Gorilla Cinema launched in the year 2000 as a Solar Powered Mobile Cinema (one of the first in the country) with a Millenium project grant from BTCV. In 2003 Gorilla Cinema Ltd. was formed, specialising in film and creative media education, production and exhibition.

The Gorilla Solar Powered Cinema travelled across the country from the South Coast to Scotland, including numerous outdoor festivals, Regents Park in London, Squatted buildings, woodland in the Peak District, Streets, playing fields, halls and City Centre events in Sheffield and Manchester, and the G8 climate camp at Gleneagles.

Our work was informed by a commitment to sustainability, environmental campaigning, and free access to art for all. By taking screenings into the heart of communities and often working with them to develop their own projects we were able to engage audiences with work that they would never normally consider.

Gorilla Cinema worked extensively with community groups and organisations to create participatory film and develop outreach and inclusion projects. We worked with groups including young people excluded from school, young offenders, socially excluded and isolated demographics, intergenerational groups and young cancer patients in hospital.

Gorilla Cinema worked with numerous organisations to produce artworks, educational materials, communication media and documentary of events. Partners and clients included: Voluntary organisations; charities; local authorities across the UK; Schools; Universities; Educational Action Zones; Creative Partnerships; Sheffield Independent Film; The Arts Council; NESTA; DCMS; Kino Film; TATE Britain; Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust; Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

The Films4lives awards was a human rights initiative resulting in an innovative international short film competition which awarded the UNICEF UK award. It ran for two years between 2005 and 2007 and was hosted in festivals nationwide. It involved links with numerous organisations including: Adobe, Apple, Avid, Channel4 Raw Cuts, Shepperton and Pinewood Studios, National Museum of Photography Film and Television, The Mill, Docspace, ShortsTv, Document Film Festival, Showcomotion Film Festival, Sheffield Hallam University, the NSPCC and UNICEF.

2Be, 2003, was the first community filmmaking project by Gorilla Cinema. Originally commissioned by Sheffield Hallam University as a widening participation project with a small budget it soon transformed it into a large-scale community activity resulting in a 30min musical documentary. Working with the University, a secondary school (where 51 different languages were spoken) and numerous other community partners, we engaged around 500 young people in discussion and debate, project planning, music production, performance, and filmmaking. The film was adopted by the British Council and the British Film Institute and has been translated into several languages.