Lido Cinemas
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Lido Cinemas

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“It all started 20 years ago when I got into the notion of running cinemas and had this little dirty paper pamphlet with a pale blue cover from the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society that listed every original cinema building in Victoria,” Tamir says. “The Classic and the Cameo were in that pamphlet and the Lido was very exciting but not available at the time. I really wouldn’t be interested in a green field site and building something new. I am a bit of a sucker for the old energy as well as the old aesthetic of original cinemas.”

An eight-screen complex including a rooftop cinema, the Lido certainly is a stunning site. But is a nice building really enough to buck the prevailing trend? Anyone with a fully loaded hard-drive could probably be convinced otherwise. Tamir agrees; cinema’s unique appeal isn’t purely contingent upon architecture.

“This tune kind of reminds me of the songs being sung about the cinema business in the ‘50s and the closure of the neighbourhood cinemas around the world,” he says. “So really, cinema’s been dying since the ‘50s in people’s general view. DVD, TV, video, CD, stealing online, legally streaming online, fragmentation – the song continues. Yet there seems to be something kind of basic and slightly primitive, in a good way, about shared experience, which is riding above all of that pessimistic singing.”

Tamir might have a point, but the offer of shared experience, pure and simple, isn’t enough to secure a successful business. We’ve all stood at the tram stop with a bunch of strangers, but it’s hardly an experience that has you hankering for more. So to go along with the building’s historically enriched ambience, the folks behind the Lido will provide theatre attendees with some romantic accoutrements.

“It’s all a bit of a circus, in terms of the atmosphere,” says Tamir. “It’s entertainment and there’s got to be a sense of circus about it all. We enjoy that, whether it’s a Q&A, whether it’s playing vinyl records in the foyer, whether it’s having a rooftop outdoor cinema, whether it’s the aesthetic of the place, the range of films we play – it all feeds into that.”

The notion of shared experience doesn’t end there. Since opening the Classic in 1997, Tamir’s been intent upon making his cinemas unique – and this also relates to what gets shown on screen. The Lido will screen general commercial features, as well as much loved classics. But even that won’t distinguish it from several other cinemas around Melbourne. Exclusive features like the 8K Radius film series, on the other hand, most certainly will. Developed in coordination with the City of Boroondara, and directed by Kenny’s Clayton Jacobson, the series of mini documentaries puts people from the local area up on the local cinema screen.

“Lots of cinemas are boring in that they are the same,” Tamir says. “A few years ago I thought ‘If we have to, let’s make our own stuff for the screen. Let’s produce so that we deliver something that clearly no one else has got.’ I was speaking to Clayton five years ago originally and I said ‘Let’s do something original. They can be really short, but I want something original and special.’ And Clayton came up with the idea of the mini documentary and that evolved into mini-documentaries about people who live and/ or work within an eight kilometre radius of the cinema. The whole idea was that locals would be the stars of their own cinema screen, as well as patrons would see these films and either know well or identify these characters from their area and go ‘Wow. That’s amazing. What an amazing person. I’ve seen them around but who would’ve thought they were so interesting.’ That’s the basic idea.”

Another Lido exclusive is the Melbourne premiere of the Aussie independent film Last Cab to Darwin, directed by Jeremy Sim andstarring Michael Caton and Jackie Weaver. They’ll be doing their own spin on a red carpet gala, which will feature a Q&A with Caton and Sim. Moving forward, Tamir promises plenty of similarly natured exclusives.

“One of the major focuses at the Lido will be Australian,” he says. “Especially what we call the commercial orphans of Australian cinema – the ones that distributors may not feel have enough commerciality to get involved with. So we just deal direct with filmmakers and invite them to present the films with us. We’re in a historically very-Australian area, we’re also next to Swinburne, which they’re calling the largest film and TV school in Australia now. So we’ll definitely focus on it.”

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY