(no title)

McGuffin started life in 2001 as the in-house film society at Walthamstow’s EMD Cinema.

The group was created as a grassroots response following Odeon Cinema’s decision to sell their Walthamstow venue (the former Granada) with a restriction preventing the screening of English language films by new owners EMD.

McGuffin made an initial agreement with EMD to run an arthouse foreign language film club at the cinema to present the broadest range of movies to the widest audience possible under this restrictive sales clause. Within weeks of being established 100 local households signed up to join the McGuffin Film Society and early screenings at the venue attracted near capacity audiences.

Encouraged by this initial success, McGuffin then launched a campaign to persuade Odeon to drop their sales clause altogether. The campaign immediately generated a great deal of local and national media coverage which started a nationwide debate on the appropriate use and preservation of historic cinema buildings at that time. After several months of campaigning Odeon finally relented and agreed to revise its original sales clause to enable the EMD to operate as a fully independent cinema.

The McGuffin Film Society then began to schedule its own seasons of “classic, cult and quirky cinema” at the venue covering a wide range of styles and genres – with occasional shots of archive television and new work by local filmmakers thrown into the mix. This eclectic and offbeat programming proved immensely popular and membership of McGuffin reached 1000 households by the end of this first year, the highest number for any film society in Britain. In due course McGuffin membership would reach a peak of more than 2000 local households, establishing the group as the borough’s largest-ever independent community arts organisation. The success of McGuffin and this unheralded outpouring of public engagement helped ignite an explosion of grassroots arts activity in Waltham Forest, an area which until then had been frequently dismissed as “London’s culture-free zone”.

Sadly at the close of 2002 came the unexpected announcement that the EMD Cinema was to be sold following an offer of several times its market value from the grandly-named Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). This wealthy Brazil-based organisation planned to convert the cinema into a centre for their brash showbiz-style ceremonies and fundraising.

The McGuffin Film Society launched a new campaign opposing the scheme which saw a series of demonstrations and meetings culminate in more than 2500 planning objections being collected and further widespread coverage in the local and national media.

UCKG were refused planning permission for their scheme but completed the purchase of the EMD regardless, securing ownership in January 2003. To mark the closing night of the cinema, McGuffin staged a sell-out charity gala performance featuring film screenings and live performances which acted as a springboard for the next chapter of the campaign.

McGuffin then organised more barrages of letter writing and petitioning aimed at central government to demonstrate the strength of support for retaining the cinema.

A further 2500 objections were collected from supporters and this contributed enormously to a Public Inquiry which concluded that the EMD remained viable and should continue as a cinema. At this point it seemed the battle was won – but it would take almost a decade of relentless campaigning before the situation moved beyond deadlock.

During this period McGuffin declined several kind offers of a permanent alternative venue as it was feared that any such venture could be detrimental to the case for reviving the EMD.

Despite the lack of a permanent home, McGuffin activities would continue regardless with every event used as a platform to highlight the ongoing plight of the EMD Cinema.

Working under the theme ‘the audience in exile’ (i.e. the EMD’s audience remained intact and the shows continued even while its doors were forcibly closed), McGuffin staged innumerable film screenings at almost every useable venue in Waltham Forest alongside music and theatre performances, outdoor festivals and social events. This endless activity ensured supporters continued to be positively engaged over the long term – and the EMD campaign remained at the forefront of the local political and cultural agenda.

As the only group actively campaigning for the EMD, McGuffin was in contact with a variety of cash bidders hoping to revive the cinema over the next few years but UCKG refused to sell, preferring to leave the venue empty and decaying.

UCKG would eventually wait more than six years before renewing their attempts to convert the cinema, believing public support for the EMD must have waned in the intervening time. With rarely a month having gone by without at least one McGuffin event highlighting the ongoing situation with the EMD, however, the issue was still very much alive. It would soon become clear that UCKG had badly misjudged the tenacity of the McGuffin campaign and its supporters.

When it was confirmed UCKG was secretly preparing new planning applications, the McGuffin Film Society immediately alerted supporters and printed more than 20,000 leaflets which were swiftly distributed around the borough, informing residents of this renewed threat. Public meetings and events were organised to raise awareness and collect objections which again attracted extensive media coverage.

When UCKG’s new plan was published, it was widely known that some current councillors were minded to approve their scheme and permanently settle the affair. Several prominent community figures also privately urged McGuffin to pursue a ‘compromise’ deal with UCKG but this was rejected outright and the focus of the campaign remained on a full scale revival of the venue.

With the issue mired in such controversy, Waltham Forest Council opted to defer a decision and instead commissioned a fully independent review to provide an impartial assessment of the situation and identify possible solutions for the site.

Regeneration specialists Locum Consulting were appointed to undertake a thorough investigation of the case and assess the viability of all options for the future of the building. Over several months Locum inspected the EMD building, held numerous meetings with council and UCKG officials and consulted widely with many interested parties – but McGuffin was the only organisation to argue the case for reviving the EMD as a venue for arts and culture.

When the Locum Report was published it would prove to be the decisive moment in the campaign, finally clearing the path for the EMD’s revival. The Report firmly endorsed many of the arguments presented by McGuffin, concluding the EMD was “probably the single most valuable asset Walthamstow has” and its revival would be “perhaps the only venture that could seriously put Walthamstow on the map as an evening destination”.

Although several further obstacles would lie ahead, the Locum Report was the tipping point which brought the campaign to it’s conclusion – and led directly to Waltham Forest Council joining the crusade to save the venue, the final rejection of UCKG’s plans and the emergence of Soho Theatre as a potential investor in the building’s future.

Since its inception, the McGuffin Film Society has continued to be a fully independent community organisation run by volunteers and financed solely by membership fees, donations and its own fundraising activities.

Various media reports from the BBC, London Evening Standard etc. can be found here, here, here and here.