Tom Lawes


Thomas Lawes is an English film director, music composer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for renovating and owning Electric, Birmingham|The Electric] cinema in Birmingham, England, the oldest known working cinema in the United Kingdom. Lawes composed the soundtrack for the BBC television series All Quiet on the Preston Front, co-directed the 1998 film Demagogue, and directed the 2011 documentary film The Last Projectionist.

Career

Lawes was born in Birmingham, England, and attended Handsworth Grammar School. At age 19, after working as a roadie for the rock band Gunfire Dance, Lawes began creating low-budget horror films shot on camcorder. In 1993, aged 22, he was hired by the BBC to compose the soundtrack to the BBC comedy drama television series All Quiet on the Preston Front. Lawes made his feature film directorial debut with the 1998 film Demagogue, which he co-directed with Adam Trotman.
In 2004 Lawes purchased the then-derelict Electric cinema in Birmingham, the oldest known working cinema in the country. Lawes then initiated a total renovation of the building, restoring it to its 1930s Art Deco aesthetic. Following the £250,000 renovations, the cinema, which had closed in December 2003, re-opened for business in December 2004.
Lawes is also the musical director of The Electric Cinema Film Orchestra, the UK's first in-house film orchestra.
In 2009, the centenary year of the original opening of The Electric, Lawes was congratulated in the House of Commons of [the United Kingdom|House of Commons] for his work in restoring the cinema.
In 2011 Lawes directed and produced the feature-length documentary The Last Projectionist, a film charting the history of independent cinema in the UK. The film was named BBC Radio 5 Live's Film of the Week by Mark Kermode. The film won awards, including "Best Documentary" at the Cambridge Film Festival. In 2010 the British Film Institute selected The Last Projectionist to be included in its permanent archive collection. Lawes also directed a series of short documentaries Southside Stories which in 2012 won two Royal Television Society Award for Best Promotional Programme and Best Craft.

Awards

Other work