Gable End Film Society has been running for three years, based in the Gable End Theatre, Lyness, screening a range of classic, foreign and independent films on DVD between two or three times a month. Secretary Peter Ford describes the background of the society:
 

At the outset we got together a steering committee of about five interested folk to explore the possibilities and prepare the ground for our bona fides as a film society, and to draft a constitution. When we knew it was really going to happen, we worked up our membership list, with supporters paying annual subs which would only become operational from the date we showed the first film.
 

On an island of 400 folk we have a core subscribing membership of 40-50. Subscriptions are £15 a year (£10 age concessions); entrance is £2 for members, but £5 for non-members (known as day members); school-age children are £1.50, and we let the under 6’s in for free. The age range of the membership runs from 15 to 80+, with the biggest concentration being in the 40-70 block.
 

Despite the high costs we stay on an even keel financially. We currently get assistance from our community council to show six children's films a year. Projection equipment was bought under a National Lottery 'Awards for All' grant. Our local authority cinema licence costs us £117 annually and we pay venue rental of £12 each film night to the theatre company, with whom we share charitable status.
 

Programming

As an aid to programming effectively, we regularly distribute a poll, comprising a list of 50 available DVD titles, to members and supporters; 20 copies of our Autumn 2005 poll were returned, representing the views of a cross-section of 28 individuals.

Our members aren't particularly interested in seeing blockbusters as such. The poll brought out BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS in top place while BATMAN BEGINS won not a single vote! THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES crept up the field to finish second, whilst other popular choices included ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, THE INTERPRETER, SIDEWAYS and RUSSIAN ARK. The selection committee (of 7 members) draws on these results, and mixes in recent releases from Filmbank and New Realm.
 

Children’s films

Children’s films are problematic, and we certainly couldn’t afford to include them without the community council grant of £70 per film. We have reasonable audiences for recent releases, such as THE INCREDIBLES or LEMONY SNICKETT, but for our island children, anything over a year old doesn’t have novelty value – they’ve probably seen them endlessly on home video and the Christmas telly schedules. If we showed the reissued Bambi I suspect it would be an oldie nostalgia night.

The lack of DVD rights for new children’s films, or the rise in rental fee (for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY the charges shot up to a premium rate of £104), is a bone of contention. We find video very much inferior to DVD in projection, and children are aware of the quality difference. It doesn’t help us much to win young audiences or convert them to the movie-going experience.
 

Older audiences

We did include a provision for films for the old folk in our original grant applications. Then we did some market research to find out any preferences. “What we’d really like,” said the old folk, “is SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS – now there was a real musical.” So we screened it for them, and not a single one of them showed up. Transport is a problem, especially in winter. Possibly more could be done there in future.
 

Click here for Gable End Film Society current programme.