ONCE upon a time there was no cinema in Moffat -- but they did have a
town hall. Every week, council business permitting, they would set out
seats in the main chamber and show a feature film for the local public.
It was not the best of arrangements -- no ice cream lady and no
popcorn -- but it served to bring a little bit of Hollywood to the wee
south of Scotland town on a semi-regular basis.
Nowadays film fans have to travel to Dumfries to see movies. Like
hundreds of other small Scottish communities, where the local Ritz or
Rialto was turned into a bingo hall in the 60s, Moffat cannot hope to
support its own flea pit.
But tonight, in a big articulated truck situated in the car park
attached to the town sports centre, they are showing Sommersby, starring
Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. Not the last word in multiplex comfort,
you might think, but perhaps the start of something new in cinema for
Scotland's more remote areas.
Cinemobile, as its name suggests, is a state of the art mobile picture
house. It proves that mobile does not necessarily mean mediocre, because
its standards are actually better than many of Britain's existing cinema
buildings.
The vehicle, custom-built in France, offers luxury seating for 100
spectators, 35mm projection, perfect sightlines, and Dolby stereo. It is
one of two mobiles run by the Rural Association for Cinema on behalf of
the Tourism and Culture Agency of France's Centre Region, based in the
city of Orleans.
Together, the vehicles serve 46 towns and villages with populations
ranging between 800 and 6500. Now, thanks to the British Film Institute
and the Scottish Film Council, remote areas of the UK are being given
the opportunity to test out the service.
The SFC is hopeful that, with its own input, plus backing from the
local authorities, the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and perhaps
even money from the European Commission's Media '95 programme, the
service could be developed within Scotland and that two mobile units,
one for the Highlands and Islands and the other for the east coast,
could be operating in a few years time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article