Partnerships
We'd love to hear from you!
We work with individuals, groups, charities and organisations in lots of different ways. We are always open to finding new and exciting partnerships, so if you have an idea of how you would like to work with us, please get in touch. You can email our Creative Engagement Officer, Mosa, via mosa@hpph.co.uk to talk further.
If you would like to learn more about us and our code of conduct, head to our About Us page.
Every partnership is important to us. Below are just small number of the organisations we've been lucky to work with.
Leeds African Communities Trust
Leeds African Communities Trust (LACT) is a charity set up in 2019 to be a collective voice for Africans in Leeds, they organise a food pantry in Little London and hold fundraising and discussion events about relevant issues for Africans.
We are working with LACT to understand how we can better serve the African communities of Leeds and their advice has been invaluable in feeding into our new Cinema Africa! strand. LACT have supported us in growing the concept for this strand, by distributing a survey to ask what kind of films people want to see, and how and when. Then during our closure period, we trialled different African films in our On The Road programme, LACT helped by promoting these films to different communities, and supported us in testing different promotional methods.
Now LACT continues to partner with Cinema Africa! by promoting activity and ensuring African audiences across the city are aware of the strand.
Colours May Vary
In recent years we've worked with independent bookstore and gallery Colours May Vary on many projects and events. In 2021, Colours May Vary hosted an exhibition of our lost cinemas project Hiding in Plain Sight – supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Leeds Inspired.
The exhibition featured illustrations of over 80 cinemas, produced by local artist Adam Allsuch Boardman. This collaboration then led to the publication of Colours May Vary's first book, providing audiences with another opportunity to engage with this research project.
T A P E Collective
At the end of 2021-2022, we worked with national film programmers T A P E Collective to screen a series of short film events called ‘But Where Are You Really From?’ with local filmmakers and spoken word performances.
This programme focused on ‘mixed heritage’ identity via the ‘good immigrant’ topic, languages, and our names. T A P E Collective tour programmes across the UK centring underexplored topics, and they champion and promote underserved films and filmmakers. It was a pleasure to work with T A P E and they supported us during closure on our On The Road programme. They worked with us to collaborate with local artists and filmmakers but bring extra flavour to the programme and relate to the themes on a local level.
Yorkshire Film Archive
For many years we've worked with the Yorkshire Film Archive to source archive films made in and around Yorkshire. By bringing this material into our programme we are able to bring to life the heritage of our community for a modern audience.
Between 2020 and 2022 we were able to deepen that collaboration by working together to produce Memory Bank Leeds, a free DVD resource pack which uses archive film to unlock memories, prompt conversations and improve wellbeing.
“It evokes a lot of memories that you perhaps would have forgotten about. You see things and think ‘Gosh, I remember that’.”
Memory Bank user
Leeds Film
We regularly work with Leeds Film to host screenings as part of Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds Young Film Festival and the INDIs.
This friendship has existed since the very conception of the festival, with the first Leeds International Film Festival taking place at the Picture House in 1987.
As well as hosting screenings together, this partnership extends to joined up conversations, mutual support and sharing best practice aimed at understanding how we can grow audiences in West Yorkshire for specialised film.
Cinema Rediscovered
In 2022, we worked in collaboration with Cinema Rediscovered to tour an exciting film programme: Women’s Stories from the Global South (& To Whom They Belong). Cinema Rediscovered is a film festival in Bristol that celebrates brand new restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities from around the globe.
For the 2022 edition of the festival, Mosa from the Hyde Park Picture House team, in her Black Cinema Project capacity, developed a programme of films in partnership with Tanzanian audio visual collective, Ajabu Ajabu and other practitioners: Twelve30 Collective, Dr Jessica Gordon-Burroughs and curator Lorena Pino. This film programme was five recently digitised or restored works from the Global South that were written by and about women. Surrounding each film from this selection exists a uniquely challenging story of ownership and distribution, opening up discussion around the imbalance of power within film cultures perpetuated globally and locally — particularly imposed upon female storytellers and hindering open and inclusive access to their narratives. After their presentation in Bristol, this programme was funded by the BFI to tour to cinemas across the country.
“Ultimately my goal is to normalise seeing Global South films, especially old films, and for more cinemas to try screening them, and for more audiences to understand how special and important they are.”
Mosa Mpetha
Other recent partnerships
In early 2022, we collaborated with Leeds Cineforum, Welcome 2 Italian Language and the University of Leeds to create a three part series called Parole e immagini: A journey in Italian film inspired by literature that was launched at Leeds Lit Fest.
Other organisations we regularly partner with include HEART, Village Books, Leeds University Union, Heritage Corner, Yorkshire Sculpture International, Birds’ Eye View, Pavilion, Queer East and Leeds Palestinian Film Festival.