One of the glorious perks of growing up in Parkview, Johannesburg, was the matinee at the cinema on Tyrone Avenue.
We may or may not have cultivated a talent for pea-shooting our popcorn into unsuspecting audience members from the balcony, but the primary pleasure was taken as the lights dimmed and all the infinite possibilities of alternate realities presented themselves fully formed and in Technicolor.
I was transported to that magical liminal place again this week over a delicious pizza shared with Russell Grant at the Bioscope, his independent cinema that is turning 15 this year. It’s a similar vintage with Shortstraw, the indie rock band for which he plays bass.
He may be the complete embodiment of that old adage — do what you love and you will not work a day in your life — and he does not even appear to be remotely smug about it.
He was working in advertising when he and Darryl Els decided to put Darryl’s degree thesis about the space for such a cinema in Joburg into practice.
“We thought what is the point of all of us making these amazing movies if there weren’t that many places to show them?” Russell said.
“Joburg needed a cinema — a dedicated independent space. We started in Maboneng ... It became a precinct, and they needed to fill the spots on the ground and we were like, let’s do it. Because there were people doing film nights, but no-one was doing it every day, in a dedicated place. So it was like, we can be those people. It was very exciting.”
Just before Covid struck they moved to the Bioscope’s present home at 44 Stanley Avenue in Milpark, equipping the theatre with car seats rescued from what I imagine were once very large ’70s cars with fins.
Russell said money was tight for the first 13 years, so the movies were “what we could get our hands on, which was all the ‘other stuff’, the smaller niche stuff, the more local stuff, the films from around the world”.
You don’t want to walk past a Pick n Pay and MTN store - you want to sit in a beautiful courtyard like this ... you want an experience. You want to dress up. You want to sing along
— Russell Grant
“But then when we upgraded at the beginning of last year, we realised there were those movies that you just don’t want to go and watch in the shopping mall. They’re beautiful art that you want to see on the big screen or to have a great shared experience.
“But you don’t want to walk past a Pick n Pay and MTN store — you want to sit in a beautiful courtyard like this, and you want to have a cocktail, pizza, you want an experience. You want to dress up. You want to sing along.”
We discuss how streaming has changed the film industry.
“You’ll always have your huge tent poles, which make millions of dollars on opening weekend, and all these huge cinematic spectacles like F1, Jurassic Park, Spider-Man and Superman.
“There’ll always be that thing that you want to watch on the biggest screen you can, like IMAX. But then there’s the smaller, beautiful Irish film, the punk rock, experimental Romanian film, French film. There’ll always be these sort of smaller films and boundary-pushing, formula-changing, culture-shifting films,” he said.
“A movie like Kneecap, for example, which is about a very interesting band.”
The Belfast rappers sparked controversy in April at the Coachella festival in California, where they made their pro-Palestinian views plain.
“Their movie has helped, not only them, but they are singing in Irish Gaelic. They’re rapping in Irish, and it’s reviving this dying language. And so these movies become these incredible cultural fire starters, it can be really amazing, and it can also just be beautiful art.”
Russell co-hosts a weekly podcast called Video Store, a nostalgic riff on the practically forgotten weekly ritual of going to the video store for movie night.
“Interesting customers occasionally pop in to rent something, and we go through the films they’ve loved across their life. Come for the advice on what you could watch, but stay for the friends you will come to make.”
It’s the embodiment of his life’s work creating shared community and experiences around this magical art form.
“Especially documentaries, that’s always been a big part of the bioscopes. Just to understand politics or just issues in the world or small stories about people making change. It’s why I think the future is in smaller spaces like the Bioscope.
“But I also have long said that audiences are smart, and especially the Bioscope audience, it’s a smart audience, it’s an audience that wants to learn more. There’s a lot of stuff you start streaming that you give up halfway. Whereas cinema is this complete experience. And of course, it’s just exciting to watch with other people, there’s something good that happens together.”
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