Strolling to Bermondsey from London Bridge, you go by way of a lengthy tunnel. “Am I going the best approach?” you would possibly assume to your self, however you forge on, ultimately rising from the darkness, out into the open. The identical precept could be utilized to your vacation spot on the different finish: The Arzner. Because the UK’s first LGBTQ-focused cinema, The Arzner offers a devoted house for queer illustration on display screen, a darkish screening room during which higher understanding of your self and others can come to mild.
An inviting presence within the centre of Bermondsey Sq., The Arzner opened its doorways in April. By its floor-to-ceiling home windows, a trendy, spacious and homely bar space could be seen, and it’s evident at first look that they’re proud to be so seen. This constructing has a lengthy historical past as a cinema house, and a part of the location circumstances is that it stays one. “I stay across the nook, and I used to come back right here when it was a cinema earlier than” says co-founder Simon Burke, whose background is in hospitality. Piers Greenlees, the opposite half of the equation, comes from the movie world. On the pageant circuit over time, he would see nice LGBTQ+ movies debut and resonate with audiences, and but they’d fail to filter right down to normal audiences. “Queer movies will at all times battle to get onto the massive display screen, as a result of studios don’t imagine that there’ll be an viewers for them,” displays Greenlees. “They’ve received to be filled with large names or huge tales – they’ll’t simply be easy, relatable tales {that a} lot of audiences can connect with”.
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The pair’s first enterprise – close by queer-focused pub and occasions house The Rising – opened final 12 months to heat reception. When the chance to do one thing with the Bermondsey Sq. cinema website got here up, it was a no-brainer. “Movie is a robust enterprise, however the added give attention to this being a cocktail bar makes it a extra commercially viable house, which I assume is what the earlier administration struggled with.” says Burke. Alongside the anticipated staples, The Arzner serves up a formidable collection of charmingly-themed cocktails, every named after vital figures in LGBTQ+ cinema historical past, starting from Marlene Dietrich to Wong Kar-wai.
The Arzner – each the home cocktail and the venue – are named after Dorothy Arzner, a seminal determine who from 1927 to 1943 was the one feminine director in Hollywood. The choice to christen the venue after her got here after a lot of thought and consideration. “It was vital for us to have a lesbian voice,” says Burke. “No queer cinema is extensively distributed sufficient, however lesbian movies haven’t been as celebrated as these specializing in the homosexual male expertise. Dorothy Arzner was publicly out for her total profession, and that was vital to me, together with how a lot of an influence she had”.
Greenlees and Burke haven’t come throughout a equally LGBTQ-dedicated cinema venue wherever within the UK, and even within the US, and nobody that they’ve spoken to is aware of of an equal house both. “In the identical approach as you will have a devoted French cinema in London within the Institut Français, you will have us for queer cinema” says Greenlees.
Collaboration and dialog are on the core of what the Arzner group is constructing, having already fostered sturdy relationships with distributors that concentrate on queer titles equivalent to Peccadillo, Outplay, and TLA – and so they’ve begun dialogues with London’s coterie of queer cinema specialists about future prospects. The important thing to The Arzner’s dream, and the probability of their success, is that they don’t wish to supplant what’s already been constructed within the capital by movie golf equipment equivalent to Pink Palace, Bar Trash, and Funeral Parade, however as a substitute to supply a dwelling for queer cinema that exists year-round.
