‘Projecting the Past’ was the first major film project undertaken at Sawston Cinema Club and was funded by the Young Roots Heritage Lottery programme through the Heritage Lottery fund.
This project aimed to look at the history of cinema in Sawston and focused on the former cinema building on the school site. Today, this building is called the Marven Centre and it is from this building that Sawston Cinema now operates. However, the cinema building was constructed by Harry Spicer of the local company Spicers. Harry Spicer also donated the land for the building of Sawston Village College and while the College opened in 1930, the cinema followed shortly afterwards in 1932.
The project began with young people looking to identify people locally who remembered the cinema when it was open and who went to see films there or worked there. There were quite a few people who had stories to tell, and these were collected on film. Working with a professional filmmaker, the young people then decided to ‘recreate’ some of the stories they had heard, and the filming of these recreations, together with interviews with people who remembered the original cinema and the story of that building, were all woven together to make a highly acclaimed 30-minute long film. You can see the film below. The film was accompanied by a book, also called ‘Projecting the Past’. This book is also available for you to look at below. If you would like any further information about this project, please contact us.