Cosy Cinema: The Black Chancellor

In the wake of the 1909 Cinematograph Act a flurry of new moving picture theatres sprang up across Birmingham.

One such establishment was the Kings Heath Picturehouse – aka the Cosy – on Institute Road, which had a short-lived existence from 1911 to 1915 before it was swept away by its competitors.

111 years later the same site is occupied by •nook• gallery, opened in 2024 and already a local institution. Cinema is an important part of their programme, and for this special event they’ll be paying homage to the building’s past life.

Thanks to some tireless digging by Ben Waddington (Still Walking), we have some idea of the people who ran the Cosy - including the ‘Prince of Publicists’ Lawson E. Trout - as well as the films that showed there.

Amongst them was The Black Chancellor, a 1912 Danish melodrama directed by August Blom. Unlike many silents of that era the film has happily survived, and it will be presented here with an improvised live score by bassist and multi-instrumentalist Russ Sergeant.