Lots to report on A Cinema Near You – the two-year development programme RSS is delivering with the aim of improving access to screen and cinema provision in Scotland for communities where the need is greatest.
We’ve been helping organisations to host their own pilot screenings (see below for details) and we’ve now had five major costed plans totalling over £75,000 submitted and assessed by the A Cinema Near You (CNY) Assessment Panel against the four programme criteria set out in the CNY Programme Guidelines – need, opportunity, readiness, and capacity. We’re delighted to confirm the programme’s first successful projects:
Driftwood Cinema – Extending the existing regional screen network of 17 venues across the South West of Scotland, CNY funding will support the launch of 10 new community cinemas in the network through Driftwood running pilot screenings testing demand and providing support for programming, marketing and community engagement to the new groups. Awarded £21,640.
Screen Argyll – Screen Argyll provides opportunities to connect remote communities and supporting venues to engage through film with the widest audience possible. In response to needs identified, CNY funding will support extending the regional screen network coordinated by Screen Argyll to Coll, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Barra, Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck. Awarded £19,320.
North East Arts Touring (NEAT) – As an early network established in 2012 across Aberdeenshire, NEAT will be using CNY funding to recruit a part-time Community Cinema Coordinator to develop its inclusive forum for screen provision across the network including both DCP-based cinemas and independent operators not yet in NEAT membership, and identifying the potential for developing regular DCP screenings in a number of larger communities in the area. Awarded £15,000.
Generation Arts – Generation Arts engages older people, their friends and families across West Lothian in non-competitive, expressive and creative activities that promote independence, confidence and good mental and physical health. CNY funding will support a coordinator to initiate and nurture a sustainable network of local groups across West Lothian screening films regularly. Awarded £15,000.
Paisley Community Trust – As part of the Trust’s work with RSS since 2016 to bring cinema to Paisley town centre, CNY funding will contribute towards commissioning an architectural and structural study exploring the viability of a central location as a new cinema for the town. Awarded £5,000.
More applicants are being supported to progress through the CNY assessment process and, with the growth of network models across the country, a gathering of existing and prospective Regional Screen Network Coordinators is being organised in Glasgow for February 2020.
Training Programme and Pilot Screenings
Regional Screen Scotland is delighted to confirm that we will be working in partnership with Film Hub Scotland and Cinema For All in order to deliver an in-depth training and support programme for new start-up cinema groups across the country, in collaboration with our existing and developing regional networks. Initial A Cinema Near You training dates will be rolled out geographically over the next 12 months, beginning in Spring 2020.
For those groups already poised and ready to begin their film exhibition journey, we are able to offer funding support towards pilot screenings to test the appetite for film in their local area. Indeed, A Cinema Near You has already supported a number of pilot screenings to take place, including ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ at Coalburn Miners’ Welfare Charitable Society in Lanarkshire just before Christmas. Here’s what Development Worker Amanda Davis had to say:
“Well, what a fab day guys and what a buzz. The scene was set with 20 people paid and ready to come through the doors – looking forward to more in the future, [as] the evaluation I completed at the end showed a definite need for more films in 2020.”
Thanks to Matt Kitson at Driftwood Cinema for putting together an evaluation of the cinema equipment facilities at Coalburn in advance of the screening, and for his technical assistance on the day. We look forward to welcoming Coalburn onto one of our training days in the near future, once our training schedule is confirmed.
OPPORTUNITY: Evaluation Tender
Finally, a contract opportunity is currently open for the independent evaluation of A Cinema Near You. CNY is an experimental, collaborative approach within the field of cultural funding (though it has parallels with some aspects of community development funding and support). By the end of the programme in June 2021, RSS and its partners will want to assess if CNY has met its own objectives, will it have met the hopes and objectives of the sectors it aimed to work with, and will the CNY method have been seen as effective, and a possible model for other forms of cultural support?
We are recruiting the independent evaluator at this relatively early stage in the CNY programme as we wish them to: both benefit from any interim findings or views as the programme goes forward, and to ensure that the final report is informed by an understanding of how the programme was developed.
Proposals are being invited to undertake this contract starting in February 2020 with the final report submitted by the end of July 2021. Full details on the key tasks of the evaluation, timings, structure and proposal requirements are on our website here:
UPCOMING DEADLINE: Cinema Equipment Fund
The deadline for Screen Scotland’s Cinema Equipment Fund is fast approaching on Tuesday 28 January 2020. This Fund is for cinemas and venues offering a regular programme of film exhibition in Scotland as well as organisations with a business plan for a new film exhibition site to upgrade or install cinema screening equipment, from upgrading first generation Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) compliant equipment to supporting community venues to upgrade or install film screening equipment.
Fund guidelines and application details can be found on Screen Scotland’s website. You can also find out about previously successful applicants.