This documentary takes a chronological approach to the history of The Electric Cinema in Birmingham, which professes to be the UK’s oldest working cinema. The film recounts its days during the silent era, playing news and cartoons, its erotic films, decline and subsequent restoration. The film’s title is actually slightly misleading, given that the film focuses more on exhibition generally than projectionists specifically. The projectionists who do feature are a band of Brummy men who nostalgically look back on their careers and the various cinemas in their native city.

For film enthusiasts and historians, this is a treasure-trove of archive footage, showcasing some of the most beautiful old cinemas still open in Britain today. Highlights include 82 year old Cyril Barbier’s replica model of the 2600-seater New Street Odeon, complete with tip-up seats and a detachable foyer. There are also some inventive animation sequences, which reconstruct the days of cinema when it was a fairground attraction, as well as providing more satirical comments on the ‘sheep-dip’ mentality of the multiplexes.

The film’s writer, cameraman, editor, producer and director is Tom Lawes; the man responsible for the Electric’s £250,000 restoration. Lawes doesn’t strike you as a natural documentary frontman and his questions are often so leading that the answer is essentially an irrelevant confirmation of his statement. There are other signs that this is his first film: graphic effects that imply he has just got his hands on his first editing software and amateurish grammatical errors. Certainly, Lawes does have a point to make and this is probably the first film to deal with the decline of 35mm in the digital age, with the possible exception of the 2008 documentary short Behind the Glass. Yet for a documentary, The Last Projectionist doesn’t really pack any emotional punch and Lawes ends up coming across as self-promoting. Indeed, the film may have been better titled ‘Why I Hate Multiplexes’, since it constantly strives to fly the flag for independents.

Yes, this will probably give the uninitiated a better understanding of film exhibition and is a unique educational tool, but it is unlikely to have the wide appeal of other recent documentaries, such as Senna, and won’t make you lament the march of technological progress for too long, especially as you’ll probably be watching it on a swanky digital screen. This is interesting, informative and a historical document, but not a must-see.