Manchester’s drizzling winter evenings are quickly closing in and luring people towards the sofa for lazy hours of low budget television. While adverts blare out beaming Coca-Cola logos on to the pallid complexions of blank faces, the good people down at Manchester Film Co-operative are offering up an alternative, non-commercial viewing schedule: more conscientious cultural cinema than sparkly, over-bearing “Strictly Come X-factor and Judy.”

The six films in the Co-Operative’s current series are connected by themes of work and unemployment. Screenings take place each month at the cosy Kings Arms pub on Bloom Street, just off Deansgate. Founder co-op member, Phoebe Moore says the Work season “touches on the most important and sometimes controversial areas of concern for our world of work today.”  The season kicked off in October with Bread and Roses, Ken Loach’s thoughtful exploration of two sister’s lives as under-paid cleaners in downtown Los Angeles.

The November film is Jean Luc-Goddard’s 1972 masterpiece Tout va Bien (Tuesday 24). When workers strike at a French sausage factory, American reporter Jane Fonda is there to witness and document the events. As the plot unfolds so too does director Goddard’s Marxist leanings; the struggle for power within the factory reflecting the class struggle taking place in 1970s France on a greater scale. Upcoming screenings include an early Michael Moore documentary, Roger and Me (19 January) and Danish auteur Lars Von Trier’s comedy The Boss of it All (23 February).

The not-for-profit Co-Operative is owned and run by its one hundred-strong members, an eclectic mix of film-lovers, politically minded experts, activists and anyone who just fancies joining in. Members propose films and speakers and run the screenings. They strive to show politically engaging films with contemporary relevance, as earlier seasons ‘Revolution’ and ‘Sustainable Futures’ demonstrated. With guest speakers and audience discussion after every screening, it is a lively and open space to share ideas. As Britain faces the onset of a winter blighted by looming unemployment and widespread recession blues, the ‘Work’ season is bound to stoke up some interesting debates.

Membership is open and costs just £5. For those just wanting to drop by for the odd movie, tickets are £3 or £2 concessions on the door. A positive force for education and discussion, the Co-Operative’s monthly screenings are definitely worth braving the relentless Mancunian rain for.

Film Schedule:

Tuesday 24 November – Tout va Bien

Tuesday 15 December – I am Somebody

Tuesday 19 January – Rodger and Me

Tuesday 23 February – The Boss of it All

Tuesday 23 March - Man of Marble

Screenings take place at The Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford and start at 7.45pm.

For more information see here or join the Facebook group

Rachel Jackson