Get Involved

The Star and Shadow Cinema runs on the love and work of a large and ever-growing collective of volunteers.

Pretty much everything you see in the cinema was built by volunteers over eight months between April and November 2006 (and ongoing!). Running the cinema - now it is open - is entirely a voluntary activity. Our volunteers have an amazing amount of skills between them – and collectively we can make this cinema the best and most open space for seeing films, being creative, changing the world etc.

The Things We Do

These are some of the things that we do:

Projecting : bar work : painting : sign making : designing brochures : database update : designing posters : web update : emailing : ushering : choosing films : bookkeeping : paying bills : decorating : planning festivals : fixing broken things : recycling : collecting freecycled things : sweeping : stocktaking : ordering stock : writing copy : distributing brochures and posters : printing posters : cleaning : selling tickets : writing funding applications : managing our license : DJing : organising gigs : cashing up : PR : MySpace updating : documenting : everything else and more…

We are always looking for people to work with us to share the work.

Every one who volunteers chooses how much time they dedicate to the cinema, and what roles they want to take on.

You can volunteer for a job, a one-off occasion, a regular weekly slot – however it best fits with you.

Some of this work you need to be in the cinema. Some of it you don’t. Some of it helps if you have a car. We have computers for computer work but a lot of it can be done from any computer.

Perks of the job – apart form the warm glow you get from making the Star and Shadow light up – are a free film in exchange for a shift you work and cheaper drinks while you are working.

How To Volunteer

If you would like to volunteer, whether that be with a particular skill or resource or a general enthusiasm to make the cinema run there are a number of ways to get involved, although in the first instance you may wish to go to an induction to find out more about the cinema and how it works (see below).

• Come to a screening / event early and talk to us
• Come to a meeting (see below)
• Send us an email info@starandshadow.org.uk or call the office 0191 261 0066 (answerphone if no-one in)
• Sign up to the volunteers mailing list. Send a blank email to volunteers-subscribe@lists.starandshadow.org.uk

This email list has information send to it about when there are specific jobs that need to be done, minutes of all our meetings and occasional responses to these that are necessary for all volunteers to see.
Any signed up volunteer can post to this list. Replies will automatically be sent to the sender rather than the whole list so your inbox will not be filled unintentionally!

Inductions

Inductions are about getting an introduction to the ethos and running of the cinema. The cinema has some systems in place which are there to make things easier for everyone and to make the cinema safe. We run inductions to working at the cinema – 2nd Saturday of every month at 11am – or you can have your own induction if you come in about an hour before the first shift you do and someone with the know-how will show you the ropes.

Meetings

We have regular meetings every Monday at 6pm at the cinema. There is a flat (or no) hierarchy and anyone coming to a meeting can be involved in our consensus decision making.

If you have a programming idea, then please try and get involved (see above) and read the star and shadow handbook before coming to a meeting as in our experience this helps meetings run smoothly.

Our meetings are:

• 1^st Monday of the month – General meeting
• 2^nd Monday of the month – Programming meeting
• 3^rd Monday of the month – General meeting
• 4^th Monday of the month – Programming and publicity meeting
• 5^th Monday (when it occurs) – Social (we do something nice and don’t minute it!)