‘A monument to kindness’: the rise of Britain’s community cinemas

The Plaza community cinema in Merseyside was founded by ‘a group of housewives’ who say they previously knew nothing about cinema Photograph: Handout

Thirty years ago, the battle to save a cinema would take Jan Dunn and her community on an adventure worthy of a film itself.

When she heard that the Apollo, the last cinema in the area, was closing, she got together with a group of women who rescued it from demolition, and so was born the Plaza community cinema, run by volunteers and a handful of employees.