Rain,
wind, sheep, miles of fine, sandy beaches; all variety of seafood and
smoked salmon, no hotels or urbanization of rows and rows of back to
back houses in the horizon .... just sea and sky for as far as the eye
can see, are the many Hebrides islands of Scotland. But there is a
cinema. The children under 10 years of age there have not yet
experienced seeing a film on a big screen, in a darkened cinema, while
munching popcorns. Until just very recently.
Now during summer a big blue truck with 10 wheels runs through all the remotest islands of Scotland with the latest films from Hollywood, providing much appreciated entertainment for all. A one-man company called 'Screen Machine', taking advantage of the good weather - relatively speaking for Scotland - is taking the films of the newest releases and box office hits to the far corners of these isolated islands, from Stornoway in the island of Lewis, famous for their black-pudding (blood sausage), to the islands of Islay and Jura, distinguished for their distilleries and their very memorable Malt whiskey.
The blue truck costs 1 million €, fabricated by the French company Toutenkamion, specialized in adapting vehicles into mobile restaurants, art galleries, ambulant libraries, recording studios and observation quarters .... travels every night on roads and in ferries, in turbulent north Atlantic waters, carrying this season's 2 treasures, 'Sex in NY city', the film, and 'Indiana Jones'. This year's choice of films is his most daring; he wants to test the waters so to speak, to see how the islanders accept, or not, these 2 less conservative but rather modern themes.
"Nothing too arty, not even by Almodovar." says 54 years old Neil MacDonald. This man, and he alone, operates the entire project taking the cinema to the people. Films he chooses are not those about political intrigues, or dramas of troubled minds seeking identities or tortured souls trying to find their space in the cruel world. All are simple and pure entertainment. No place for Buñuelo, Bergman Pasolini, Lucas or Spielberg.
He has just one assistant, the two taking turns, each responsible for taking the films to islands for 15 day shifts. A multi-task production. He drives the truck, converts it to a projection room on arrival, sets up the giant screen, the Dolby sound system, and lays out the 80 folding seats. He is the electrician, the mechanic, sells tickets, (can be reserved by phone or online) prevents some Wiseguys entering without one, collects discarded paper cups and potato crisp wrappers, and always clean up the site after each show.
It usually takes the mobile cinema 7 weeks to complete the entire circuit of the islands. Some are so remote that to go to the nearest cinema, people have to travel more than 100 kilometres. And the number of trips they can cover depends a lot on how soon the summer weather starts and how long it lasts. He has been doing this for 3 years. Each season he sells about 25.000 tickets.
The
truck is so huge sometimes finding suitable place to park it is a
problem, but somehow he had never had to cancel out a screening to
disappoint the islanders. He reckons though, the most difficult is
manoeuvring the monstrous truck on and off the ferry. And the 2nd most
difficult is the list of tasks his wife hands him, and expects him to
complete, each time he comes home after 15 days' absence and before he
goes away again. One thought just occurred to me, would some wiseguy consider this cinema 'blue'? Was the blue colour intentional precisely to mislead? It wouldn't have worked in Spain though, the naughty films are labelled 'green' here!!
Current Mood: 
Accomplished
Accomplished
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