My name is Jon Holmes and I’m a former Friends of HPPH member who lived in Headingley for 12 years, leaving in 2013 to continue pursuing a career in sports journalism. The Picture House was one of the most important places in my world – I loved our Film Club meetings and getting to chat about whatever movie we’d just seen that night.

Before writing this, I looked up an old film blog I used to keep from 2010 to 2012. It mentions many of the HPPH screenings I saw around that time – from “A Single Man” to “Submarine”, from “Laura” to “Lilting”… Film Club was always “An Education” and I got to connect with lots of beautiful people along the way.

I recently reached out to Stephen and the team because on Saturday 18 July (1.15pm), I’m helping to bring a new documentary to the Picture House for a special screening and Q&A event.

“The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel” (2025) is about a forgotten professional footballer called Tony Powell who left England in 1981 and within a few years, had completely cut ties with family and friends back home. He’s discovered at the eponymous motel in West Hollywood, L.A., and he has a remarkable tale to tell. By sharing his life story with the film-makers, it opens the door to a reckoning and perhaps a chance to alleviate the pain of the past…

This will be the Northern U.K. Premiere of the documentary and it’s happening as part of the 4^th annual “Football Pride” summer event from Football v Homophobia, a campaign which I’ve worked on for several years.

Supported by Leeds Queer Film Festival and the Premier League, there will be a special introduction and a post-screening Q&A (it’ll be an honour for me to host that in the Picture House), followed by drinks and networking at Brudenell Social Club. The event continues into Leeds Pride weekend, with World Cup ‘watch party’ opportunities and the parade on the Sunday.

If you’re reading this in time, and can come along, we’d love to welcome you to see “The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel” and be a part of our wider weekend event. Tickets are on sale now from the HPPH box office; you can read more about “Football Pride” here; and if you’d like to connect around anything you’ve read here, just drop me an email at jon@footballvhomophobia.com.

And to all the Friends of HPPH, I know you’ll all keep up the excellent work, and continue to make the cinema a place where everyone feels welcome to enjoy the films their way and take part in great conversation. Thanks for being there for me!

Jon Holmes