“Diabolical”. “Absolutely devastating”. “Heartbreaking”.
Staff from the Belmont Filmhouse stood stunned outside the beloved Aberdeen cinema today, struggling to find words after the abrupt announcement of its immediate closure.
All of them knew that the place had been under pressure after almost two years of pandemic restrictions and rising energy costs, like everywhere else in the city centre.
But they expected there would have been some warning.
Instead, an administrator turned up at the cinema’s door on Belmont Street this morning, alongside a workman who changed the locks.
“We’ve all been let go, we didn’t know about this happening,” said Dillan-James Carter, who was the Belmont Filmhouse‘s event manager.
“It’s a real shock, I thought we were struggling but I didn’t know it was this bad.”
Staff members received an email yesterday evening, telling them to come in at 10am for a meeting.
Group chats went into panic mode, with several fearing the worst.
“A lot of us cancelled plans, didn’t go to class, because it felt like we all needed to be here together,” said another staff member, who chose not to give their name as they had been encouraged not to talk to the press.
“We were just told it had gone into administration and we were all made redundant effective immediately.”
Cost of living crisis adding pressure
They explained that many of the front-of-house staff were young students who had worked at the cinema for less than a year, meaning they did not qualify for redundancy pay.
“It’s awful, especially considering the living crisis.
“But that’s all we know. Some strangers came in and told us there was a job fair on Saturday to go to.”
Before leaving for the last time, staff left tributes and messages of support on the wall of the box office.
Staff’s final messages written on the box office wall. This place was so very loved until the last minute. Until we see each other again, Belmont. pic.twitter.com/NuvBZZsu2Y
— Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) October 6, 2022
Anne Mackenzie, a regular customer of the Belmont Filmhouse, had arrived that morning to see a documentary about Leonard Cohen only to be told the place had been shut with immediate effect.
She said: “I’m so emotional about it, I can’t believe it.
“It was a kind of refuge for older people in the city, the staff knew about film and cared about you.
“I came regularly, and I’ve often been the only person there, so we wondered how long it could go on for. It’s absolutely devastating.”
‘Films won’t get screened now in Aberdeen’
Several of the people who paused by the doors reflected on what the news of the Belmont Filmhouse’s closure meant for the arts in Aberdeen.
Film critic Dallas King, who worked in various roles at the cinema for 14 years before leaving in 2017, said: “There’s a lot of films which will probably not get screened now in Aberdeen.
“This was a chance for films that you would not see anywhere else, and especially from a community aspect, young filmmakers got to debut their films.
“I screened multiple films from people working out of Nescol and RGU.”
He added: “It offered something different to all of the other cinemas. It’s going to be a massive hole.
“The customers knew the staff, you could go in and get recommendations.
“For the regulars, it was a place where they felt safe and welcome to go and see films.”
Chris McBride said the closure of the venue would be a “real loss to the town”.
He said: “It was much more than just a cinema, it’s been a café, a bar, a meeting point and a discussion place as well.
“The films they showed were generally the more interesting ones, not the run-of-the-mill, big-budget blockbusters.
“They did those as well, but they also showed a lot of more interesting films.”
Staff leave beloved Belmont
When the staff filed out onto the street after their meeting with the administrator, several were holding poster tubes.
Dillan-James, the Belmont Filmhouse event manager, said: “I’m just devastated, not even as a person that worked there but as a citizen of Aberdeen.
“I’m blown away by the lack of communication and that such an institution has gone.”
He added: “If I’m speaking from the heart, Aberdeen has so little that I’m shocked this institution has been abandoned. That’s where my heart is.
“This place was amazing, it was a community space for the elderly, the disabled and the young.
“I’m really blown away, it’s heartbreaking.”
Staff have since been thrown a potential lifeline with a city businessman working on a takeover bid:
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