[Stronsaylimpet] The Screen Machine - now funded to 2026

[Stronsay Limpet editor]

/From The Screen Machine on Facebook:/

We are delighted to be issuing the following press release today. Thanks 
for all the letters, emails, conversations and phone calls that have 
been sent or made on our behalf - your hard work is starting to pay off!
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate use: 14 March 2024
Screen Machine service secured to 2026 through funding from Screen Scotland
•Thanks to £350,000 funding from Screen Scotland, Regional Screen 
Scotland (RSS) has extended the lease of mobile cinema - Cinémobile
•The lease ensures the continuation of the Screen Machine service to the 
Highlands & Islands of Scotland until April 2026
•This allows RSS further time to raise £1.4 million to commission the 
build of a tailor made Screen Machine to take the service into the 2030s.
Regional Screen Scotland, the operator and manager of the Screen Machine 
mobile cinema service, are delighted to announce that, thanks to the 
generous support of Screen Scotland, the future of the service is secure 
until at least April 2026. The lease for the cinema which is currently 
in use will be extended by two years, from April 2024 to April 2026.
The Screen Machine service has brought the big screen experience to 
communities from Barra to Bettyhill for 26 years. In that time it has 
travelled over 250,000 miles – the equivalent of ten journeys around the 
world.
Simon Drysdale, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Regional Screen 
Scotland, said:
“We are immensely grateful to Screen Scotland for demonstrating their 
continued support for Regional Screen Scotland 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 that 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 brand 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 very 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. Fund 
raising 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 are 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 onwards.
“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.”
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