Over four 2 hour sessions, tutor Dr. Laraine Porter will examine Leicester’s cinemas and cinema going from the beginning of the 1940s until the Millennium.

Over four 2 hour sessions, tutor Dr. Laraine Porter will examine Leicester’s cinemas and cinema going from the beginning of the 1940s until the Millennium.

All sessions will focus specifically on Leicester’s cinemas and cinema going, in the wider context of its social and economic cultures. These will in turn be considered in the wider context of the national picture.

Starting with a session on Leicester’s cinemas during the war, we will consider the role of cinemas in delivering public information, providing entertainment and boosting morale.

The 1960s will consider the end of the age of deference, the rise in youth culture and the ‘teenager’ and the films that came to represent the so-called ‘swinging sixties’ and working class rebellion.

The 1970s are generally viewed as a period of decline for British cinemas and British film and we will consider how this was managed in Leicester, including the opening of Indian cinemas catering for the South Asian diaspora arriving in Leicester.

The 1980s will be considered in relation to the screening of films at Phoenix Theatre following its transition from producing theatre into Phoenix Arts as part of the BFI-promoted Regional Film Theatres and the distribution of international, alternative and so-called art cinema.

Taking us up until the year 2000, the course will consider the impact of Leicester’s new multiplex developments alongside the decline of its single-screen cinemas and consider the impact on programme choice and cinema going

COURSE BREAKDOWN

Week 1: the 1940s - The Blitz Spirit and Leicester Cinemas go to War

Week 2: the 1950s - Cinema in Post War Leicester in the age of austerity and the rise of production cycles like Ealing Comedies

Week 3: The Swinging 60s? - Kitchen sinks, angry young men, counter cultures and the end of the age of deference

Week 4: The 1970s, 1980s and beyond. - Decline and regrowth including the construction of the Phoenix Square Cinema

FURTHER INFORMATION

Price: £55 / £50 conc / £45 Members

Tutor: Dr. Laraine Porter

Booking information:

This 4-week course will run at Phoenix on Mondays, 2pm – 4pm, 8 Feb – 1 Mar 2027.

You must be 18 or over to attend.

Cancellation Policy:

We do not offer refunds for cancellations of bookings, except in exceptional circumstances. In the event that an advertised course is withdrawn, we will endeavour to give 7 days’ notice and a full refund will be made.

View our Learner Agreement.

ABOUT THE TUTOR

Laraine Porter is a film historian and recently retired academic having taught Film Studies at DMU from 2009-2025. Prior to that she was the Director of Broadway Cinema in Nottingham having been a former Cinema Programmer at Phoenix Arts until 1998. She has run major research projects looking at the transition between silent and sound cinema in Britain and the British Silent Film Festival between 1998 and 2019.