An imposing art deco façade adorns the cavernous entryway to the Dendy Newtown cinema. Wedged between a less-than unique coffee bar and a slightly blasé record store, the Dendy may seem hard to miss on the two hundred block of King Street, but I nearly walked right past it.
Standing under the cinema's angular sign, I forget for a moment that I am going to see a movie. For all I know, I may have stumbled into an alleyway concert hall playing host to the next big indie rock band. By the time I reach the ticketing counter, however, this feeling is gone. I am in the enthusiastically over-carpeted lobby of what could be just another cinema, waiting to see just another movie.
Unlike its marginally more ostentatious counterpart on the famed Circular Quay, the Dendy Newtown is shielded from the saturating influences of tourism. Before it became a cinema, the building was just another neighbourhood supermarket and some awkward aspects of the transition still linger in the design. Overall, it feels as if a dimly lit underground cinema and a shopping mall were thrown together with all the nuance of a particle accelerator.
But this is exactly what Dendy Cinemas is going for and it is completely to their credit. Started as a simple husband and wife project, Dendy Cinemas is now in partnership with Dendy Films distribution. Together, these two anti-titans of independent film work to bring only the best of international cinema to the east coast of Australia. And frankly, with six locations from Melbourne up to Brisbane, they appear to be doing incredibly well at it.
Dendy's success is rooted in a passion for film. "There's nothing better than eating-up a good quality film and bringing that same pleasure to your audiences," says Josephine Ison, marketing and publicity coordinator for Dendy Films.
By the looks of it, Dendy has been busy eating up quite a lot of films. Currently between the two of them, the Dendy cinemas in Newtown and Cicrcular Quay are showing twelve films from all over the world. With a selection ranging from the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood to the edgy independent comedy Be Kind Rewind, the Dendy Cinemas of Sydney remain pleasantly accessible.
Because when it comes to independent film, accessibility is essential. There may be better looking or more subversive cinemas across the city, but when it comes to bringing audiences of all kinds together to broaden their movie-going horizons, there is little better than Dendy Cinemas.
Photos by Catherine Alcorn
