Cube Microplex

Image:Cubemicroplexsign.jpg

The wooden theatre at the heart of the Cube was adapted from a workshop by volunteers for an amateur dramatics group in 1964. The building itself has a long history as a community arts venue, built in 1916 as workshops for the Bristol Deaf Centre; and converted by a team of amateur theatre enthusiasts in 1964 into a theatre with auditorium and fly tower. A projection room and cinema screen were added in the 1970s.

The Cube opened its doors in its present form in October 1998.{{cite news|last=Bradshaw|first=Peter|author2=Mark Butler|title=The smallest shows on earth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jan/30/1|accessdate=1 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 January 2008}} In July 2001 a serious fire originating in the New Mayflower kitchen destroyed most of the internal storeys and timber of 4 and 5 King Square. The Cube itself only sustained minor damage, but as its public entrance was accessed via a corridor between the fire damaged restaurant and kitchen, the Microplex was cut off from use by the general public. After extensive rebuilding work, the Cube reopened in August 2002 with a new entrance on Dove Street South.{{cite news|last=Booth|first=Martin|title=Boxing Clever|newspaper=Bristol Evening Post|date=28 October 2008|publisher=Bristol United Press}}

In December 2013, a fund-raising project to buy the freehold of the Cube's building was successful in reaching its £185,000 target.{{Cite web|url=https://cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/freehold/freehold.pl?action=surplus|title=Cube Cinema Freehold|website=Cubecinema.com|accessdate=10 January 2021}} On 1 April 2014 the Cube official became owned by Microplex Holdings Ltd, a non-profit Industrial and Provident Society and Community Land Trust (CLT) set up by Cube volunteers whose charter is to secure and maintain the freehold of the Cube Cinema as a community arts space in perpetuity.

File:Test Tube Cabaret at the Cube.jpg

The Cube's public programme averages over 350 events per year, with a monthly average attendance of 1500. Along with its cinema, music, performance and education programmes, the Cube hosts a wide range of local and international artists and community-initiated events.{{cite news|last=Tims |first=Anna |title=10 of the best ... independent cinemas|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2010/jan/22/10-best-independent-cinemas#/?picture=358359765&index=7|accessdate=1 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 January 2010}} The film screenings include general and limited release mainstream films, art-house, cult films and work by local film makers. It offers special film screenings for mothers and babies. Regular nights have included stand-up comedy, screenings of classic or cult comedy films,{{Cite web|url=http://simplelampoon.com/bristols-top-6-comedy-spots/|title=Bristol’s Top 6 Comedy Spots — Guy Forks|website=Simplelampoon.com|accessdate=10 January 2021}} and a movieoke evening, in which audience members act out their chosen film scenes on stage as they are played on the big screen.{{cite news|last=Berry|first=Mark|title=UK's Weirdest City is... Bristol|newspaper=Bizarre magazine|date=March 2007|page=64}} Weekends often feature live music and performances. The building is also periodically hired to third parties to put on their own events. The Cube has played hosts to seasons and festivals, including the Venn Festival, Ladyfest Bristol, Bristol Radical History Group, Ausform Platform of Performance and Independent Heroine festivals.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

Its anti-corporate ethos led to projects such as Kate Rich and Kayle Brandon's Cube-Cola, based on an open source cola recipe,{{cite news|last=Flint|first=James|title=The real thing. Or is it?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/jul/28/foodanddrink.shopping|accessdate=1 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=28 July 2006}} and Feral Trade which supplies various products to its bar using only personal social networks, including fair trade coffee from a farming cooperative in El Salvador.{{cite news|last=Morris|first=Steven|title=From slave trade to fair trade, Bristol's new image|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/mar/04/fairtrade.ethicalliving|accessdate=1 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 March 2005}} It has its own in-house improvising orchestra, the Orchestra Cube.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

The Cube has a history of setting up temporary cinemas in exotic locations, including a tin mine in Cornwall. In March 2010, a group travelled to the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake to stage an open-air cinema showing mainstream and specially-created films to children,{{cite news|last=Morris|first=Steven |title=Bristol cinema sets up film shows for Haiti's earthquake children|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/21/bristol-cinema-haiti-earthquake-children|accessdate=1 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|date=21 March 2010}} and in 2015 to Nepal following the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.{{Cite web|url=https://kidskino.cubecinema.com/|title=KIDS KINO PROJECT | A mobile, social cinema for children displaced from their homes|website=Kidskino.cubecinema.com|accessdate=10 January 2021}}

The Cube Cinema was incorporated in 1998 as a company limited by guarantee, constituted as a democratically run worker's co-operative. Its volunteer workforce has ranged in age from 8 to 65.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

{{Reflist}}

• Saul Albert (2003) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611173245/http://twenteenthcentury.com/saul/who_will_be_transformed.htm "Who Will Be Transformed? Community Art and Excellence"]
• {{cite journal |first=Kate |last=Rich |author2=Heath Bunting |author3=Graeme Hogg |journal=Mute Magazine |date=31 March 2001 |url=http://www.metamute.org/en/the_cube_microplex_faq |title=The Cube Microplex FAQ |accessdate=1 January 2011 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727081432/http://www.metamute.org/en/the_cube_microplex_faq |archive-date=27 July 2011 }}
• {{cite journal|last=Hogg|first=Graeme|author2=Chris Williams|title=Letter From...Desire in Action|journal=Vertigo Magazine|year=2009|volume=4|issue=3|url=http://www.vertigomagazine.co.uk/showarticle.php?sel=cur&siz=1&id=1105|accessdate=1 January 2011}}
• {{cite web|last=Penman|first=Chloë|title=Real{{!}}Reel at The Cube, Bristol. An Interview with Paul Cooke.|url=http://realreeljournal.com/2012/03/24/thecube/|work=Real{{!}}Reel eJournal|accessdate=2 April 2012| date=March 2012 }}

{{Commons category|Cube Microplex}}

• [http://www.cubecinema.com Cube Microplex site]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050830084335/http://sparror.cubecinema.com/cubelog/ Cube Microplex web log]

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