In a new series of blogs written especially for leedsfilm.com, Leeds-based researcher and film programmer Alice Miller looks into the origins of independent film exhibition in Leeds. The latest instalment looks at the Academy Cinema on Boar Lane, regarded as the first repertory cinema in the provinces. It considers how the cinema came about, its years of operation, changing identities, and what brought it to an end...
Alice Miller is a WRoCAH funded PhD researcher and film programmer. She is currently writing her thesis on the history of independent film exhibition in Leeds, and is based in the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures at the University of Leeds. In 2018, she joined Leeds International Film Festival as a programmer and for the 2019 edition of the festival she programmed Mother Cutter: Women Who Shaped Film, a retrospective season celebrating the work of women editors. In 2019 Alice took part in the Locarno Industry Academy, held at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival, and in 2018 she completed the ICO’s Cultural Cinema Exhibition course. She is passionate about community-led film exhibition and helps to organise pop-up film screenings in various spaces across Leeds, as well as the annual DIY film festival Scalarama.
