Social enterprise company Driftwood Cinema, based in Wigtown, is appealing to Dumfries and Galloway people to dig out old film and video footage of life and events across the region from the past 60 years.
Matt Kitson from Driftwood Cinema told DGWGO “We support over 20 community cinema’s right across D&G, run by volunteers in village halls and community venues. As well as supplying screening equipment, film licences and films, Driftwood Cinema also provides a start-up package for communities wanting to set up a local cinema with funding support from Film Hub Scotland, Screen Scotland and Regional Screen Scotland.
As well as screening films of all genres, audiences love to see, and we love to show, archive footage of life in the region. However there is very little footage around to show. We have some old films of the Dumfries to Stranraer and Portpatrick rail service, the Creamery operating in Bladnoch, and some Riding of the Marches from Wigtown and Annan, but the limited footage from the region at the National Library Archives is over 70 years old and we would love to fill in the gap for the last 60 years.
Some old footage is available on Youtube and other Social sharing platforms and we would love to be able to use this, but we need relevant permissions. We are also sure that lots of people will have old 8mm, Super 8, VHS or Betamax videos that either they or their parents have taken, possibly sitting around in boxes and we would like to get them digitised and preserved for current and future generations to see.
So, if you if anyone has (or knows anyone that might have) old footage on 8mm, super 8, VHS, BETA or anything else we would love to hear from you. Anything around just general day to day life, holidays, days out, sports events, community events etc. from the past 60 years or so. If you have already uploaded old film footage to social media sites and would be happy to let us use it for screenings, it would be terrific to have the original files (as the online versions are often compressed by the social media site).
You can contact us at: [email protected] to let us know what you have, what format it is in and we can arrange for any digitisation.”
About Driftwood Cinema:
Driftwood Cinema is a social enterprise that has been supporting Community Cinema development across Southwest Scotland since 2014. In that time we have secured funding to support the establishment of 13 new Community Cinemas and also to provide technical, film programming and licensing support to the 4 existing community cinemas. We have established a network of 17 Community Cinemas and provide them with a full range of support as well as coordinating national programs in the region such as the BFI Comedy Genius Season.
In 2019 we screened 120 films to a total audience of 4,500 people.
We are working closely with Filmhub Scotland, Screen Scotland and Regional Screen Scotland to develop the model for regional support of Community and Independent cinema in Scotland. We are a founding member of the Community Screen Forum, a Uk wide organisation of Community Screen network providers, the regional delivery arm for “A Cinema Near You” Regional Screen Scotland’s local community cinema development scheme and have spoken at national conferences about the importance of community cinema to the well-being of communities.
As well as supporting new and existing venues, we also run screenings both indoors and outdoors across the region, including at the Wigtown Book Festival, Glenkens Winter Film Festival, Kirkcudbright and New Galloway Youth Festivals, Castle Kennedy Gardens and Glenwhan Gardens. We also provided equipment and a technician to deliver screenings at the 2017 and 2018 Hebrides International Film festival and the 2019 Skiffe Worlds.
We supply cinema equipment packages to venues and also have three mobile cinema kits for hire at reduced rates for Community Cinema and not for profit organisations.
Further information:
Information about other community cinemas across Dumfries and Galloway and South Ayrshire and the films they will be screening can be found online at driftwoodcinema.org and on Facebook at @DriftwoodMovies.
About Community Cinema in Dumfries and Galloway and South Ayrshire: Community Cinema is growing with 20 groups currently running regular screenings in their community (14 of which have been established in the past 2 years).
