Danny Boyle and the Manchester slumdogs

Danny Boyle: how lovely to behold a softly-spoken, self-deprecating Northern chap undermining the cigar-chomping image of a famous director with a fistful of Oscars.

But Boyle will always reference his upbringing in Radcliffe, his family, his teachers, his dad’s social club – and he never fails to mention the movie education he recieved at the Unit 4 (later renamed the Aaben) cinema.

It bravely screened ’alternative’ or ‘art house’ films between the mid-70s and the early-80s. It closed a few years before the Cornerhouse opened in 1985. The cinema’s history and can be seen at Cinema Treasures . It was, soemwhat intimidatingly, located deep into a criss-cross network of deck-access council housing in Hulme. 

On the way there and back, you dodged the local slumdogs of what was then a notorious failed housing estate. (The flowering of creativity in the 70s and 80s Hulme is documented by those who were there.)

Inside, the Aaben’s four auditoria showed independent or sub-titled films. It was like being cocooned inside a giant Bang and Olufsen stereo system, all 70s Swedish-influenced design, curved beige interiors and muted lighting.

There the teenage Boyle lapped up movies deemed too uncommercial for the big cinemas. For students like me living in Hulme, it was a source of wonder, its small attendances and risky approach route lending it an unshakable cool.

The place received no grants, or noticeable public support; the ‘creative industries’ was not yet a buzz concept.

Slumdog Millionaire is proof that a seemingly inconsequential independent picture house of 30 years ago has contributed to the the making of Danny Boyle; a kind of cultural sector ‘butterfly effect’.

These days indie movies are shown at multiplexes and you can get any movie off the Internet. You can even make your own film and upload it to a worldwide audience.

Yet still, what small scale enterprises do today in the cultural sector start ripples which can become big waves. Let’s tip our hat to Danny Boyle, and at the same time tip our hat to the people behind small independent cultural enterprises like the Aaben who do it for the love, not the money.

Tags: cinema, creative industries PR, Hulme, Manchester PR agency

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Andrew Spinoza, SKV Conversations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.