Strolling to Bermondsey from London Bridge, you go by a lengthy tunnel. “Am I going the proper approach?” you may suppose to your self, however you forge on, ultimately rising from the darkness, out into the open. The identical precept will be utilized to your vacation spot on the different finish: The Arzner. Because the UK’s first LGBTQ-focused cinema, The Arzner supplies a devoted house for queer illustration on display, a darkish screening room through which higher understanding of your self and others can come to gentle.
An inviting presence within the centre of Bermondsey Sq., The Arzner opened its doorways in April. Via its floor-to-ceiling home windows, a fashionable, spacious and homely bar space will 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 dwell across the nook, and I used to return 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 competition circuit through the years, he would see nice LGBTQ+ movies debut and resonate with audiences, and but they’d fail to filter right down to basic audiences. “Queer movies will at all times wrestle to get onto the large display, as a result of studios don’t consider that there’ll be an viewers for them,” displays Greenlees. “They’ve acquired to be filled with huge names or large 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 suppose 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 necessary 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 necessary 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 whole profession, and that was necessary 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’ve gotten a devoted French cinema in London within the Institut Français, you’ve gotten us for queer cinema” says Greenlees.
Collaboration and dialog are on the core of what the Arzner staff is constructing, having already fostered sturdy relationships with distributors that target queer titles comparable to Peccadillo, Outplay, and TLA – they usually’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 comparable to Pink Palace, Bar Trash, and Funeral Parade, however as a substitute to supply a residence for queer cinema that exists year-round.