We are pleased to announce a new consultant to Gosport Community Cinema in Rob Hind. Rob is a media lecturer who lives in Gosport, he is active and well-known in the film communities in Portsmouth and Southampton. Leader of the 2022 winning team of the DV Mission 48-hour film challenge. He is also the operator of The Ritz Cinema at St. Vincent – the only cinema screening in Gosport.
The Ritz Cinema at St. Vincent
On Monday 6th February 2017 Rob and a group of his students at St. Vincent’s College here in Gosport screened Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake in the college’s theatre auditorium. Six years later (and counting!) the cinema is still screening to a dedicated audience of local cinema-goers.
On a Thursday evening fortnightly during term time, audiences are presented a programme of film with a mixture of contemporary releases and classics, crowd-pleasers and arthouse. All curated and presented by Rob and a team of volunteers. The cinema is the best screening venue in Gosport with theatre seating and a stage used often for Q&A sessions.
A piece of local history
Rob explained to us recently the history of the Ritz name… The Ritz Cinema stood at the western end of Gosport High Street overlooking Walpole Park until its demolition in 2001. “The Ritz Super Cinema” a 1,500 single screen cinema had opened in March 1935, suffered bomb damage in 1941 and changed hands many times throughout the 20th Century. Closing for the final time in 1999 no takers were found to redevelop the site into a multiplex and so the land was razed and retail units now stand there.
(Photo by LenGazzard / CinemaTreasures.org, used under CC license)
The team from the Ritz moved to the theatre at St. Vincent College and continued to screen films using the projector from the building which Rob tells us is still at the college, he has saved it from the skip on numerous occasions. So it was that Rob and his team were able to revive and keep alive the name of the Ritz at the college, decades after the closure of the cinema.
Advocating for film in Gosport and the wider Solent Area
Rob is also an accomplished freelance independent filmmaker. After spending a decade teaching Film and Media qualifications at St. Vincent’s College, Rob is now a lecturer and Curriculum area manager at nearby Fareham College.
Two of Rob’s students from the Fareham college’s HNC Media course and were part of his team that won Best Professional Film at the Portsmouth 48-Hour DV Mission Film Challenge awards in March 2022.
The brief was to make a 2-minute film in the ‘Hammer Horror’ genre. The film is available to watch on YouTube and locals might recognise the shooting location!
We look forward to working with Rob to further the cause of film in Gosport and growing and supporting the audience for The Ritz at St. Vincent. See you there for a film soon!
Gosport Community Cinema 