Thomas Lawes was born on 1 August 1971 and is an English film director, music composer, and entrepreneur.
11 Facts About Tom Lawes
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Tom Lawes is best known for renovating and owning The Electric cinema in Birmingham, England, the oldest known working cinema in the United Kingdom.
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Tom 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.
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At age 19, after working as a roadie for the rock band Gunfire Dance, Tom Lawes began creating low-budget horror films shot on camcorder.
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Tom Lawes made his feature film directorial debut with the 1998 film Demagogue, which he co-directed with Adam Trotman.
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In 2004 Tom Lawes purchased the then-derelict Electric cinema in Birmingham, the oldest known working cinema in the country.
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Tom Lawes then initiated a total renovation of the building, restoring it to its 1930s Art Deco aesthetic.
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Tom Lawes is the musical director of The Electric Cinema Film Orchestra, the UK's first in-house film orchestra.
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In 2009, the centenary year of the original opening of The Electric, Tom Lawes was congratulated in the House of Commons for his work in restoring the cinema.
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In 2011 Tom Lawes directed and produced the feature-length documentary The Last Projectionist, a film charting the history of independent cinema in the UK.
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Tom Lawes directed a series of short documentaries Southside Stories which in 2012 won two Royal Television Society Award for Best Promotional Programme and Best Craft.