Plymouth Arts Cinema and Plymouth City Council team up for Co-Operative film screenings of The Rochdale Pioneers and It’s A Wonderful Life
Plymouth Arts Cinema is working with Plymouth City Council to present a series of films over the next 12 months to raise awareness of the great work that co-operatives do. Plymouth City Council wants to double the size of the co-operative economy in the city by 2025.
There are 23 co-operative enterprises based in Plymouth with a combined turnover of £18.6 million and membership of over 9,500 people. The newly announced action plan will look at the most promising areas for Plymouth to develop its cooperative economy. As businesses owned and run by their members, co-operatives offer a solution to the growing sense of powerlessness people feel over business and the economy, giving them control of the businesses they are closest to - whether they shop at them, work at them or supply them. People of all kinds benefit through membership of their co-operative. Farmers are strengthening their position in competitive and global markets. Employees are having a say in how their organisations are run. Customers are influencing the businesses they use. Local residents are saving vital services.
The following films will be screening in November and December 2019 with more to be announced in the new year. Full price £4. Concession £2 for Friends of PAC, OAP, students, underwaged, Under 25, PCA staff and students.
The Rochdale Pioneers (PG) Thursday 14th November 2019
Dir. Adam Lee Hamilton, John Montegrande, UK, 2012, 57 mins.Cast. John Henshaw, Andrew London, Jordan Dawes.Based on a true story of hope, determination and principles, The Rochdale Pioneers is about a group of working men who, against a backdrop of poverty, prejudices and harsh working conditions, set about changing the unfair society that they lived in. Opening their own store - in Toad Lane, Rochdale on 21 December 1844 - and pledging to sell quality, unadulterated products and share the profits fairly with their customers, they laid down values and principles that became the basis for how co-operatives worldwide still operate to this day - principles that are still changing the world almost 170 years later.
It’s A Wonderful Life (U) Thursday 19th December 2019.
Dir. Frank Capra, US, 1946, 131 mins. Cast. James Stewart, Donna Reed.This ultimate feel-good, festive favourite, from Oscar-winning director Frank Capra, stars James Stewart as despairing businessman George Bailey. One fateful Christmas Eve, George receives a visit from Clarence, a celestial messenger, who prevents him from jumping into a freezing river. The pair travel together through moments in George’s life to show him what the world would be like if he had never existed. A lesson in the humanity of community and a genuinely tender and enduring piece of yuletide cinema, guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face.