The Heartland Film Society is something of a beacon of success amongst film societies. Self-financing, they also boast a loyal core membership, a BFFS award for best new film society, and a ‘highly commended’ accolade for their meticulously-kept program notes. The society has even branched out to run an annual film festival in Aberfeldy. Co-founding member Charlotte Flowers reveals some of the secrets behind their success, and talks about the joys and challenges of programming both a film society and a film festival.

For Heartland Film Society, the venue came first.  In 2001, the Locus Centre opened in Aberfeldy, with a suitable room and a cinema licence thrown in. All they needed was a group of people to put on some films. Seven years on, four or five of the original committee are still running the Heartland Film Society as part of a formidable, ten-strong team.  

Having a cinema screen and venue readily available means that the society doesn’t have to pay to hire in equipment for every screening, which has helped them to remain self-financing. “People can either pay a membership fee, which we prefer because there’s money up front, or they can buy guest tickets for individual screenings”, explains Charlotte.

Bean counting

The committee has a list of categories of films, and tries to program one or two films in each category to ensure an even spread. “You have to look at the whole and think about the balance”, explains Charlotte. “We used to be very strict about it but now it’s become a much more organic process. We don’t want to be too formulaic but we do need to have checks.”

The society has a well-established method for gauging members’ reactions to films. “The bean-o-meter is a very blunt tool”, admits Charlotte.  At every screening, each audience member is given a chickpea. At the end of the film, they are asked to drop their pea into one of five cups, with each cup signifying a different opinion of the film, from ‘awful’ to ‘excellent’.

The programme notes and results of the bean-o-meters are meticulously recorded after every screening, with the results available to view online. “We’re very familiar with the films we’ve shown and very familiar with the reactions they’ve had,” explains Charlotte, which helps them to programme ahead.

Walking the line

But catering for the tastes of members is complicated. Some members feel strongly that they don’t want to watch films that contain violence, whereas, as Charlotte says, “Sometimes we’d like to show films that aren’t comfortable.”  Also, she has found that people don’t always know what they want. “They say they want classics, but then we put on classics and the bean ratings are appalling! What they say they want to see doesn’t stand up.”

Deciding when to conform to members’ tastes and when to go out on a limb with a difficult film requires a delicate balance of judgement. Charlotte admits, “We get it wrong sometimes, and I think we’ve possibly not been bold enough at times, but I do feel that we’re pushing boundaries.”

Festival time

In 2007 year the society were approached by the organisation Explore Aberfeldy and asked whether they’d like to run a film festival in the town. “November is pretty bleak in Aberfeldy”, explains Charlotte, “and they wanted something that would bring people from the central belt to Aberfeldy during that month.”

The festival ran over two days, showing Scottish films including Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle, the first feature film in Gaelic, as well as shorts, features and talks by film-makers. A highlight was Werner Herzog film Incident At Loch Ness, which was never released in the UK and has only been screened here three times. Getting permission to screen the film was a labour of love for Charlotte. “You can’t just go to Filmbank and get it – this isn’t an off the peg film. I had to go to the States, and speak to the producer.”

With major screenings like Incident At Loch Ness, Charlotte feels that the festival doesn’t get the publicity it deserves. “We’re not media savvy enough to know how to promote it”, she admits. The group are constantly learning about the best ways to publicise the festival and society, and hope to attract a wider audience and membership this year.

The 2008 festival runs from 24^th to 26^th October in Aberfeldy, with the slightly wider theme of films that are shot in Scotland. For more information about the Heartland Film Festival and Heartland Film Society, visit their website: www.heartlandfilmsociety.org.uk/