SUBMISSION 16
Memorandum submitted by Phoenix Arts Centre
I represent Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester,
a mixed-use venue operating a professional cinema service over
60% of its programme. The venue is a regional film theatre under
the historical definition of the British Film Institute and operates
through public subsidy at local and regional levels. The cinema
programme consists of a wide variety of films from Britain, and
other countries throughout the world, and includes screenings
of older material, non-mainstream product, and many works produced
locally in the East Midlands. Without Phoenix the people of Leicester
and Leicestershire would not have an opportunity to access literally
hundreds of films each year which are ignored by the commercial
multiplexes.
Phoenix Arts is a single screen, part-time cinema
whose success is due in no small part to its relationship with
the regional Programme Unit of the bfi—six professional
film bookers—whose buying power with UK distributors ensures
that we pay reasonable minimum guarantees and first-run percentages
of 35%. The Programme Unit also advises and assists us on locating
titles via the bfi's SIFT database and sustains the bfi's
cultural exhibition remit to England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern
Ireland.
The regional Programme Unit and its tiny sister
department, the Exhibition Development Unit (collectively known
as bfi Cinema Services, employing a total of nine persons)
is currently under a threat of closure determined by bfi
senior management as part of a cost-cutting exercise. If this
action is carried out the consequences are likely to be extremely
grave for many specialised cinemas throughout the UK.
— Access to certain titles will be
extremely limited.
— Booking terms for smaller, independent
cinemas are likely to rise.
— The range of cultural product will
narrow.
— Education about the moving image,
past and present, will become increasingly problematic.
— Purely commercial programming will
become the norm.
— A truly national cinema culture operating
outside London will be seriously damaged.
The Film Council has a clear duty to "extend
and improve access to film cultures and film heritage, serving
the diverse geographical needs of the UK's nations and regions,
and recognise the differing needs of rural, suburban, and metropolitan
locations" (FC Annual Review 2001-02). If the bfi
is allowed to abolish its regional programming service, as presently
constituted, the Film Council will have failed to uphold its mandate.
While it is recognised that the bfi needs
to redefine its role in the life of UK film culture, and to re-organise
it's financial position, it cannot be allowed to turn its back
on the nation in the pursuit of short-term, and mostly London-centred,
gains.
Phoenix Arts is not pleading for the mere preservation
of a handful of jobs (though the loss of such expertise is itself
deeply depressing); the key issue at stake is the absolute preservation
of a national film culture effecting specialised exhibition that
is under imminent threat from the bfi and ultimately its
funder, the Film Council.
I would urge the Committee to recognise that
the infrastructure of specialised distribution and exhibition
in the UK is finely balanced between commercial and cultural considerations,
national, regional, and local priorities, and the simple imperative
of presenting audiences with access to a greater choice of moving-image
material. The bfi and the Film Council must therefore seek
to develop a strategy, which not only preserves but also enhances
a living and diverse film culture for the benefit of all rather
than the few. Many regional programmers like myself wish to work
in effective partnership with the bfi and the Film Council
but in order to do so both organisation need to recognise the
fundamental importance of its regional constituency, and of the
many "smaller voices" who actually deliver the goods.
3 March 2003
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