Regional Screen Scotland
Networks Coordinator
Oct 2019 – May 2023
Working as part of the team at Regional Screen Scotland (RSS) supporting community groups to start and sustain their own regular film screenings as part of their social inclusion and positive wellbeing programmes: helping bring people back together again.
RSS is a cinema development agency set up to help communities enjoy high quality screen experiences. Working together as a tight and focused team, RSS enables as many people as possible to enjoy film and cinema experiences where they live. The team does this in a variety of ways, including by owning, managing and running Screen Machine, a state-of-the-art 80-seat digital cinema, which is unique in the UK in providing a regular service to rural communities.
I worked closely with RSS colleagues and our organisational partners Screen Scotland and Film Hub Scotland to deliver the A Cinema Near You and Now Showing funding programmes, addressing gaps in cinema provision across Scotland as well as identifying need and providing clear, straightforward resources and advice. I worked with a large portfolio of third sector and not-for-profit programme participants, from voluntary groups to local authorities, to plan and cost their development proposals, and once they’ve been approved, support their delivery.
I used my extensive experience working in community settings and knowledge of the Scottish film exhibition sector to facilitate particular geographic and/or demographic programme participants. We have nurtured six screen networks (often consisting of a network coordinating organisation and a wide range of community cinemas, large and small) which together cover around two thirds the land area of Scotland.
Partnership working was crucial in my role and connecting communities to sources of support, funding and advice is key, as well as offering a chance to discuss their plans for development and understand the challenges currently facing community organisations and spaces.