Elephant’s Coronet Cinema reopens

Cinema Furore will be in residence in the restored art deco building. "With a 42 foot screen, Dolby digital surround sound, two bars and the occasional live band and DJs, this will be no ordinary cinema," says Fintan McAlindon who is masterminding of the project. "We hope to make a trip to the flicks more of a social occasion, as it used to be in the past, providing a refreshing alternative to the antiseptic multiplexes."

The cinema programme will be relayed on monitors to the two bars serving food. Also planned are regular screenings from local film and video organisations such as Neon, the Community TV Trust, Kush Films, Freestyle and the Aylesbury Media Project.

A digital video training facility based at Morley College will be attached to the cinema and supported by Elephant Links and the London Development Agency.

The Cinema opens on Friday 7 November with a free screening of Kush Films digital shorts and live music followed by the Brazilian film City Of God.

Neon's Elefest, a 3-day film festival featuring local film and video makers and classic big-screen films opens, on Thursday 20 November.