Public House tells the story of the Ivy House Pub in Peckham. Slated to be sold to property developers in 2012, the local community triumphantly came together to save the pub from closure. This documentary is an inspirational story of social resilience and the power of communities working together. 

Made in collaboration with some of the many users of the pub, the film features their voices, poems and performances, as well as key moments in the community takeover which led the Ivy House to become one of the UK’s first co-operatively owned pubs and the country’s first‘asset of community value’. Through dance, poetry and song the film builds into an exhilarating participatory opera of multi-layered voices telling a tale of social resilience in the face of creeping gentrification. 

It culminates with director Sarah Turner’s own playful re-imagining of William Blake’s vision of angels on Peckham Rye, as the Ivy House community take to the streets in a communal celebration of human creativity and resilience. 

The screening is followed by a Q+A with director Sarah Turner and academic and curator Kim Knowles.

“Its combination of the choreographic and choral offer a dazzlingly unique form in which to make the collective cinematic”

Sophie Mayer, BFI Sight & Sound

"Public House is a revelation coming from Sarah Turner, whose film, Perestroika, was so powerful and meditative. Here, she passionately defends the existence of a neighbourhood pub by emptying it of inhabitants like a village under siege, then filling it again, bringing it back to life until it's bursting with layers of voices, stories of multi-generations, poetry, tap dancing and storytelling. The film uses techniques Turner used to such different effect earlier, here looking outward, and bursting with generosity."

Lizzie Borden