Flatpack Festival
Film for all the senses

Summary

CineCov aimed to turn the whole city into a cinema, exploring Coventry's hidden gems in the process. One such gem was the newly refurbished Anglican Chapel situated in London Road Cemetery, built in 1847 and neglected for decades. Flatpack teamed up with Historic Coventry and Film Liberation Project to produce a seasonal programme designed to celebrate and bring audiences to this incredible space. These events were the first events to be held at the chapel, a once forgotten piece of history. The screenings brought people together to experience something special, a crucial intervention at a time when people were isolated and exhausted from the pandemic.

Project Aims

  • Build awareness of Coventry's film exhibition scene
  • Improve perception of Coventry and increase pride in Coventry as a place to live

Headlines

  • 5 sold out seasonal screenings
  • 44% of audience members at the first screening returned to the second
  • 52.38% of audience members had previously been to other CineCov events
  • 50% of the audience stayed for the post film chat for Harold and Maude

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Films

Four in total - Bride of Frankenstein, It’s a Wonderful Life, Harold and Maude and The Wicker Man.

Partners

Historic Coventry Trust - part of a new breed of ‘heritage development trusts’, HCT are creative, dynamic and entrepreneurial in their approach. With a vision firmly focused on the future, they want to make sure heritage is relevant to people and economically useful. London Road Cemetery: Paxton’s Arboretum has undergone extensive restoration work, showcasing this once-forgotten gem. The Anglican Chapel, the raised promenade and old entrance to the cemetery have all been restored, and new interpretation will tell the fascinating stories of its residents, and its natural heritage.

The Film Liberation Project - aims to break down the barriers that surround filmmaking to give anyone the chance to be a filmmaker. Film Liberation champions working with what you’ve got and giving yourself permission to create and try new things, learning film through making, watching, discussing, collaborating and getting things wrong. After a successful pilot and creation of an online film community, The Film Liberation Film Club was created to keep connected and to continue to share, learn and create. Participants of the pilot take turns to choose a film, to give introductions and lead in post screening discussions.

What worked?

Programme - The screenings were very popular due to the careful curation and how that complemented the setting. All films were in some way connected to a graveyard, death and the afterlife. Utilising heritage sites in this way brought a whole new audience who wouldn’t otherwise have visited these historic buildings.

Marketing - City of Culture’s free ticketing service extended our reach to prospective audiences while our own marketing gave the events an exciting appeal and sense of rarity. We produced bespoke artwork and printed collectable postcards which we distributed around the city centre and made effective use of social media, initiated radio broadcasts with the BBC (live from the cemetery) and got some coverage in local newspapers. CineCov created an Instagram page which became very popular after the Halloween screening.

Audience loyalty - On average 50% of our audience had already been to our previous screenings.

Feedback - We used both paper forms at the events to capture people’s initial thoughts as well as online for people that didn't have the time to do them on the day. Over half the audience gave feedback for these screenings and were very complementary with high demand for future screenings.

What has been difficult?

Omicron - Covid-19 disrupted our screening of It's A Wonderful Life. We had to half our capacity, but organised a second screening. Our volunteers, who were provided by City Hosts, were also affected which meant the CineCov team having to spread themselves thinly to make sure everyone arrived through the graveyard safely and in time for the film.
Dark graveyard - We had some late arrivals get lost in the graveyard due to accessing remote entrances, despite attempts to mitigate this by creating light trails and City Hosts being on hand to direct audience members.

What you would do differently?

CineCov has provided funding to the Film Liberation Project to continue screenings for another year at the Anglican Chapel. More signposting will be used and the programme will be made even more diverse.

Impact

  • The majority of those surveyed said the events changed their perception of Coventry for the better and increased pride in the city.
  • The Film Liberation Project have testified to coming out of the project feeling more experienced and confident in all aspects of film exhibition.
  • The events were really popular, offering escapism, entertainment and connectivity at a time when the pandemic had a huge impact on people's mental wellbeing and isolation.

Testimonials

Audience Feedback:
"Fabulous event. Very impressed with the presentation of the venue - lit up against the dark cemetery was very atmospheric. Free popcorn for all and the offer of blanket loan should we be cold in the venue was also very thoughtful and added to what was already a great event."

"CineCov's programming has been excellent and thoughtful, exciting delivery of events. Making use of non traditional spaces for film is a great idea."

"Great idea being able to enjoy cinema in interesting environment that brings the film alive in a different way and exposes you to parts of the city that you might not have seen otherwise"

Partner feedback:
"Working with CineCov has been a great experience, they've been extremely supportive of FilmLibs approach of making film screenings more interactive, educational and community centred, from the tech, to advertising, to film licensing, they've always been clear, concise and inclusive." - Ben Cook, The Film Liberation Project

"Working with Cinecov was straightforward, professional but still creative. The result is that we are planning a further programme and looking at producing Film Weeks and Festivals at the Chapel in the future. We have captured an audience and with increased promotion and word of mouth we see film screenings at the heart of the Chapel’s future programme of events." - Hannah Jones, Historic Coventry

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