Star date: 17th October 2011

BLACK LION STARTS CINEMA REVOLUTION IN SALFORD 

Just Do It
Tues 18th October 7-9pm free
Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal
26th-29th October daily 1pm and 7pm £5

The only cinema to open in Salford during the last ten billion years throws open its doors for two fantastic new independent films during the next few weeks, as The Black Lion cinema, upstairs in the new Chapel Street pub puts itself on the movie map.

Full details here…

No soppy, over-financed, Hollywood crawling, Arnie-licking, special effects-relying rubbish for The Black Lion's new role as Salford's must-see movie house. No way. The Black Lion upstairs is putting on independent films that Salford people would never get the chance to watch – beyond the reach of even the Precinct's snide DVDs…

First up, tomorrow night – Tuesday 18th October at 7pm – is Just Do It: A Tale of Modern Day Outlaws in which film maker Emily James gets access to the secretive world environmental activists involved in direct action. The documentary claims to lift the lid on climate activists who have become `modern day outlaws' and follows them as they blockade factories, attack coal power stations and glue themselves to the trading floors of international banks. Sound good?

"The film is a story of people standing up for what they believe in and making themselves heard" states the spiel "But it was a story that needed to be told without the creative constraints of traditional production models or the editorial control of big investors. And so it was that Just Do It – the totally independent project – was born." And now shown in a totally independent cinema…

For further details see the film's site click here.

Next up is another film, perfect for the Black Lion. It's Naomi Smyth's Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal – another alternative documentary, this time on the Banksy-esque Bristol Arts Collective, a secretive collective that take over derelict shops, warehouses and even cathedrals, converting them into weird performance spaces.

Four years in the making, Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal is a study in D-I-Y cultural regeneration. Hopefully it will inspire Salford people no end…

Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal is on at The Black Lion 26-29th October with daily showings at 1pm and 7pm, plus, on Friday 28th at 7pm a screening and Q&A with director Naomi Smyth. The film is also showing on Saturday 29th October at 3pm. £5 entrance

For further details on the film click here