The Odeon cinema on Arundel Gate is to re-open after an extensive upgrade that will reduce the capacity but provide more space for cinema goers. The Odeon Luxe is set to create 50 new jobs and will offer more legroom, reclining seats and retractable tables. Sheffield Live! reporter Azz Mohammed spoke to general manager Peter Cunningham.
Members of Unite the Union Brass Band were out in force to celebrate the 20th anniversary at a Showroom cinema screening of the critically acclaimed film, the Full Monty. Former and current members of the band gathered at the cinema to recall their role in the story of former steelworkers who sought alternative employment. Sheffield Live! reporter Azz Mohammed spoke to former band manager John Lee.
Oscar winning director Vanessa Roth brought her new film Daughters of Destiny to Sheffield Doc/Fest ahead of its launch on Netflix this summer. Daughters of Destiny follows some of rural India’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children as they grow up in the Shanti Bhavan project. The film is an exploration of poverty, discrimination, opportunity and the search for purpose. Sheffield Live! reporter Simon Thake spoke to Vanessa Roth.
This year’s Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival features a collection of documentary love stories, including US production For Ahkeem. Directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest, the film tells the coming-of-age story of 17-year old Daje who is determined to turn her life around after a rough upbringing in St Louis. The film explores themes of teenage proverty, education and hope. Sheffield Live! reporter Simon Thake spoke with the directors at a question and answer session at the Light Cinema.
The Light, Sheffield’s newest multi-screen cinema opens on The Moor this weekend with an opening bill including the highly anticipated Fast and Furious 8. The Light plans to show the latest blockbusters plus independent and international films. The venue also includes a spacious café-bar, The Green Room. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
Award-winning film, Un Condor, tells the story of Sergio Contreras, the larger-than-life waiter who became the popular front man of Sheffield’s El Paso restaurant. Fewer people know the circumstances that forced Chilean-born Contreras to seek sanctuary in Sheffield after Pinochet’s overthrow of the Allende government in 1983. Film director Yannis Kolozis was inspired to turn his story into a feature length movie, awarded Best Documentary at the 2015 Athens International Digital Film Festival together with a clutch of other awards. Now the film, Un Condor, is to get its big screen debut in Sheffield. The film focuses on Sergio’s emotional return to Chile nearly forty years after he was forced to leave or face imprisonment. Contreras was only seventeen when he said goodbye to his family and all he had known to travel thousands of miles to a life in exile. Un Condor is showing at the Showroom cinema on Sunday. Simon Thake reports for Sheffield Live!