Impact of Covid-19 on the A Cinema Near You programme
Measures to combat Covid-19 may have upset everyone’s plans, but we firmly believe that, once the worst is over, people and communities will need cinema more than ever. So the A Cinema Near You team will work with you to help you to postpone, adapt, or continue to develop, your plans, as far as is possible within the restricted environment we now face.
- If we have funded you for a particular plan of activities we will discuss with you how those plans can be put on hold and adapted
- If you have already incurred costs for a project we have agreed to fund, we can help meet those costs
- If you have already received funding from us, for activities that have to be postponed, please hold those funds until you can confirm revised plans
- If you are waiting to hear from us about a funding application, we will contact you to review your plans and, if appropriate, go ahead with seeking approval of funding
- If you or your group were hoping to benefit from our training programmes, we will be postponing those, but also looking at whether some elements can be delivered online
- If we’re still at an early stage in discussions, let’s keep talking!
We have approached colleagues at Screen Scotland to explore whether the whole timeframe for A Cinema Near You can now be put back. Originally, the intention was that all funding should be committed before the end of March 2021, and all funded activity should be completed before the end of June 2021. It may be necessary to move those dates back by, for example, three months, to ensure that the overall programme, and individual projects within it, have the time they need to deliver planned outcomes and outputs.
Although we are all now working from home, the full team is still working on delivering A Cinema Near You, and can be contacted in the following ways:
robert@regionalscreenscotland.org
harriet@regionalscreenscotland.org
shona@regionalscreenscotland.org
Suspension of Screen Machine due to Covid-19
As operator of the Screen Machine mobile cinema, we have also been affected as a film exhibitor by this unprecendented situation. In response to the latest guidance from the Scottish Government, we decided to suspend screenings by the Screen Machine as of 17 March, until it is clear that it will be safe and appropriate to resume touring.
Everyone who has booked for screenings will receive a full refund in the next few days. We will monitor the national situation on a week by week basis, and will bring the Screen Machine back to our audiences as soon as we can.
You can read our full statement here.