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Astrid Barker-Smith

Astrid Barker-Smith

Projectionist, programmer, and writer at Cinema for All; based in UK, experienced with film projection and curation across independent cinemas and film festivals including the Showroom Sheffield and Sheffield DocFest.

Jul 23, 2026

9:01
But I suppose before we get into that, actually, because even just to talk about why we would be so excited about it, for the sake of all of our listeners, how did you first become... interested in projection and how did you then ended up loving projection, being a projectionist?
9:17
Yeah so I started out at university and I was studying something completely different, I studied engineering rather than film or anything and just decided I'd get involved in as many you know volunteer roles as I could in societies and there was a cinema there and I happened to be getting really into watching films and finding out which directors I liked.
9:41
And I was really into like the Coen brothers to start with and things.
9:44
And I thought I'd go there.
9:46
And there was a free screening of Casablanca, which I think about two or three people turned up to total in the audience.
9:54
And they asked for volunteers to come and give their time because they were kind of so in need of help because of COVID.
10:06
It really- Struck them badly as an organisation.

7 MINS LATER

17:24
Okay, well, this

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