With regard to the article about 75 years of Contemporary Films by Andrew Pulver (‘Not just Hollywood crap’: Mike Leigh on the East End communist who brought world cinema to the UK, 1 September), it was not only in Britain that Charles Cooper’s impact was felt: it spread to many other parts of the world.
Contemporary Films made a major impact on me in South Africa before I even went to London to study film-making in 1959. In Johannesburg, as an 18-year-old, I discovered the Johannesburg Film Society. Through Contemporary Films’ distribution systems, the society was able to show Satyajit Ray’s film Pather Panchali, a film that has lived on in my mind while so many others have been forgotten.
Then, 13 years later, Charles and Kitty Cooper distributed my film Boesman and Lena, based on the play by Athol Fugard and shown in the Paris Pullman cinema, London. Years later they screened Marigolds in August, also written by Fugard, with a cast that included Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona.
The Coopers showed me that the word “film” was not defined by Hollywood and that there were many ways to spell film. It encouraged me to believe that we could tell our own stories without necessarily being constrained by the diktats of Hollywood. We owe the Coopers a great debt.
Ross Devenish
Cape Town, South Africa
Mike Leigh may have only watched “Hollywood and British movies” as he grew up in Manchester, but if he’d been a bit more inquisitive he could have joined the Manchester and Salford Film Society, which was at that time regularly showing world cinema; formed in 1930, it had been mentioned by the Manchester Guardian during its first year, when the paper noted its belief that “intelligent film will prosper [as] each visit to the film society shows”. Ewan MacColl, an early member, said that we presented “the cream of the world’s best films”.
Our volunteer-led society is still going strong, approaching our 96th season, and currently based at the Little Theatre in Altrincham. We are always happy to welcome new members, so perhaps Mr Leigh could join us for our showing of Tokyo Story on 12 September.
Kal Hodgson
Hale, Greater Manchester
