Skip to main content

RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

Search our film database

Theatre Girls

Directed by Claire Pollack, Kim Longinotto

1979 – 57'

Synopsis

The “Theatre Girls Club” is a hostel for homeless, destitute and alcoholic women in Soho, London. It is run by six paid workers and it is the only hostel in London which takes any women at any time. The filmmakers lived in the hostel for more than two months, establishing an extraordinary level of trust with their “cast” —from the home’s feisty cook to an elderly resident who was a terminal alcoholic. In what will later be recognized as a signature style, Longinotto films without judgement and finds the humor and humanity in situations and characters that might otherwise be seen as tragic.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.