A Brief History of the Cube

What we now know as the Cube Microplex was built in 1916 as workshops for the Bristol Deaf Centre. It was converted into a theatre by an amateur dramatics group in 1964. A decade or so later, a projection booth was added and the venue became the single-screen Arts Centre Cinema. When this closed in 1998, it was taken over by a bunch of formerly nomadic street theatre artistes known as Club Rombus (the mis-spelling occurred during a fateful trip to the printers and just sort of stuck). They spent several weeks stripping out the rotten carpets, fixing the dodgy electrics and extracting such detritus as a used condom that was found in the back row. On October 2, they flung open the doors of the Cube for an inaugural celebration of films with local connections, including Chris Petit’s Radio On (the only road movie ever to be set on the M4 and star Sting), Dave Borthwick’s award-winning The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb and, er, The Fifth Element. Why? Well, there’s that rather excruciating two-minute cameo by Knowle West’s foremost trip-hopping export, Tricky – the only example to date of a Bristolian accent being heard in a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster.

Seventeen years on, the Cube is still sustained by a volunteer workforce. There are approximately 70 names on their database, including a hardcore who’ve been involved since the start. The stereotype of a co-operative is that everyone sits around arguing all the time. “We argue about everything,” laughs long-term volunteer Chiz. “Actually, what happens at the Cube is that we don’t sit around talking about stuff, we just do it. It isn’t based on lots and lots of meetings, or whoever shouts loudest.”

Nonetheless, differences of opinion inevitably arise, as you might expect in a place where events by radical political and campaigning organisations often rub shoulders with cult sexploitation film nights. Oddly enough, the biggest spat of recent years involved inoffensive indie rocker Anna Von Hausswolff, who’d been photographed wearing a [Norwegian neo-Nazi black metal act] Burzum T-shirt. “This was an interesting one,” admits Chiz. “We got a lot of pressure for her not to play the cinema. People thought it was a conflict of interest – the Cube shows anti-fascist films and yet we’ve booked someone who might be a fascist sympathiser. Actually, she wasn’t at all. She was making a much more complicated statement. So politics with a small ‘p’ do crop up a lot.”

(This pales into insignificance next to what probably ranks as the most controversial event in the building’s history. Back in 1993, the Arts Centre became the only cinema in Bristol to screen the Australian cause celebre Romper Stomper, starring a young Russell Crowe as a Nazi skinhead. Anti-fascists picketed the cinema in a boisterous attempt to stop it being shown. Today, Romper Stomper is broadcast on TCM and no one bats an eyelid.)

The Cube’s biggest challenge was that successful campaign to raise £185,000 to buy the building. They got £90,000 in matching funding from the Arts Council and a further £25,000 from a VAT refund, but Chiz freely admits that he didn’t think they’d hit the target. “There were no huge donations. It’s not like George Ferguson gave us £10,000. We thought there might be some rich donor out there who’d go, ‘Here you are – have a £25,000 cheque.’ But what was amazing was that a lot of people gave £5 or £10 which was actually more representative of the Cube. We were lucky in the sense that the Cube is a membership cinema and it’s run pretty much as a community building. Because of that, it has lots of small but strong connections with people who’ve worked there, played there and have come there as audience members.”

Over the years, the Cube has diversified into performance, live music, stand-up comedy, theatre and unclassifiable happenings. But Chiz has noticed that things now seem to be coming full circle. “Interestingly, there was a time when the Cube was getting very well known as a live music venue. But for the last two years, it’s had a really strong film programme and has been doing the best it’s ever done since we opened. Our film attendance numbers have doubled, if not trebled. I think that’s partly because we went over to digital projection, which enables us to offer more choice. Also, the Arnolfini isn’t showing films. But mainly it’s part of a wider shift of people wanting to spend their money more locally. So they’re choosing to wait for a film to come to the Cube rather than seeing it elsewhere. There’s also the fact that there are more people living in the area now. Stokes Croft has radically changed. Many people were too scared to go to the Cube, which was probably a big factor. So a lot of stars were aligned in that respect.”

Future plans include structural work to increase the bar area and work space (currently, the auditorium seats 110 people, but a maximum of 50 can squeeze into the bar). Then there’s another crazy dream. “I’ve always wanted to put on a panto at Christmas,” muses Chiz. “We’ve talked about it for 12 years now, but it may eventually happen…”

Go here to find out about the Cube’s fundraising flick The Film That Buys the Cinema.

Cube Volunteer Profiles

Dave Taylor
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? My induction was apparently on 12 May 2011, so just shy of four years.
What do you love about the place? The sense of experimentation. It really feels like a playground to me. And the smell.
Best Cube memory? Probably being in the place the night that the building was secured.  The Cube had been campaigning to raise £185k to secure the future of the building by buying it from the landlord and it was looking touch and go for a while. In the end, the last £10,000 snowballed in from public donations gaining momentum over a 24 hour period.  Alice & I were at a gig at Under the Stars but could barely concentrate as we could see the counter approaching the target online. So when it became clear it was going to happen that night, we hot-footed it to the Cube, which just happened to be closed that night, for an impromptu party. In true Cube style we ended up dancing on the stage with no music because those of us present couldn’t work out how to get the sound desk working…

Kari Nygard
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? Since I walked in on day two of the opening week in 1998.
What do you love most about the place? The building: the auditorium, projection room and Bristol’s best dance floor in the bar. The organisation, the DIY culture and its achievements.
Best Cube memory? (Kids) stage invasion during Kid Carpet’s first all-ages gig at the Cube.

Jamie Lindsay
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? Five years
What do you love most about the place? The sense of artistic and social freedom.
Best Cube memory? The first Time Richard Dawson played here three years ago. I hadn’t heard of him at that point and was completely blown away by his performance that night. A very, very magical and special evening. The alchemy in the auditorium is not something I’ve experienced before or since.

Zuleika Gregory
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? Since 2002. I started during the rebuild when the Cube was closed so the only time I was a punter was at fundraiser held in Kuumba.
What do you love most about the place? The passion of everyone who works here and how that makes it possible to run with an idea that would be completely ridiculous elsewhere (and is often ridiculous at The Cube, but we do it anyway).
Best Cube memory? Opening the envelope containing the Arts Council grant towards buying the building is definitely one of the best. But probably lots of hazy, merged memories of after-hours dancing in the bar.

Jason Jones
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? Two years (I think).
What do you love most about the place? The friendly atmosphere, the frequent banter and subsequent “LOLs”, the collaborative nature of the Cube team, the weirdos, the revolving disco ball, and of course the fantastic wide range of events and content the Cube hosts.
Best Cube memory? Personally, it would have to be the recent ‘awkward slow-dance’ competition that was held as part of the Beyond Clueless screening and after party… it was a sight to behold!

Ruth Sharman
How long have you volunteered at the Cube? Since January 2009
What do you love most about the place? The people! The Cube is the sum of all the people who work there or have ever worked there, who have performed there or who have visited there.
Best Cube memory? Singing on stage with Richard Dawson

All pix by Doug Jewell

The Cube’s All-Time Top Ten

In chronological order, as compiled by the Cubesters.

Chris Petit’s 1979 London-to-Bristol road-movie Radio On was the first film to show at The Cube and set the questing, inquisitive, off-centre pop culture tone that has invaded the enterprise ever since. (Oct 1998)

Jack Stevenson has, since the very early days when you had to walk past the Chinese restaurant to enter the cinema, been bringing his archive of 16/35mm shorts/features to create all kinds of subversive cine-programmes. (2000-2013)

Andrew Kotting’s alluring film This Filthy Earth was not shown at The Cube but in a barn deep within the Forest of Dean on one of the Cube’s Magical Mystery Tours. (Summer 2002)

Joff Winterhart chortling in the auditorium’s back-row as Hugh Metcalfe’s infamous and infectious Klinker Klub destroyed any barriers between high and low art. Joff’s band Bucky went on to play Klinker in London. (Winter 2002)

Leyland Kirby was the dude behind the V/VM and at one Cube Xmas Party he and his confetti-laden faeries managed to set a speaker stack on fire while mangling Chris De Burgh’s Lady In Red (Dec 2003)

Easton Cowboys have been popping in and screening their socially conscious and courageous trips to Zapatista-held autonomous zones, Palestine and beyond for a while. As social cinema goes, they are champs. (July 2004)

Rozi Plain & Francois Marry are both long time Cube workers who made films, recorded albums and tore tickets in the building. From time to time, they come back to sing songs. (2006)

Beardyman and friends came to devise and rehearse a live A/V comedy show called Complete and Utter Shambles. Much mirth and touring came from such deviousness. (June 2009)

Mark Cousins, the renowned film critic, presented his First Movie and in doing so inspired the Cube’s Haiti Kids Kino project which sent volunteers and film to Haiti to lighten up the nights. (Oct 2010)

Liz Harris, aka Grouper, made a big impact with her Play the Cube residency. Her mural in the Cube lounge remains in place, expanding minds and spirits. (Feb 2013)