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FILM PROJECTIONS is a short documentary that explores how the fast-moving digital revolution has created new opportunities for one of the UK’s oldest cinemas, helping them to open new screens and provide more customer choice. It’s a revolution that has provided a new lease of life for a venue that has struggled for decades to remain open as a working cinema and remain at the heart of its seaside community.
Worthing’s Dome Cinema opened its doors back in 1911 and has been showing films to the paying public for over 100 years. Now a listed building and saved from the hands of developers, the historic splendour of the Dome contrasts markedly with the latest digital projection and audio technology that they have recently installed, creating an intriguing modern-day paradox.
FILM PROJECTIONS goes behind the scenes of this remarkable cinema, exploring the original auditorium, the two new screens that have only recently been added and The Projectionist’s Bar, with its wealth of historic memorabilia. We even look inside the main projection room, which still has its original fire shutters to protect the building from the vagaries of the old acetate film stock and the many explosions that could easily follow.
We talk to cinema manager, Ross McLaughlin, the Dome’s former 35mm film protectionist, who now, along with the rest of his team, are custodians of this idyllic piece of film history, helping to protecting it and to enable it to thrive for our and future generations.
Documentary short film, duration 15 minutes