Waltham Forest Cinema Project's New Year's Resolutions 2025
An exercise in accountability
Two things I know about new year’s resolutions:
1. You have to make them
2. They will inevitably get broken
The Waltham Forest Cinema Project is definitively a hobby, a part-time passion that I am working to build into a full time occupation. The route to having a full time indie cinema in Waltham Forest is in no way obvious to me from where I’m sitting now. But the more time I spend on it, the more the shroud of unknowing diminishes.
The other thing that helps besides time is other people getting involved. And by reading this you’re already helping: by casting a spell of accountability on the key things I want to do this year. But if you want to do more and get involved, just message me. I am happy to be open about how I see the project in its final form and how I’m (we’re) planning to get there. Any air of mystery about the project is really just my indolence about posting on social media! So, without further ado, here’s what I want to achieve with the project this year…
1. WALKING EVERY STREET IN THE BOROUGH
Starting off with a biggie! One thing anyone who has been on a trip with me knows is that I am not a natural geographer, with an internal compass that is constantly swinging from north to south. But to find a good home for the cinema in the borough, I’m going to have to get sharp on where the hot spots are, where the top potential locations are, and where there are hidden (to me) venues. So I’m going to walk every street in the borough with friends and I’d love it if people would walk me through their neighbourhood on the way, as I’d love to get the insight from your hundreds of walks through your hood rather than my single one. Email me!
2. MORE SCREENINGS
You may have seen already I’ve announced the first two events for 2025. First off I’ll be going to Ravenswood Collective with the Vintage Mobile Cinema, showing the best of London Short Film Festival. Then I’m going to be taking Eden, Mia Hansen–Løve’s ode to losing yourself on the dance floor to Walthamstow Trades Hall. These screenings took many months to come together, but I’m not done.
I really want to put on some screenings with a local Romanian organisation or a local group as Waltham Forest has one of the highest proportions of Romanians in the UK. I’ve got some ideas about what to show and where, but even better is if I can find a partner for it. Email me if you have any kind of lead in this area.
3. SECURING SOME MAJOR FUNDING
I spent a good chunk of the end of 2024 prepping a major funding bid with a local funder. The project that I proposed I think is very cool (well, I would) and I really hope it happens. If not, we go again!
4. UNDERSTANDING SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE
When I think about running a business full time, there’s aspects that feel like a smooth ramp of learning curve, and then there’s others that feel like a 12-foot unscaleable brick wall. Business finance is definitely at the latter end of the scale. Basically, I am looking for a route into understanding cash flow, projections and all that good stuff that keeps you afloat. If you either had a really good way to learn about this stuff yourself or fancy giving me some mentorship time, I would be deeply grateful! Drop me a line!
5. LOOKING FOR AN INTERIM VENUE
Finally, my current thinking is that a fully fledged three screen cinema isn’t going to suddenly materialise. I’m hoping that some phasing will help get there, both in proving there’s healthy appetite and also offering some manageable scale for that learning curve of business ownership rather than drowning in the deep end. So if you know of any places that could host a part time cinema single screen community cinema venue, I’m all ears!
So in short, I’m having a ball doing this solo, but would love other people to do it with, so drop me a line!