Home Hunting

IFF! was set up in 2003 by a group of film enthusiasts to address a perceived lack of provision of film product for adult audiences. Founding member Mike Noble explains, “The Eden Court Film Officer at the time was principally interested in cultivating a young audience, and the Eden Court film club, which our members had enjoyed, had been discontinued.”

With capital funding from Awards for All and the Scottish Community Foundation, they bought the equipment needed and started screening the films they loved in various venues around Inverness, including the mobile cinema Screen Machine. “The early days involved a lot of work” admits Mike, who describes the society’s quest for a suitable venue as “an endless task”.

Sitting Pretty

When the society finally secured a home in the city’s new and purpose built complex Eden Court, it must have seemed like their hard work had finally paid off: “At Eden Court Cinema we benefit from the wonderfully comfortable cinemas, with faultless viewing lines, etcetera. We don't have to do all the admin work involved in booking the films, we don't have the hard work of setting up equipment for each screening and even the committee members can sit back and enjoy the films. We also benefit from wider advertising of our programme as part of the Cinema advertising.”

IFF may be sitting comfortably but they are far from resting on their laurels. The group maintain a website which includes up to date programme information and a written constitution. They also distribute “substantial advertising” to their members, and give film notes to the audience at every screening.

Independent

These extra attentions highlight the society’s autonomy from the cinema. Mike comments, “IFF! still retains a distinct identity and we have control of the selections we make. We have our own intro DVD, screened before our films, which we hope reinforces this. Eden Court's Film Officer is very enthusiastic for the continuation of IFF! as an involved, but independent, group.”

A major downside to being housed in a commercial cinema is the effect that this has on the type of license they have to use. “Programming was quite a lot easier in the early days, since there is much more material available on DVD for showing to a ‘club’ audience. Screening rights are much more involved for public performances, and result in considerable restriction of the amount of product available, particularly for older films.”

Changing Times

This possibly accounts for the drop in attendance figures amongst both audience and the committee. Mike says, “We started off with a fairly solid membership base and this increased substantially in our second year until we had at maximum around 90 plus members. Ironically our membership has fallen considerably since we moved into the wonderful new cinemas at Eden Court, and we are reaching what seems possibly may be a crisis point because of insufficient people willing to do the committee work.”

Another reason might be the lack of perceived common ownership and community now that the society is based in the cinema. “We try to make our screenings as friendly as possible - we always have an introduction to the film, provide film notes and provide an opportunity for discussion afterwards”, Mike says, “but inevitably some of the intimacy of a 'club' of amateurs has, I suppose, been lost.”

Price of success?

Inverness Film Fans have come a long way since their launch five years ago. “We have moved from projection from DVD on a home-made screen to professional projection standards, and usually from 35mm stock. We have moved from compromised viewing lines and not always very comfortable seats to the best that are available. We have moved from our own sound system, which was more than adequate, to state of the art cinema presentation.”

But with fewer and fewer people turning up to enjoy the comfy seats and precision sound, it seems that onwards and upwards isn’t necessarily the best direction for a film society to go.

by Rebecca Thompson