Winning hearts and minds at Tyneside Cinema
A year on, how’s a much-loved venue doing under ‘custodian’ Nic Greenan?
A year ago Nic Greenan was new to the region and a job she’d gone for, somewhat apologetically, at the very last minute.
She got the job, owing to an impressive CV (she played a key role in Bradford winning UK City of Culture) and a promise that while she wasn’t one for financial spreadsheets, she had other qualities.
“If you want somebody that’s about winning hearts and minds and reinforcing the role this place plays in the city and its values and how it connects to its audiences, that’s me,” she said.
This she told me a year ago. So how’s it going for the woman who, as if to underline that promise, styles herself not just CEO but CEO Custodian of the Tyneside Cinema?
Is she enjoying it?
A pause for reflection and a smile before she replies in the affirmative.
“It is all consuming and there are days I absolutely love it and think what a privilege it is to do it – and there are days when I think what the hell have I done because I feel the responsibility of it.
“But we’re building a good energy, there’s a good feeling in the place and it feels nice to be a part of that.
“That’s what keeps it enjoyable, knowing it’s evolving into a positive place to be. But there have definitely been some tricky days.”
Nic arrived after an SOS fundraising campaign had averted closure, which seems unthinkable. The Tyneside had been hit hard by the pandemic; and accusations of malpractice, even if dealt with, had taken a little of the shine off a much-loved institution.
But there does seem to be a buzz about the Tyneside Cinema again.
On the day we meet, North East Screen are hosting an event in the building.
Previously, much garlanded screenwriter Peter Straughan (Bafta winner, Oscar nominee) had returned to introduce his film, Conclave, to a full house; and a local production company had given a big screen preview of The Big Idea Works, its new show for the BBC, shot in Newcastle.
Coming up was an event to coinciding with the MOBO Awards being hosted in the city, showing the Tyneside in the thick of things.
There had been some “going back to basics”, Nic says of past difficulties, “working out with partners what we can do going forward rather than trying to unpick the past.
“For example, North East Screen being in here today is an outcome of building that trust and relationship again. Hopefully it’ll end up in us doing some exciting things here.”
It hasn’t been a bumper year at the Tyneside box office, apparently. Candidly, Nic talks of peaks and troughs but says audiences have “plateaued a little bit because the films we’ve had in the past 12 months haven’t been that great.
“It’s forced us into repertory film which is a good thing because normally you don’t pay as much to the distributors and you’re more in control of what you programme.”
Several of these ‘golden oldies’ were rolled out over Christmas.
“We squeezed that as much as we could,” smiles Nic, explaining that new releases can yield as little as 25% of the price of each ticket sold after distributors and others have taken their cut.
Not that she’s complaining about golden oldies. She tells of an employee who delved unbidden into the archive to make a list of the bestselling Tyneside films over the past 30 years.
Number one was It’s a Wonderful Life – no surprise since Christmas for some wouldn’t be the same without it – but number two, which she did find interesting, was I, Daniel Blake.
It reminded her of an approach by artist filmmaker Andrew Wilson who told her he’d made a documentary about the Newcastle suburb of Shieldfield.
“I said, ‘Do you think people want to see it?’ and he sort of said, ‘Well, I don’t know’. ‘OK,’ I said, ‘let’s see’.
“The film’s called 100 People and it’s just 100 people from Shieldfield talking about Shieldfield, a really simple format.
“We showed it on a Wednesday and seven screenings later it was still selling out. That and I, Daniel Blake made me go: Ah, North East flavour makes a difference here.”
She’s experienced this in other places, she says, but perhaps never quite so much as here.
“Anything that’s nostalgic, that’s got that ‘my place, my street, my story’ kind of thing. The film about Tish Murtha (Newcastle-born photographer) ran and ran.
“We’re always going to show the arthouse films but I really want it to be known there’s a Tyneside flavour here and you’ll see and hear local stories by or for or with local people.
“That’s got to be a really important part of our programme going forward.”
In line with that thinking is a project called From Our Streets to Our Seas which will see the Tyneside venturing out of the building in late spring, early summer.
“It’ll start in the West End and finish at the Fish Quay as part of the North Shields 800 celebrations.
“It’s a collaborative project, the Tyneside working with communities on ideas around film, storytelling, migration and food, and looking at the relationship between these things.”
She says screenings might be projected onto the sides of buildings. “We’re hoping it’ll be in places you wouldn’t expect to see film.”
In pursuit of the local, she has made overtures to the people behind Danny Boyle’s forthcoming horror film, 28 Years Later, largely shot in the North East, and to Lol Crawley, cinematographer on The Brutalist who studied media production at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University).
She has also put her energy into establishing a ‘talent unit’ where people can come to learn skills and pursue ideas. We’re sitting in one of five rooms allocated for the purpose.
“We’d work with partners like North East Screen, Generator (the music development agency) and New Writing North, as we are doing now. We’ve got a screenwriter-in-residence, Sam Neale, sat in an office down the end there.
“What I envisage is a very relaxed and informal environment that isn’t course-led. It will have a young people focus but it won’t be exclusively young people. I’d never close the door to anybody at any age.
“But we’ll provide a space for people to work, make and create really. We don’t really set that. We’ll just create the space for it.”
Having estimated it will cost £120,000 a year to run, fundraising is under way and the Sir James Knott Trust has already dedicated some funds.
“We’ll invest in some equipment and appoint what I’ll call a community manager. It’ll be open door. You don’t have to have reached any sort of particular level. It should be very organic and probably a bit messy.”
I sense some similarities with the Open Door scheme recently announced by the nearby Theatre Royal and Nic says she and chief executive Marianne Locatori have shared ideas.
“What dawned on me at Peter Straughan’s talk was that he was recalling almost a perfect storm of talent support when he was getting started, with Live Theatre providing space to create and New Writing North offering various step-ups and introductions.
“Enabling someone at a particular point in their career was transformative. That’s where I think the North East could be really clever in the next few years, in recreating that.”
Meanwhile, there are other pressing matters to attend to, such as the fabric of the cinema building itself.
What needs doing?
“Everything,” says Nic dramatically. “It’s a Grade II listed building and they need some looking after.
“Actually, the structure is good and Heritage Lottery has enabled us to do some work, such as turning to LED lighting. That’s good but the aesthetics of the building and some of our equipment are becoming tired meaning we can’t compete with other operators.
“It needs a bit of TLC and because you’re working with a building like this it’s more than a couple of quid.”
Nic tells me of the “large scale capital investment proposition” she is pulling together and her plan to use the Tyneside’s fast approaching 90th anniversary - in February 2027 - as a key date to galvanise people.
Plenty to do, then, for a woman who wears her heart on her sleeve but promises always to fight her corner.
Having surrendered her office to the head of finance and taken up residence in “a cupboard”, Nic is pressing on with the task of winning hearts and minds and trying to turn a profit, mere solvency currently being the name of the game.
Just about everyone she has spoken to has been “incredibly positive and supportive”, she says.
“Someone said once it can be quite lonely being CEO because you’re carrying everything and everybody and you might have a vision for this and that and it doesn’t always work out.
“You’ve got to accept it and move on while knowing everyone’s looking at you, hoping you’ve got solutions.
“Here I feel I’m not just responsible for the staff but to a whole generation of people who feel this is their building, their space.
“So there has been the odd time I’ve wanted to run for the hills but I’ve put my head above the parapet here so I have to stick by it.
“That’s what keeps me going. You said you’d do it, so come on…”