Screen Machine is reprieved
The Screen Machine mobile cinema, which was due to cease operating next month, has been given a two-year reprieve thanks to a funding boost from Screen Scotland.
Regional Screen Scotland (RSS), which owns and operates the cinema, has received £350,000, which will allow the mobile movie operator to extend the lease of its current mobile cinema, Cinémobile, until April 2026.
Screen Scotland previously saved the Screen Machine in April last year by funding the lease of Cinémobile after the previous facility suffered mechanical failures and became unviable to maintain.
To help save the service, RSS launched a massive campaign calling on its supporters to write to their MSP, MP, councillor, the First Minister, cabinet secretaries and council leaders to try to convince the Scottish Government to help fund half of the £1.4 million needed for a new Screen Machine.
The plea made little impact on government officials who did not directly commit to any long-term funding, however, thanks to the last-minute funding from Screen Scotland, the service will be saved and RSS will be afforded more time to raise the money it needs to commission the build of a tailor-made Screen Machine to take the service into the 2030s.
Simon Drysdale, interim chief executive officer of Regional Screen Scotland, said: “We are immensely grateful to Screen Scotland for demonstrating its continued support for RSS and the much-loved Screen Machine by funding the fee to extend the lease of the Cinémobile for a further two years beyond April 2024.
“This means our customers can be confident they will continue to have access to the big screen until at least April 2026.
“We have already made great progress in lobbying for support to commission the build of a new Screen Machine, which we intend to bring into use no later than April 2026.
“This progress is largely down to efforts that our customers made in writing to their MSPs and other elected representatives to tell them how much they love and value the Screen Machine.
“We are grateful for all of the letters, emails, conversations and phone calls that have been sent or made on our behalf – your hard work is starting to pay off.
“We would urge our customers to continue to contact their local councillors, MSPs and
MPs to impress upon them that the long-term future of the Screen Machine will only be secured when the new mobile cinema is commissioned.
“Fundraising for the new, permanent Screen Machine is our mission over the coming months.”
Sambrooke Scott, Screen Scotland, said: “This interim solution ensures continuity while RSS strives to secure a permanent replacement for the beloved Screen Machine and Screen Scotland is fully behind those efforts.
“Our funding not only extends the Cinémobile lease but also bolsters the resilience of RSS and helps the efforts to secure a new facility from April 2026.
“Screen Scotland’s commitment to the Screen Machine service and the communities it serves remains unwavering.
“But I want to underline that to be sustainable in the longer term the Screen Machine should be supported by the local authority areas that it serves, as well as by Scotland’s national screen body.
“We’re proud to support the continued efforts of Regional Screen Scotland in maintaining access to the full cinema experience through the lease of the Cinémobile.”
The Screen Machine service has brought the big screen experience to rural and island communities from Barra to Bettyhill in Sutherland for 26 years and it made its first appearance on Arran in 2001.
Since then it has travelled over 250,000 miles – the equivalent of 10 journeys around the world – and has become a much-loved and valued service by the communities it regularly visits.
Further information on how you can help secure the long-term future of the Screen Machine can be found on the website at www.screenmachine.co.uk