Dalry Community Cinema has brought a new experience to their local film shows and now provides surround sound at all of their screenings.
Created at the start of 2017, Dalry Community Cinema has had a year of successfully presenting films with the support local social enterprise Driftwood Cinema and the British Film Institute’s Audience Development fund.
Now ready to step out on their own the group succeeded in obtaining a £2,000 Innovation Fund grant from community film distributor, Filmbankmedia Ltd. which has enabled them to purchase their own large 3.5 metre wide screen, projection equipment and to create a surround system to bring the true cinema experience to their audience.
The Film Club was set up after the Dalry Town Hall Management conducted a poll round the village to find what further activities the residents would like to see in the Hall and film shows came top of the list.
The Management Committee Chair, Jim Reid reports:
“Like many small Communities in the area, Dalry suffers from poor public transport links especially in the evening. So people without cars are particularly disadvantaged. We wanted to increase the use of the Town Hall for social gatherings where as many residents as were interested could come together and enjoy a relaxing evening. Film shows seemed to fit the bill.
We were very lucky to have the support of Driftwood Cinema who helped us to tap into financial support from the British Film Institute. However we also felt that we needed the flexibility that owning our own equipment would provide. So we put in a proposal to the Filmbankmedia Innovation Fund and were amazed and delighted to be successful.
We are currently putting together a Spring film programme comprising “Dunkirk”, “Churchill”, “Victoria and Abdul” and “The Mountain Between Us”. These were the ones chosen through polling at our monthly Farmer’s Market. We are confident we can add to these to provide something for everyone”
About Dalry: St John’s Town of Dalry, commonly known as Dalry, is a village in Dumfries and Galloway with a population of approximately 400. It is located 16 miles from Castle Douglas and sits in an area known as the Glenkens.
More About the Community Cinema in Dalry: Dalry Community Cinema showed their first film in 25th January 2017 – What We Did on our Holiday – to an enthusiastic audience of around 40 people. This was followed by screenings in February, March and April before a break over the Summer when traditionally light evenings draw people away from Community screenings. The autumn programme began again in September with The Commitments and will run monthly through to April 2018.
The film list for January to April 2018 is:
Wed 14 Feb Dunkirk
Wed 07 Mar Victoria And Abdul
Wed 28 Mar The Mountain Between Us
Wed 25 Apr Churchill
About Community Cinema in Dumfries and Galloway: Community Cinema in Dumfries and Galloway is growing with 10 groups currently running regular screenings in their community (6 of which have been established in the past 2 years). A further 5 groups run ad-hoc screenings. Independent and Community run permanent cinemas in the region are located at Dumfries – Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre, Newton Stewart – The Cinema, Annan – Lonsdale Cinema, Castle Douglas – The Fullerton, New Galloway – Catstrand. Dumfries and Galloway’s only Commercial Cinema is the Odeon in Dumfries.
About Driftwood Cinema: Driftwood Cinema Limited is a Social Enterprise established in 2013 by Bladnoch resident Matt Kitson. Its aim is to support the development of Community Cinema in rural communities. Since 2014 Driftwood Cinema has supported 8 groups to establish a cinema for their communities, with grant support from the British Film Institute, the Bank of Scotland and the School of Social Entrepreneurs. Driftwood Cinema is a not-for-profit organisation and to support their social aims, they also provide commercial screening support for organisations including outdoor film screenings.
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