Retiring Glasgow Film CEO is not interested in any corporate speak

Glasgow Film Festival would not see the light of day until 2005, with the scope of Scotland’s film festivals reliant on Edinburgh International Film Festival. Exhibiting independent, arthouse and world cinema in the city of Glasgow was a small operation, an operation that has greatly expanded within her tenure.

“Around 1999, I said to the CEO at the time, Jackie, that we really need to do something about diversifying the audience, getting a younger audience in. At that time traditional arthouse cinemas had a very narrow focus. We started that process then and it really changed the demographics of the GFT.”

Moving into a well-deserved retirement next year, she seems more interested in celebrating the depth and breadth of Glasgow’s current film landscape. What was once disparate batches of film lovers with no home has become a broad church, a community of like-minded people that encompass and represent many strands of cinema, approached from the many walks of life.

“It helped us come out of the pandemic better in the sense that younger people turn to the cinema more easily than an older audience have. That’s been a problem for lots of other cinemas. It’s a problem we haven’t had. That’s the great achievement – really broadening the audience for great films.”

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Glasgow Film CEO and festival director Allison Gardner to retire

Glasgow Film is a not-for-profit organisation – a double-edged sword she says, but a necessary one in maintaining its ethos. Look at the annual Glasgow Film Festival programme, or the daily schedule of the Glasgow Film Theatre, and the difference is stark compared to the for-profit mainstream and chain cinemas that litter the city.

“This is something I really need to emphasise to your readers: every penny you spend here goes back into making it better. There are no shareholders, it’s not paying for a superyacht for me – it doesn’t work that way.

“However we also rely on public funding in terms of central government and the Scottish Government. That is important to us because of the very breadth of work we’re showing regarding world cinema. It’s very difficult to make those things pay. If you look at commercial chains, the majority of their money is probably made on food and drink. That’s where their profit will come in.”

The conflict between art and commerce is never far from discussion. It is a necessity for a resource-hungry medium like film, yet Gardner and Glasgow Film have managed to carve out a space where the bottom line is not what is driving the machine to keep turning.

“Profit is not our job. Our job is to show those gems from across the world, curated seasons, cinema from Iranian women, the cinema of Gaza, the Jewish Film Festival. That breadth, that’s our place. But that requires subsidy and will always require subsidy, because of the nature of what we do. Bringing in marginalised communities, bringing in young people, making sure those people feel really at home here.”

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She hits the nail on the head, confident and self-assured in what the whole point even is. Diversity, and the acceptance of that diversity. Just how limited an effect does cinema have if all road signs point to the one-track Hollywood dream? Cinema across the world has its own voice and its own viewpoint. It’s unique to itself, but also a mutual exchange of perspectives throughout a wider humanity.

“You’re being educated, you’re walking in someone else’s shoes, you’re seeing the world through other people’s eyes. We are creating empathy through cinema through looking at other people’s cultures – their food, their love life, their dress, their habits, their customs. That’s what world cinema does, it creates empathy in you. And we need a lot more empathy in this world.”

'You’re being educated, you’re walking in someone else’s shoes, you’re seeing the world through other people’s eyes' (Image: Gordon Terris)The power of cinema and art in general is a tad overstated, I tell her. Can silly moving pictures really be a catalyst for a better world? She makes a fair point in rebuke. It’s about more than what’s on the screen. Cinema creates movement in our society, through its audiences and through the ideas and thoughts it inspires and then transpires.

“The audience is the key thing here. We have such a broad range of audiences, it’s a very broad church. We cater to many tastes and many different audiences. People who, for example, love anime or people who love cult film, horror etc. All those audiences are welcome here.

“But there’s always challenges in making audiences diverse. There are challenges around people who don’t know about us, people who don’t come to the cinema because of the cost-of-living crisis, people we work with who are refugees so don’t have any money. So, we work with these different groups in order to encourage them to enjoy cinema and we offer a lot of free access points to people.”

As hopeful as that sounds, the material reality is much bleaker. The power of cinema struggles to become reality when cinemas across Scotland are shuttering their doors, with many taking to grassroots campaigns to continue operating. What advice would she give her successor given the downtrodden trajectory of Scottish cinemas?

“The thing about the Glasgow Film Theatre, the film festival, and Glasgow Film as a whole is that it’s a well-oiled machine. When I leave nobody from an audience perspective will notice a difference. A well-run organisation should never be based on one person.

“This organisation is extremely well run, and all those building blocks are in place. That is my legacy. The CEO will come in, look at this, and see how they run. We would like people to be more philanthropic to us, so we can move towards a more philanthropic organisation. It safeguards the Glasgow Film Theatre for the future.

“We understand the strain on the public purse, we’re not stupid. But you’re supporting young people, you’re supporting marginalised communities, you’re supporting emerging filmmakers, you’re supporting the future of this historically important building. That’s what your money does.

“I passionately believe all this. I’m not interested in corporate speak.”

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The GFT: An Art Deco picture palace that has stood the test of time

Independent cinema needs support, and its infrastructure as well as the brick-and-mortar architecture that contains it needs protected. The adjacent Sauchiehall Street that lies just off the Glasgow Film Theatre is in a seemingly eternal state of renovation, and the preservation of its architectural history is not assured. Glasgow does tend to have a habit of replacing the old with the new, even if the old is something of value to the city’s legacy and integrity.

The Art Deco building that houses the cinema is now historic, opening in 1939 as the country moved into wartime. It now sits surrounded by closed-down shopfronts (with the empty BHS building itself being a historic Art Deco design from the same era), student accommodation, the damaged then demolished ABC building, and numerous fire-ravaged structures, among other aberrations.

It can all feel outside the control of the humble film lover, and the cinema appears like the last man standing. A last gasp of life among the rubble. Gardner believes the cinema is still in good standing, but has advice and wisdom to give for those wishing to support Glasgow’s only arthouse theatre.

“Continue to champion the type of films that we are showing and the organisation as a whole. This physical space is architecturally a jewel in the crown of Scotland and also of Glasgow. We’ve seen the state of what’s happening in Sauchiehall Street.

“You need to protect these physical spaces and remind people that nothing, I don’t care how good your sound system is at home, nothing beats watching a cinema screen with a full house. Films are funnier, more dramatic, more scary. That communal shared experience is a basic human need. It’s like sitting around the campfire and you’ll never get rid of that. That’s where the magic happens.

“What I try and encourage to Glasgow Film Festival audiences is this: take a chance. Come and see something that’s outwith your comfort zone. You don’t need to know who’s in it, you don’t need to know what it’s about, and that’s where you’ll discover the film that will change your life.”