Community Cinemas in Glasgow and East Dunbartonshire Get Set To Roll Into Action

In line with the Scottish Government’s latest Covid-19 guidance, all 24 projects can now begin plans to get up and running and welcoming audiences, as soon as they’re able, from Wednesday 15 July.  

Mobile yurt cinema social enterprise, Cinemor77 are developing and expanding their inspiring and entertaining cinema screenings and events projects with communities, festivals and organisations across Scotland.  

Neill Patton of Cinemor77 said “We’re delighted to receive this funding for cinema equipment from Screen Scotland, as it will help us grow as an organisation and will make our work with communities across Scotland more sustainable. It will also enable us to work with many more groups and organisations to help them develop screenings, festivals and other events for their communities.” 

East Dunbartonshire Council are purchasing new film screening equipment to support a monthly series of film screenings led by The Spectrum Film Club, a committee of young film fans who share a diagnosis of an Autism spectrum condition and/or learning disability. The group will plan and prepare the screenings, welcome the audience, before hosting discussion of the film afterwards. The screenings will also provide a forum for the showing of films or animations made by the group members. 

George Burt from East Dunbartonshire Council said: “A joint initiative of East Dunbartonshire's Health and Social Care and the East Dunbartonshire Leisure & Culture Trust, the Spectrum Film Club is creating opportunities for people with autism and other special needs to influence and take part in the cultural life of the local community.” 

Glasgow Film Theatre are set to complete a 4K upgrade of screen 3 (all three screens will now have 4K capability). This will enable GFT to remain at the forefront of customer experience and offers state of the art cinema for all audiences to enjoy, while presenting filmmakers work as they intend it to be seen.  

Allison Gardner, CEO of Glasgow Film said: “This fund has enabled GFT to have 4K capability across all our screens and to ensure a brilliant presentation of the huge range of films from around the world that we offer to our audiences.” 

Screen Scotland’s Jennifer Armitage said: “This round of awards concludes the year-long programme of capital investment in cultural and community cinemas in Scotland. When we launched the Cinema Equipment Fund last year, we had no idea what 2020 was going to bring but investing in the resilience of Scotland’s film exhibition sector is more important than ever. When Scotland’s cinemas reopen, they will be able to offer high quality experiences, with varied programmes, and within local communities.” 

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Cinema is a way of bringing people together, sharing our communities’ experience with others and increasing public understanding on a wide range of social issues and historical events. 

“Now more than ever, it is important we support cultural organisations in communities across the country. This round of the Cinema Equipment Fund shows how we support and strengthen cinema throughout Scotland with new high-quality equipment.”