Mammoth is Nottingham's Climate Cinema Rearing to Take Action

Nottingham film buffs will surely already know the tiny cinema formerly known as Screen 22 and Screen Room, tucked away opposite The Lord Roberts pub on Broad Street. If you hadn't heard, it's recently been transformed into Mammoth - A Climate Action Cinema, and as per the tin, it’s got big ambitions.

The building also serves as home to Savoy Systems, owner Patrick Hort’s company that builds and manages point-of-sale software for independent cinemas. I first got to know Patrick via an interview at COP26 in Glasgow, where he was protesting alongside Extinction Rebellion (XR). As we take a seat - no popcorn in hand on this occasion, unfortunately - I get to know a bit more about his journey into avid environmentalism. 

“In the nineties it felt like we could just do what we wanted and everything was fine, it was all under control. But by the time Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out in 2006, I was starting to wake up to the fact that a really big problem was coming down the road. Because it was presented in scientific terms, and I have a degree in physics - so that registered with me.”

For a while, Patrick felt that the upsurge in media and political interest, along with making incremental changes like cutting down on flying and meat eating, meant “we’d have a nice transition to a greener economy and a world where we don’t pump CO2 into the atmosphere”. But it wasn’t long before he began to lose hope, adding that “we were clearly still going in the wrong direction, and I was getting quite depressed about the situation”.

“XR struck me as the only thing that was offering any hope at that point,” he continues. “While I didn’t like the road blocking element, it did feel like the only way to get any media attention. Nothing changes unless you piss people off.” He feels that while XR have opened minds and shifted the dial, their “We Quit” pivot is a relief - they say they’re now dropping such disruptive tactics in favour of coalition-building and mass-mobilisation. “On 21 April 2023 we’re trying to get 100,000 people to go to the Houses of Parliament, and not leave until something changes.”

It was partly this discomfort with the negative side of protesting that birthed the idea for a climate action cinema. But why film? And can such a small cinema change enough minds? 

“It’s clearly not going to change billions of minds, or those of politicians in Downing Street, but I’m motivated because I think that most people resonate with stories, and that’s what cinema’s all about. Obviously it’s a small place, but it is known to a huge proportion of Nottingham, and having that full name, Mammoth - A Climate Action Cinema, getting around and in the national listings, might help motivate people to act in environmentally-minded ways.”

Patrick hopes it’ll be more than a space for showing films, an aspect which he says is “still a work in progress”. There are already a raft of flyers on offer in the foyer pointing people towards groups they can get involved with, and there’s a dedicated events space upstairs too, which he’s offering out to the community.

One of the eight films coming up at the cinema at the time of writing is Bank Job, directed by a couple who set up a rebel bank that raised £40,000 through selling artwork banknotes, using half to set up social projects, and the other half to buy out £1.2 million worth of bad mortgage debt which they then cancelled. There’s an emphasis on inclusive system change here; it isn’t all nature-focused, or about their guests making a few lifestyle tweaks.

Patrick is an avid home sustainability improver, and is keen to share his knowledge. The Sunamp salt-based heat battery he’s got two of is news to me. At home, he says, “We’ve got a heat pump installed, but I’m sure we can eliminate some draughts and improve our insulation, so we’re going to get a thermal imaging camera to help. That’s something I hope we can lend out and share expertise in via the cinema.” 

A recent success and demonstration of the cinema’s potential was their showing of We the Power - a documentary on community energy, and the talk that followed, which introduced an organisation called the Schools Energy Cooperative. “One of the guys that came along is on the board of seven academies, and the idea of working with the SEC is now going through feasibility. The City Council have been in touch about it too. So I was like ‘wow, something’s actually happening here’.

“That’s the ultimate ambition. We've got people together with a film, a chat, and a few free glasses of wine - that’s what made an evening of it, but then they actually went away and did something that may well lead on to greater things. That's the kind of model I want to try and reproduce.”

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