Wirksworth cinema to expand customers’ horizons

The Northern Light Cinema, in North End, Wirksworth, joined together with seven other rural cinemas to form City Flickers, a project which seeks to bring a wider variety of films to a country audience.

Paul Carr, who runs the cinema, is coordinating the project, which has just been awarded £9,000 funding from FILM HUB NWC, as part of the BFI Film Audience Network.

He explained that the money will be used to pay for marketing and licence fees to pay for independent and foreign films, adding that he hoped film buffs may be attracted to Wirksworth to watch a rare film if they have been unable to make it to a screening in a city.

“If we are showing a film that is quite rare then film fans will travel in order to see it,” he said. “It’s bringing people in and it’s a benefit to the whole town. It’s also about introducing people to a different type of film than they would usually see.”

Paul has been working with a variety of city cinemas for City Flickers, including the Cornerhouse in Manchester.

In October, the cinema hosted an entire weekend of German films and had a lecturer introduce it. Among the films played was the classic ‘Wings of Desire’, directed by Wim Wenders.

The cinema also promoted Wirksworth’s twinning links with the German town of Frankenau and Paul hopes to do something similar with the French town of Die, which Wirksworth is also twinned with.