The Birth of The Brunswick Picture House – 2015/16
Words, Photos and Video by Hamish McCormick.
*NB – This gallery is best viewed after reading the Article below
2017 – 1 year in
Sometimes a venue takes on a special almost mythical status. It goes from simply a place where performances happen, to a gathering place for artists, where magical things happen onstage and lifelong friendships are made. A cultural hub for our community. For me, there’s been a few at different times in my life – The Be-Bop-a-Blue Bar stage at the National Circus Festival in Tasmania was one, The Famous Spiegeltent was another as was Tony Rooke’s Tiny Top.
The Brunswick Picture House is now on that list.
It celebrated its 3rd Birthday over Easter this year and as a homage to the place and my dear friends who run it, I thought I’d do a photo series of when it was reborn.
The photo gallery above will be different things for different people –
For me, my family and those of us in the photos, it’s a journey through memories, a slideshow of a period of our lives, an extended family photo album. To others, it’s a recent history of where they work, perform or go to see a show. For some, it’s just pictures of people painting and lifting pieces of timber with a few pics of kids and cute animals thrown in. For everyone though, it’s a record and archive of a bunch of creatives living, eating, dreaming and scheming together, literally putting their blood, sweat and tears into an old community gathering place, bringing her back from the dead and giving her a whole new life. A place where culture is built through connecting community.
A place built by Artists for Artists.
As it was in 2015.
Background
In 2015 Brett Haylock and Chris Chen (La Soiree, Club Swizzle) fell in love with and bought an old picture theatre in Brunswick Heads, Northern NSW and they, together with a bunch of us – producers, actors, musicians, filmmakers, production crew & circus folk – set about re-imagining it into a new hub for circus, cabaret, comedy and film in the Northern Rivers.
It had lain dormant for years after closing as a picture house over 30 years ago and the locals were stoked that there were some people crazy enough to follow a dream and save the old place from being torn down by developers for townhouses which was a good thing because ‘the circus’ had literally come to town. My family and I lived in the house with caravans and vans in the backyard and Mike Finch’s distinctive ‘not so subtle’ silver bus down the side of the hall. For over 6 months there was anywhere from 7 to 18 people on site at any one time and a continual stream of creative helpers coming through. (There may or may not have been occasions where 7 people or more were walking around town in Carnival Cinema hoodies looking like a gang!)
The gallery above takes you on a journey from the very first site inspection with the old owner through to the Grand Opening in March 2016.
Along the way chronicling the awesome people, the work being done, rehearsals for shows, ideas and scheming happening, meals shared and treasures unearthed. From us banging in over 11,000 nails so Lorne could sand the floor to discovering 100’s of used original movie tickets. From us seeing the old Brunswick Pictures sign uncovered for the first time to having our first open day (before the front of the hall was complete) straight after we’d done the floors so the locals could see what we had been doing and who we were.
The gallery ends seeing the first audience going in, the cast of the first ever show, the crowd entering for the first ever Cheeky Cabaret (a monthly happening ever since) and Brett christening the house.
(I’ll do another gallery with a collection of the onstage and backstage magic soon).
Count Down Videos
As it got down to the last 10 days before the Grand Opening in 2016, I decided to make a daily count down video for social media, as you will see we had so much to do and there was this genuine question about whether we were going to pull it off, which made for great viewing and it got to the point where locals where driving past yelling encouragement and asking for the next video or dropping in with food. We did pull it off as you’ll see – it’s amazing what you can do when you have a bunch of people (with more people arriving daily) who put on festivals and shows for a living.
A few things to remember when you’re watching it (my disclaimer)-
- They were made and released each day – what happens in the video really happened that day.
- They were rushed and the camera work may be a bit shaky haha – it was when I remembered to put down a brush and pick up a camera!
- As they were made to watch each day and not all in one sitting, the tune (by our dear mates The Blue Grassy Knoll) may feel relentless after a bit but that was our life.
Helping Brett and Chris fulfil the dream of re-imagining the Picture House was a wild experience for us as a family, exciting and great times were had. I’m not saying it was all roses. I think with any creative project of that scale with close friends there is going to be difficult times. It was one hell of a journey.
I am super proud to have been a part of its rebirth and stoked that it exists and that Brett, Chris and crew run this amazing creative hub 10 mins from where I live and grew up and that there is a constant stream of awesome artists rolling through the area.
Happy 3rd Birthday Brunswick Picture House! Here’s to many more years.
Congrats and big ups to Brett and Chris and to everyone in the photos and videos – I’d name check you all but there’s too many of you, you know who you are!
Much love, peace & respect
x Hamish
We hadn’t seen this photo til after she was open.
The Brunswick Picture House
——————————————————————————————————————————
We acknowledge the people of the Bundjalung Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which this Magazine originates and pay our respects to their elders past, present and future.
The way we do things around here is that regardless of Age, Gender, Sexuality, Ethnicity our philosophy and our logo stands for inclusion, safety, connection and family.
*If you’ve enjoyed this post (and this magazine) and you believe its adding value to our awesome subculture and community please consider supporting it to be sustainable to continue by becoming a Carnival Cinema Member for as little US$5 each month.
