The pioneering UK indie exhibitor and chair of Trafalgar Releasing believes she’s a hard demographic to reach.
I tend to talk to friends and family more than industry colleagues. My son Charlie is a film nut and makes a lot of recommendations. He generally has a good radar for what I’ll like. He was recommending Coda to me months before the Baftas and Oscars. And The Alpinist [a free-climbing documentary by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen] was the most heart-stopping, tense and moving film I’ve seen for a long time. I wish it had more of an outing in cinemas.
I also listen to the Picturehouse programmers [who programme the Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds that Goleby owns and operates, and The Chiswick Cinema in London with which she is involved]. Clare Binns [joint managing director of Picturehouse] will say, “This is a great film and this other one is one that you’ll like.” If it’s in a cinema, I’ll go to see it.
I often go to the cinema open-minded and unprepared for what I’m going to see.
The only social media I take any interest in is Instagram and that’s in the context of interiors, arts and travel. Not really film.
I find out about films in the way that many of my cinema customers would. I don’t read the trades and I often don’t have any preconceptions of what films will be. I take notice of posters and what’s being promoted in Tube stations and on the road sides and in the cinema itself. I read reviews in traditional media but I don’t take much notice of who is writing them. I skim them for information from The Guardian, The Telegraph and The New York Times but I wouldn’t necessarily filter that through the personality or politics of who is writing it. Editorial around films and artists is probably the most influential way that films would reach me.
The radio is on in the background at weekends and so I would notice if film is being discussed but I wouldn’t seek it out. My sons actively listen in to The Empire Film Podcast and are fans of critic Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo [radio presenters turned podcast hosts]. My sons are 28 and 30 and are a much easier demographic to reach than I am.
I’m really hard for distributors to reach. I picked up The Worst Person In The World on an aeroplane, the only small screen where I’d watch a film! I had no expectations or pre knowledge and I loved it. I checked in with my cinema, the Abbeygate, to ensure we were showing it and sure enough Picturehouse had it all programmed in.
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