Activist Awareness: Patrick Hort
Meet the owner of Nottingham's climate-action cinema: Mammoth
My newsletter about the perils of McDonalds was centred around a trip to see the film McLibel at a new, local-to-me, climate-action cinema recently opened by Patrick.
I fell in love with Mammoth before I even arrived and was very interested to meet the man behind it. It’s not everyday you get to meet a guy who decides to open an eco cinema, this Armchair Activist was intrigued!
The man himself! Patrick Hort. Owner of Mammoth.
Patrick’s love of Mammoth and the important message behind it oozes out of him along with an extremely large helping of kindness and warmth. He welcomed everyone there to watch the film and gave us all a potted history of the cinema, which has been a picture house for many years, albeit never a climate-action oriented one. Working in the cinema industry, Patrick was keen to keep this historic building and its cinematic past alive in a new and important way.
In the 1970s, Mammoth was renowned for being an ‘adult’ movie theatre, at which point in his introduction, someone piped up that they hoped the seats had been changed since then! My teen almost barfed her popcorn up until I reassured her the seats were immaculate! It had also held the Guinness Book’s Record for being the smallest cinema in the world, with only 22 seats (It has since been knocked off its top spot by a 16-seater!)
But the real pull of this incarnation of the cinema is Patrick and his climate-activist vision. Armchair Activist had a good chinwag with Patrick to learn more…
Armchair Activist (AA):
AA: It was lovely to visit Mammoth last weekend Patrick, it’s really great what you’ve created there and I will definitely be back, thank you.
It was interesting to hear the building’s history as a cinema - from its porn star days of the 70s and its Guinness Book of Records claim as the smallest cinema, but I’m most interested in your reimagining of the space as a climate-action cinema and about your activism.
What prompted you, personally, to commit to showing films of this genre at Mammoth?
Patrick Hort (PH):
PH: I look back to the 1990s as almost halcyon days environmentally. The Doomsday Clock wasn’t as close to midnight as it is now (at 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, compared to 90 seconds to midnight in 2023!). Despite many of her problematic policies, Margaret Thatcher, as a chemist, had understood the importance of environmental issues and governments had taken the hole in the ozone layer seriously.
There had been a big move towards renewable energies, but Exxon and the oil industry sought to undermine this. (Exon had known about the links between fossil fuels and climate change since the 1970s but from the 1980s to the 2000s they led the way in climate change denial. Regulations to curb climate change were challenged by them, they funded organisations that opposed the Kyoto Agreement - an International Treaty committed to reducing greenhouse gases - and sought to manipulate public opinion about fossil fuels and their scientifically proven impact on climate change).
In the mid 2000s I became aware that a real problem was brewing. I stopped flying in 2005 and tried to start modifying my own behaviour, presuming that others would do the same. Unfortunately sustainable personal change wasn’t widespread and I was getting really depressed about our prospects. I don’t want to preach, AND as someone with a physics degree I knew the science on this was urgent!!
One of the reasons Mammoth cinema exists is because of two films I watched around that time. Franny Armstrong’s 2009 film ‘The Age of Stupid’ and Al Gore’s film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in 2006. Then, after years of increasing despair, hope was reignited in 2019 sparked by young people like Greta Thunberg and the organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’.
At first I was worried about the organisation’s direct action stunts. I find it uncomfortable, I don’t want to get arrested, and I’d rather not glue myself to things! But I went along to one of their road-blocking actions in Nottingham and met a guy there who was an accountant. It was reassuring to me to know that other “conventional” people cared about doing something and raising awareness, and I did – for about 3 minutes – stand in the road holding a banner, albeit within the law.
(We may have had a bit of a titter about Patrick feeling reassured by an accountant here which sparked a whole other conversation about his love of numbers and science. I would never feel reassured by an accountant and have a numbers aversion. It challenged my assumptions about the kind of person who would open a cinema. I had presumed it would be someone who loved stories and was very creative (an incorrect assumption there about what creativity looks like too!) when, as Patrick shared, he’s never been a massive film buff and IS very creative).
So the idea for the cinema and some kind of community space had been buzzing around in my head for a few years before we took over what became Mammoth 5 or 6 years ago. I knew I wanted the name to state front and centre that it is a climate-action cinema with emphasis on the word ACTION!
AA: What are your hopes for Mammoth?
PH: World Peace?!
AA: That’s very beauty queen, but I like it!
PH: Given the problem with so many large corporations and multi-nationals I’d really like the cinema to inspire people to set something up locally. Whether that’s being inspired by a film about solar energy and thinking ‘I’m going to start a community solar energy project in Nottingham’ or learning about food waste and deciding to set up a food waste collection. I’d love to think that Mammoth inspires people to make a difference in their local communities.
The comfy seats at Mammoth (Is it me or is that brick wall a curtain??!! I didn’t notice that when I was sat right next to it!).
AA: You mentioned your faith in young people to take the climate crisis seriously and take action, would you be interested in running some films specifically for children and young people? I home educate my kids and I’m sure others in the home ed community would be really interested in what you’re doing here, as well as parents more generally.
PH: I would love that. Yes, I think children are the ones that give me hope for change. I will look into some suitable titles that we could show at Mammoth. Then if you can get some kids along to the cinema I’d be over the moon!
AA: I have a difficult relationship with my environmental activism. On the one hand I try to do eco things like shop at the zero waste shop but I still buy plastic bottles of fizzy water and many of the products I buy are still covered in single use plastic (which I do recycle but remain suspicious of how effective this is, if at all). Coming to Mammoth I had planned to make our own popcorn at home to bring but in the end bought a bag of popcorn and tipped it into a container so as not to bring the single use plastic as requested! Which totally defeats the object, I know! It feels hard to ‘do it all’.
AA: Do you think there needs to be more pressure put on government and retailer action, rather than always the consumer?
PH: Yes, I do, and the Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, calls this pressure and emphasis on small individual actions ‘micro consumerist bollocks’! He says that there has been a concerted effort by lobbyists to shift the blame to individuals, rather than corporations and governments, who cause the most damage, and could make the most difference to the crisis. I’m also aware of the privilege inherent in being able to afford to make greener choices. For example, taking a flight somewhere is often going to be much cheaper than alternative transportation.
I also started to realise that leaders don’t actually lead, they follow, otherwise they don’t get elected! So large corporations are actually the ones pulling the strings financially and the most polluting organisations lobby governments the hardest - they have to because they cause the most damage.
Personally I think one of the best ways to get companies to change is to shame them! The film, McLibel is a great example of that. (Two ordinary people refusing to bow down to the McDonalds Corporation and who took them on and, largely, won). However, as consumers and activists we have to be smart because companies are very good at projecting a green image and not really doing a lot to create long-term effective change.
For example, when Walkers crisps were challenged on their wrappers not being recyclable, they worked with Terracycle to arrange collection of packets, making recycling possible. Sounds good right? However, it never addressed the root of the problem which was that the company was carrying on producing plastic in the first place! (Plus the scheme relied on people taking the packets to recycling points - I used to take mine to an estate agent collection point! - or Walkers would arrange for a courier to collect packets but you needed more than 400 packets to access this!! Walkers have now stopped this scheme, saying there are more places available now for people to recycle plastic. Sigh).
Drinks anyone? Mammoth offers a range of beverages - none in plastic of course!
Armchair Activism
AA: Do you have any tips or know of any larger scale campaigns for retailer or governmental pressure that people can support and campaign for?
Patrick gives us lots of this week’s actions, and some fabulous activism and resources they are too. Busy wondering if I can make it to London! As always I’d love to hear about the actions you take, as I work to take more action alongside you.
Simple Activism
Sign the petition against The Willows Project - “a huge proposed oil development in Northern Alaska that could be the biggest US oil field in decades.
The project would produce the equivalent of more than 278 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses over its 30-year life - roughly equal to the combined emissions from two million passenger cars over the same time period”.
Step It Up A Notch
Switch you bank to one that only invests ethically
Use Make My Money Matter to:
Use the template letter to tell Barclays, Santander, LLoyds, HSBC or NatWest that you are unhappy that they funneled $141 billion to the 50 companies at the forefront of oil and gas expansion between 2016 and 2021.
Serious Activism
If you are based in the UK, be one of 100,000 people at the Houses of Parliament peacefully holding politicians to account. ‘The Big One’ is in London between April 21st-24th, 2023.
If you like what I’m sharing, please consider leaving me a tip. I put a lot of time and effort into creating it and finding resources that we can all easily take to make a difference. Leaving me a tip equivalent to buying me a coffee, helps me, as a small creator, to put food on the table and a roof over my family’s head. Thank you!
I had never heard of Mammoth! That's such an awesome idea for a cinema. Climate Change is one of, if not the biggest threat facing us right now.
Stepping up to fight it any way we can is vital.