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The Scotsman
  • 22/03/2024
Edinburgh Filmhouse to reopen
Transcript
00:00 I'm Jenny Atkinson, I'm one of the team that are attempting to open the doors of
00:06 Filmhouse again and we've just had some extremely good news about funding which
00:10 means that we will be able to open the doors again.
00:13 Now tell us a little bit about the funding and what this means in terms of
00:17 the campaign to get the Filmhouse back up and running again.
00:20 We've just heard that we are getting all the money we asked for from the
00:26 Community Ownership Fund which is a levelling up from the levelling up pot
00:31 government, UK government, and it means that we can refurbish the Filmhouse the
00:37 way that we dreamt of doing so so that it becomes a really great modern
00:42 cinema-going experience. No nachos in the cinema I'm afraid but we don't do that
00:47 but nice seats you know just generally much much more comfortable than it has
00:52 been for many years. At the moment we're in cinema 2 in the Filmhouse, it's cold
00:57 and these are small seats, can't cross your legs and there if we need to do a
01:05 close-up of actually the upholstery on the seats is coming away and these have
01:10 been here for 35 years even if they were recovered some some years ago but
01:16 they're really pretty awful.
01:18 When you get reopen again do you think people will
01:21 notice a big difference in the Filmhouse?
01:23 I think they will because it will be a much more modern kind of feel really and
01:29 at the moment you kind of make excuses for the way it is and this is the point
01:36 is that it closing in October 22 was tragic and awful but it's now turned
01:42 into a massive opportunity and we could not be happier. On behalf of everybody
01:48 who loves the place and who misses it and on behalf of all the new audiences
01:52 that we hope will come.
01:54 How would you describe the groundswell of support that's
01:56 been there from day one really when the cinema closed?
01:59 Well it's been amazing and I think as a lot of people know we had a very initial crowdfunder to try and buy
02:07 the building because when the centre for the moving image went into
02:11 administration the building had to be put up for sale and the administrators
02:16 don't wait around. There was a five-week window so by the time anybody actually
02:21 got it together I think we had three weeks to try and raise you know
02:25 two million quid which was really ambitious but what that process did was
02:30 to demonstrate how much support there was for film and how much people were
02:35 desperate at it closing.
02:37 Give us an idea of if everything goes according to plan
02:41 when's the earliest people could be back watching films again?
02:44 I think the earliest really is the autumn and I mean that is the earliest
02:49 because we've got plans you know and we've got costings and everything but we
02:55 have to sign the lease and then we can get the refurbishment started but
03:01 you know with every kind of it's not building work exactly but with that kind
03:05 of work you know you just don't know you can't possibly see it's definitely going
03:10 to be done in a certain period of time. We think five months from the start but
03:16 it may be six.
03:17 And you're hoping to get underway what's the earliest you think
03:19 hopefully will you be able to get cracking?
03:23 Well in May would be the earliest yeah.
03:27 So you're not gonna be part of this year's film festival but hopefully very
03:31 much next year you hope to be part of that mix?
03:33 Well we're obviously having
03:35 conversations with the film festival I mean you know there's a
03:41 relationship there that goes back you know 70 years and so we're hoping that
03:47 that will come become more solid for 2025 but you know it's early days yet
03:54 they're very concentrated in getting a festival done this year.
03:57 In terms of the campaign that's obviously been going for such a long time now getting to this
04:01 point seems like the you know the real kind of key moment.
04:05 This is it I mean we really did dream of this because while we were
04:11 that we were quite successful in fundraising and we were continuing to
04:15 fundraise and can I thank every single person that has given us a donation of
04:20 any sort because that's been really really important.
04:26 This enables us to do what we aspired to do which was the whole you know what we say the whole Boonah.
04:34 We're going to have a fourth screen fourth little cinema which will make a big difference to scheduling.
04:43 That means that's the complicated bit behind the scenes and also it will be available for
04:50 as an education space and breakout space things like that so it's really great.

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