Please join us on April 3rd at 8pm onwards in the cinema bar to discuss all things film. Some of us will be watching The End at 5:10pm and if you already have your tickets there should be time to say hello before the 8:20pm screening of La Cocina. Both of these films are screening all week along with more chances to see I’m Still Here, Santosh and Anora.
‘First Thursday’ is our monthly meet up to give members and anyone interested in the Friends, or cinema in general, a chance to get together.
After a successful Festive Screening of Perfect Days in December our next ‘First Thursday’ Film Club meet up is on February 6th after the 5:00pm screening of A Complete Unknown. Come along and watch the film with us, or see it anytime from the 31st January, and then join us in the bar around 7.45pm on the 6th to discuss it.
“Even a skeptic can be swept away by its heady mix of laidback assessment and genuine awe.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“The wonder of A Complete Unknown isn’t just that it manages to be good anyway but that it finds an angle on Dylan as unexpectedly electric as that amplified Newport set.” – Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture
For November’s ‘First Thursday’ Film Club on the 7th November we’ll be meeting in the bar after the 5pm showing of Anora in screen 2. Anora is the latest film from Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project) and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. It’s screening at the Picture House from Friday 1st November and is also one of the many films showing at the Leeds International Film Festival. If you can’t make the screening on the 7th and want to see the film some other time you’d still be welcome to join us around 7:30pm. Meeting at the end of the first week of the Festival should also mean we have plenty of other great films to talk about.
“Watching Anora is like riding shotgun alongside a reckless driver. Sean Baker is one of the brightest and most original filmmakers of his generation. He is one of a kind, and so is Anora.” – Leonard Maltin
“A wildly entertaining, modern-day screwball comedy set in 2018 that barrels through New York and Las Vegas. Mikey Madison is a revelation.” – Wendy Ide, Screen International
The film is showing every day from Friday so we hope you will get chance to see it and then join us on Thursday to talk about it.
For October’s First Thursday Film Club we’ll be watching The Outrun at 5pm on Thursday 3rd and then gathering in the bar for a chat to share our feelings on the film, or about film in general, from around 7:30pm. First Thursdays are a new meet-up organised by the Friends of Hyde Park Picture House but open to everyone.
Starring and produced by Saoirse Ronan, and adapted from the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is a life-affirming story about living on the edge, healing and what it means to return home.
“This is beautiful filmmaking. This is cinema where everything matters, where every little detail adds up to create something seriously exhilarating to experience in the theater.” – Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net
“The Outrun’s true tether, however, is Ronan, and here she works to all her greatest strengths. The film wraps entirely around her, yet she’s far too honest an actor to ever play up to the audience’s expectations of a woman in crisis.” – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
The film is showing every day this week so we hope you will get chance to see it and then join us on Thursday to talk about it.
Our new ‘First Thursday’ meet ups start on September 5th when a group of Friends plan to see the early evening film and meet in the bar afterwards to chat.
You may have had a trial run at this if you attended our successful Yorkshire Day screening on the first Thursday in August and shared your feelings about Lad, A Yorkshire Story on an exit post it.
For September we’ve decided to focus on Kneecap, the “mostly true story” about the controversial Belfast hip-hop group of the same name, but there’ll be chance to talk about anything else you’ve seen.
We’ll be at the 6pm screening of Kneecap in Screen 2 on Thursday 5th September. The film is also screening every day at the Picture House so there are plenty of opportunities to see it before the 5th if you would just like to join us for the meetup, which will be around 8pm.
The band have also just performed at the Reading and Leeds Festival and a 30 minute set is available to watch on iPlayer.
Come along, enjoy the cinema, meet other Friends and chat about films.
Thank to all our members who took part in the recent vote for our Yorkshire Day screening. The winning film was Lad: A Yorkshire Story.
Eleven years on from its first release Lad has continued to defy expectations and reach new audiences around the world with its charming and heartfelt story of friendship and the landscape.
Documenting the story of a teenage boy, Tom, as he grapples with the heartache of grief until an unlikely friendship with a park ranger in the Yorkshire Dales offers an opportunity for healing.
Book your tickets now and join us in Screen 2 on Thursday 1st August at 6pm. If you come along early from 5:30pm there will be free hot drinks and some popcorn. Afterwards there will be an opportunity to share your feelings about Yorkshire and the film!
If you’re unable to attend this screening you may be able to meet up on future ‘First Thursdays’ starting on September 5th when a group of Friends plan to see the early evening film and meet in the bar afterwards.
Sunday 9th June 2pm
Our Annual General Meeting covering the financial year from April 2023-24 will be taking place in Screen 2 at the Picture House on Sunday 9th June. The AGM will begin promptly at 2pm but doors will be open from around 1:15pm to allow members to talk to each other and the committee whilst enjoying some complimentary refreshments. After the meeting has concluded we will also be showing a short film.
We would be glad to see as many of you as possible there but you will need to be signed up to our Pay What You Decide membership scheme in order to attend. For full details please see the AGM Page of our website which includes the agenda and relevant documents for review.
If you are planning on attending please let us know by completing this form.
Friday 24th May – Headingley Enterprise and Arts Centre
The next film and food session at Heart is Bride and Prejudice directed by the award winning Gurinder Kaur Chadha.
An update of Jane Austen’s classic tale, in which Mrs. Bakshi is eager to find suitable husbands for her four unmarried daughters. When the rich single gentlemen Balraj and Darcy come to visit, the Bakshis have high hopes, though circumstance and boorish opinions threaten to get in the way of romance…
Tickets £12 available from HEART reception and online (includes food and film).
A Pervert Pictures Presentation on Sunday March 17th, 2pm
As author Sara Shepard observed “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it”.
In “The Damned” director Luchino Visconti takes us back in his portrayal of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. This is a disturbing film of beauty and decay, a heady mixture of sex, violence and intrigue, with a dysfunctional family enriched by arms sales at its core. Something for everyone!
We are so fortunate that the Hyde Park Picture House has worked with Pervert Pictures to bring this powerful tale of decadence to the big screen which will being with a short introduction.
Pervert Pictures is a Leeds-based film club for lovers of the erotic, the disturbing and the provocative, which aims to create a safe and social environment for the viewing of explicit and challenging films.
Herbert Thaliman (Umberto Orsini) says in the film “It does no good to raise one’s voice when it’s too late, not even to save your soul”. A vital lesson for our times? Agree? Disagree? Loved it? Hated it? Let us know. Leave a comment below, contact us with a review or join us in the cafe area after the film for a chat.
Following the formal business, elections and discussion at our Annual General Meeting on Sunday 24th September, the Friends are putting on a free screening of My Childhood. We are delighted to bring you a rare opportunity to watch this classic on a cinema screen.
My Childhood is a 45 minute film directed by Bill Douglas, made in 1972. Filmed in 16mm, it draws on his experiences as an 8 year old boy in a Scottish mining village as World War 2 comes to an end. My Childhood reflects the austerity of his everyday life through its use of location, non-professional actors and powerful black and white photography. “A harsh, unsentimental, but also intensely felt and moving portrait of childhood”.
We look forward to you joining us to watch this treat from the comfortable seats of the recently opened Hyde Park Picture House Screen 2.
Please note that all Friends memberships from 2020 and earlier are expiring before the AGM and you need to sign up to our new Pay What You Decide scheme in order to attend the AGM. If you would like to attend the AGM please let us know by completing this form.
Friends of Hyde Park Picture House 