

One of the premises of neurodiversity is that the ways we see, hear, experience the world are slightly different and unique for every person. The ways we interact with the world make us who we are.

For more news on Cinaesthesia and how you can get involved, see the Open Call section of this website.

Saturday 21st October 2023, from 11am

Join us for International Home Movie Day 2023!

Come and join us at The Box and University of Plymouth as we bring Home Movie Day to Plymouth for the first time ever!

We want to help you share your home movies with the community. Celebrate with us on Saturday 21 October 2023 and bring along your home movies – film or video. Learn how to identify and digitise your film gauge or video format, and how to care for your beloved family footage.

Imperfect Cinema will be hosting a screening of our film Tamar which features incredible Home Movie footage shot by Claude Endicott and taken from the Endicott Collection which is part of the extensive Film Archive at The Box. We’ll also be discussing our community outreach & heritage project Home Of Movies in addition to contributing to the many hands-on film screening and media archaeology activities taking place throughout the day

Event info: https://ow.ly/s51350PSNo9

Friday 6th October 2023, from 5pm

Plymouth Community History Festival 2023: Imperfect Cinema Union Street Cinema History Tour

Join Imperfect Cinema at the closing event of The Plymouth Community History Festival for a suitably silver-screen-themed history tour along Stonehouse’s iconic Union Street, where it’s truly remarkable (and largely completely forgotten) film & cinema heritage will be brought back to life by Plymouth’s very own underground Film Collective!

The interactive cinema history tour is free of charge and will not only feature unique archival content of each location on the walk, but also a very special secret screening event in an iconic Union Street location! So join us for a unique cinematic celebration of this remarkable street, and a for veritable feast of film! Please note that this is a ticket-only event.

  • Tickets are free of charge, with 25 spaces available.                        Update: This event is now sold-out.
  • Venue:  History Tour starts 5pm at Derry’s Clock, (Old George Street, Plymouth PL12TG).

 

Summer 2022 – Summer 2023

 

Thursday 27th April 2023, from 7pm

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Imperfect Cinema invites you to our event The Awakening on the evening of 27th April 2023 in the Millennium Building on Plymouth’s historic Union Street. For the first time since 1981, we will be bringing Cinema back to this iconic venue (it was originally built as The Gaumont Palace Cinema in 1931).
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This event will culminate in a one-off (and never-to-be-repeated) live performance by the Imperfect Orchestra, who will be re-scoring a gothic masterpiece of cinema (the first-ever horror feature film), the deliciously uncanny Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), the quintessential German Expressionist film, and indeed, the inspiration for all horror films to follow.
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(Projector tests with our new big screen at the Millennium Building)

.We are also looking for short films (of three minutes or less) which similarly embrace the sinister, macabre and bizarre! See our Open Call For Films section for full details! Channel your gothic horror vibes! Think ghoulish, fiendish and uncanny! Release the bats!

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More details about this very special event, this wonderful venue, and how to get involved very soon!
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Tickets £5.00 via eventbrite:
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  • Thursday 27th April 2023 from 7pm
  • Venue: The Millennium Building, 34 Union Street PL13EY
  • Admission: £5.00  (18+ Only)
Wednesday 14th December From 7pm
Imperfect Cinema Christmas Micro Cinema & Festive Film Challenge:

Imperfect Cinema returns to Stonehouse for our Xmas Micro-Cinema event at Cawfee, (104 Union Street PL13HL). There’ll be festive fun a’plenty, pizza prepared by Cawfee’s very own in-house chef extraordinaire Matt Carter, and the usual IC punk rock disco to follow the screenings!

If you’d like to screen anything then please bring your films on a memory stick. Alternatively you might like to respond to our festive film challenge (details below)
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The 72-hour Imperfect Cinema ‘Hey Ho Ho Let’s  Go’ Film CHALLENGE has LAUNCHED! Online entries deadline is 6pm Monday 12th Dec. Alternatively you can bring your films along on the night on a memory stick. Screening this Wednesday the 14th Dec #cawfee from 7pm
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Your Hey Ho Ho, Let’s Go film should respond to the following rules:
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1. Your film should have a Christmas theme
2. You must pick one of the days from the song ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ to feature in your film. How you want to do this is entirely up to you.
3. The duration of your film should be three-minutes or less
4. No onscreen dialogue please
5. All props used on-screen must be two-dimensional!
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Send your film to us (via email – WeTransfer, OneDrive, Google d
Drive, etc) by 5pm on Monday the 12th of December via email: a.gall@plymouth.ac.uk or dan.paolantonio@plymouth.ac.uk
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We’re raising money for the Stonehouse Food Bank with this event, so a suggested donation of £2.00 on the door would be very gratefully received and would help a really good cause during the Xmas period!
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Full event details (BYOB) can be found here: https://fb.me/e/4dkcrpF41
Hey Ho Ho, Let’s Go!
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Saturday 26th November From 8pm
 BEEF (Bristol Experimental Expanded Film) Presents: Conspirators of Perception: An Evening with Imperfect Cinema

For this event at the Cube Cinema, Imperfect Cinema will screen films that have inspired the project and a selection of films made by the IC collective since its inception in 2010. Allister and Dan (Co-founders and Co-Directors of Imperfect Cinema) will also screen and discuss their specific film outputs within the project, with a particular emphasis on their sound/screen work and explorations of places, people and cultures.

The BEEF Presents programme is supported by West of England Visual Arts Alliance funded by Arts Council England

Saturday 26th November 2022 (TBC)
Imperfect Cinema at Stonehouse Memory Exchange History Group (Part Two)

Join Imperfect Cinema for part two of their interactive lecture on the incredible history of Cinema on Plymouth’s iconic Union Street  and find out more about our Home of Movies project and how you can get involved!

Sat June 25th – Sun 4th September 2022
(with 2pm screenings at The Box Media Lab 16-21 August 2022)
New IC film STADE premieres at the exhibition ‘Because The Night Belongs to Us’

Imperfect Cinema are very proud to present our new film ‘STADE’ at this exhibition, which represents our second collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and sound artist Patrick James Pearson. Over a year in the making, and the first time we have exhibited our work at The Box, we are delighted to be able to share this long-term sound-screen work with you all!

Because The Night Belongs To Us explores universal themes of belonging, relationships, risk taking and safety, through to societal shifts such as youth, and counter culture. From the Van Dike Club of the late 1960s to the world famous Union Street and its club culture of the 1990s – discover Plymouth’s contribution to experimentation, self-expression, music and creativity has been distinctive, challenging and captivating. Celebrate the work of those who support the night-time economy; the social networks, communities and often hidden workforce. Learn about some of the issues surrounding life at night for different people

Works by a broad range of artists that reference and represent the exhibition’s themes will also be on show, including Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Beryl Cook and Malcolm Le Grice. Alongside these will be commissions made specifically for the project, including activities by communities that meet at night by photographer by Dom Moore, documentary drawings of service and support industries by visual artist Simon Grennan, a sound installation created with young people from Southway by acclaimed composer Simon Dobson and films by Imperfect Cinema, local musicians and creatives.

‘Because the night belongs to us’ is the culmination of the five-year ‘Plymouth After Dark’ community engagement project and has been developed with many contributions from the people of Plymouth as well as the support of DJ, psychotherapist and broadcaster Nemone, artist Keith Harrison and award winning journalist, writer and critic John Harris

Saturday 30th July 2022
Imperfect Cinema at Stonehouse Memory Exchange History Group (Part One)

Join Imperfect Cinema and learn more about the incredible (and largely completely forgotten) history of Cinema on Plymouth’s iconic Union Street and our Home of Movies project!

Sunday 5th May 2022 (from 6pm)
Imperfect Cinema Union Street Cinema History Tour, Film Screening & Meal 

Join Imperfect Cinema at the closing event of The Stonehouse Storyteller Festival for a suitably silver-screen-themed history tour along Stonehouse’s iconic Union Street, where it’s truly remarkable (and largely completely forgotten) film & cinema heritage will be brought back to life by Plymouth’s very own underground film Collective!

The interactive cinema history tour will be followed by a delicious meal & mystery Hollywood feature film screening at Cawfee, with a bespoke film-themed menu created by Union Street Chef Matt Carter. So join us for a unique cinematic celebration of this remarkable street, and a for veritable feast of film and food!

The Union Street History Tour commences at 6pm at Derry’s Clock, (Old George St, Plymouth PL1 2TG), with meal and screening to follow from 7.30pm at Cawfee, (104 Union St, Stonehouse, Plymouth PL1 3HL). Please note this is a ticket-only event.

  • Tickets are £12 each, with 20 spaces available. Book online here:
  • UPDATE: This event is now sold-out.
Thursday 26th May 2022  (7pm-Late)
Imperfect Cinema: Some New Perspectives

After a two-year hiatus, Imperfect Cinema returns with two events in two weeks!  Join us for another evening of film and fun in the atmospheric surroundings of The Old Morgue Cafe!!!

Imperfect Cinema: .Some New Perspectives will bring yet more adventurous, inventive filmmaking to the Plymouth’s only truly independent silver screen, and will feature a bespoke programme of short films made in response to the very idea of Imperfect Cinema.
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Also featuring the ever-present and ever-popular Open Reel (bring your films on a memory stick – 3 minutes or less), and of course more Imperfect Cinema news and the usual convivial, high-spirited behaviour!
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So join us for what promises to be a fantastic evening of film and to continue our celebration of the long-overdue return of Imperfect Cinema! Huzzah!
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Friday 13th May 2022 (From 7pm)
A Step In Time: Imperfect Cinema Returns!

After a two-year hiatus, Imperfect Cinema returns for our inaugural ‘Home of Movies’ micro-cinema event A Step in Time!, Join us for an evening of film and fun in the atmospheric surroundings of The Old Morgue Cafe!

The event will feature bespoke programmes of short films made in response to our Home of Movies project, the long-awaited return of the Open Reel (bring your films on a memory stick – 3 minutes or less) and of course Imperfect Cinema news (there’s lots!). Bringing the evening to a close will be a special screening of our 2014 film Tamar with a wonderful score by The Imperfect Cinema Orchestra (now Imperfect Orchestra).

So join us for what promises to be a fantastic evening of film and to celebrate the long-overdue return of Imperfect Cinema!

Friday 6th & Saturday 7th May 2022 (From 6pm)
Digital Dervish & Flamenco Sonic

A multimedia performance work by Hedy Hurban. This unique immersive film, sound and dance work will be a feast for the eyes and ears, and will be introduced and Q&A chaired by Imperfect Cinema’s Dan Paolantonio.

  • Market Hall, Duke St, Devonport, Plymouth PL1 4PS