Storyhouse Gems is a monthly series of carefully selected, one-time cinema screenings, showcasing a variety of cult, classic, and modern film favourites, specially curated by a member of the Storyhouse Cinema Team. Since its inception, we’ve visited quirky stories about chance encounters, tales that offer a reflection of masculinity, and have explored an array of unlikeable women in pop culture.
Our latest season of Storyhouse Gems, loosely inspired by the world premiere of The Gangs of New York at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre this July, will take audiences to the streets with four distinct tales of youth and community from around the globe. So grab your squad and join us this summer as we dive into some of cinema’s most captivating neighbourhoods.
“Can you dig it?” We kick off the summer with Walter Hill’s superb and stylish cult classic, The Warriors (1979).
The armies of the night come out to play in this energetic and exaggerated depiction of crime and gang warfare in New York City, where youthful gangs outnumber cops five to one. The film follows Coney Island’s “Warriors,” a gang with nowhere to run when they are framed for the murder of gang leader Cyrus. With a hit on their gang, it becomes a fight for survival as The Warriors must find a way to traverse on foot from the Bronx through Manhattan and back to their home turf in Brooklyn.
Colourful comic book characters, campy fight scenes, and gritty environments make up Walter Hill’s urban midnight odyssey; from its iconic leather-clad antiheroes, roller-skating street gangs, and face-painted baseball furies, to its graffiti-covered playgrounds and subway stations. The Warriors has left an indelible mark on pop culture, influencing the street fighting genre in both film and video game media.
Up next, sticking to the streets of New York, we turn from night to day with Spike Lee’s poignant, sun-soaked drama, Do The Right Thing (1989).
The story begins as an episodic slice-of-life tale set on the hottest day of the year in the diverse Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Following Mookie, a young black pizza delivery boy who works for Italian American pizzeria owner Sal. Throughout the day, we are introduced to a neighbourhood of distinct personalities, including “Buggin Out,” “Radio Raheem,” “Smiley,” and “Da Mayor”. As the heat rises, so does hate and tension, as everyday struggles and cultural differences between African and Italian American neighbours culminate in a clash of cultures at Sal’s Pizzeria. The inciting incident: a celebrity wall of fame with no icons of the black community.
As relevant today as it was when it was released, Spike Lee’s scorching masterpiece presents a vibrant environment overflowing with humanity, happiness, pain, and violence that oscillates between comedy and tragedy, tackling enduring themes of racial injustice and the importance of representation.
Up next, leaving the various districts of New York for a South London council estate, we embark on Joe Cornish’s innovative inner-city sci-fi epic, Attack The Block (2011).
When a meteorite falls from the sky during a late-night crime spree, a gang of teenage hoodlums become embroiled in a fight against extraterrestrial monsters from outer space. Teaming up with their neighbours, including Samantha, a trainee nurse and a victim of the gang’s prior mugging, our hooded heroes, led by Mosses, task themselves with defending the tower.
Inspired by the horror films of John Carpenter, and the gangs of the aforementioned Walter Hill, Cornish draws great inspiration from 80s American movies to craft a vibrant and atmospheric night-time environment blended with the rising movement of 2000s British genre parody such as Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The cinematography of Attack the Block is highly reminiscent of a graphic novel as well, with unforgettable imagery such as Moses equipping a samurai sword to fight the aliens, or its otherworldly creatures whose blackest black fur and neon blue fangs strike awe and fear in both our protagonists and the film’s audience.
Offering up an authentic depiction of British youth culture and language at the time, Attack The Block‘s cast was made up of mainly local and relatively unknown young actors, one of whom being John Boyega, who would go on to have international success as Finn, a major character in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. It would also give Jodie Whittaker her first taste of sci-fi, before taking up the mantle of the first female Doctor in BBC’s Doctor Who. An extraordinary British cult movie that remains as funny, scary, and emblematic as it was 14 years ago.
We conclude this season with Céline Sciamma’s fresh coming-of-age drama Girlhood ‘Bande de filles’ (2014).
In the film, we follow sixteen-year-old Marieme, a black French teenager with few immediate prospects living in the suburbs of Paris. On her way out of school, she is approached by Lady, the leader of an all-girl gang, and is invited to join them. The girls display intimidation, by fighting and stealing from others, but they exhibit love and support for one another. Marieme, escaping her abusive brother and absent mother, reinvents herself through the gang, adopting their style and mannerisms and going by her new street name, “Vic”. Vic develops a more aggressive side to her personality that helps her shed her former life and prove herself to Lady, but she cannot escape the struggles that come with heartbreak and adolescence.
Girlhood completes Céline Sciamma’s trilogy of coming-of-age tales, following on from her feature debut Water Lilies and Tomboy, with an emotionally intimate story that depicts a celebration of female companionship, combats stereotypes, and addresses the universal hardship of growing up. Later on, the renowned director achieved further triumphs with Portrait of a Lady on Fire and her latest film, Petite Maman, yet Girlhood continues to shine bright like a diamond at the heart of her incredible filmography.
All tickets are £5 for YSC Members. Explore the season page here.
Storyhouse is a charity, we’re a creative hub and a home for communities. Every ticket you buy at Storyhouse Cinema goes back into the community in Chester.