Open air film screening from Portsmouth’s No6 Cinema tells story of Drop City, one of the first hippie communes ever established

Portsmouth’s independent cinema organisation, No6 Cinema, showed the 2012 documentary Drop City on The Big Screen in the square on Sunday.

This film charts the history of one of the first hippie communes ever established on the desert plains of Trinidad, Colorado in the 1960s.

Malisa Chafer, chair of No6 Cinema, said: ‘We’re a not for profit organisation to bring the best of independent cinema in Portsmouth.

‘We bring those films that don’t get shown in major multiplexes - not the big blockbusters.’

No6 Cinema screens quality mainstream films as well as documentaries, world cinema, and classic movies.

The screen was held in a collaboration with Ports Fest as part of its festival weekend.

Drop City is a story about artists who rejected war-mongering and materialistic sensibilities of the 1960s, and chose instead to invent their own civilization.

Malisa said: ‘It was cold on Sunday unfortunately and I think that put people off - we were all sitting under our blankets, but it was lovely to be with people and to see some of our customers come down.

‘It was quite atmospheric with trains squealing by and birds flying.’

The No6 team will be welcoming film fans back to its usual venue at Boathouse 6 in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard when the cinema reopens on Thursday, September 2.

Malisa added: ‘We’ll be screening American Utopia, a Spike Lee film, and we’ll be back into our usual three nights a week screening.’

Find out more about No6 Cinema and upcoming screenings at no6cinema.co.uk.

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