Continuous, loud crisp-crunching. Hands rustling in popcorn. Feet viciously kneading the back of your seat. Unknown elbows greedily swallowing up arm rests. Cinematic crimes against humanity are petty and many. But no more! Worthing resident and Komedia director Paulie Musselwhite (on the left in the photo) and technical animator Matt Simkins have come up with the ingenious idea of a pop-up one-person cinema…
Yes, One Bum Cinema Club, aka possibly the world’s smallest free-to-visit cinema, has launched in Shoreham at the wonderful Neighbourhood Store, and will pop up in a further two locations next month. We had a chat to half of One Bum (one cheek?), Paulie, to find out more:
What made you come up with the idea?
The idea came from Anna, my partner [of Anna’s Drawing Room and Found shop + studio owner!]. She was painting the understairs cupboard floor and, with all our junk out of there, we joked that it was actually a nice little spot. So we got talking about trying to do something fun in there and One Bum Cinema Club was born!
What films will you be showing?
At the moment, we’re showing short animations. Luckily, we have some very talented friends out there who have let us show their wonderful work. Go check out Laurie Rowan and Persistent Peril to name a couple! And we have been overwhelmed by the response from the animators we have reached out to [Ed: check out their Instagram to see who else they’ve got lined up].
What form will the cinema take?
As it all started in a cupboard, we wanted to keep it small. And because it’s going on the road, we needed to make something we could easily assemble and take apart. So we built a shed-like structure in Matt’s garden (Matt’s a keen engineer, so he’s often building and making things in his wonderful shed). It comes fully fitted with a lovely 80s cinema seat (row C, seat 12), dimmable lights and a really neat button that starts the experience when you press it!
Sign us up! Where can we experience One Bum?
To begin with, it will be in Neighbourhood Store in Shoreham for a month, we then take it to Colonnade House in Worthing for their Films on the Gallery Wall event, and straight after that it will be in Found shop & studio, which is also in Worthing. We’re open to ideas for its future travels – who knows what could happen!
And it’s totally free?
Yes, one of our main goals was to keep this free to all, we want as many people as possible to come and enjoy it. Putting it up in public places gives it that platform to be discovered by lots of people, and you don’t need to book.
You can watch the build on their Instagram or just get yourself and your posterior down to the pop-up for an entirely different kind of cinematic experience, not to mention a whole host of quality shorts. Bums away!
The need to know:
6th January – 1st February: Neighbourhood Store, 16 High Street, Shoreham-By-Sea, BN43 5DA; 10.00am – 5.30pm
8th February: Colonnade House, 47 Warwick Street, Worthing, BN11 3DH; 11.00am – 4.00pm
10th – end-February Found Shop & Studio, 2 Gratwicke Road, Worthing, BN11 4BH; 10.00am – 4.00pm
Recent Comments