The Montrose Picture House might sound like a solid building, but this East Coast film society is constantly on the lookout for a home. Established in 2005 when founder Anthony Baxter screened The Motorcycle Diaries in a local church, the society was set up simply because there was nowhere else to watch films.

Anthony explains, “I moved to Montrose from Edinburgh and before that London, and as a keen cinema-goer was amazed to find out that there’s no cinema between Aberdeen and Dundee.” In an area populated by around 250,000 people, there was a large potential audience. “So I hired a projector and a screen and showed a film in an old church,” he recalls. Lots of people came, a handful of them said they would like to get involved, and the Montrose Picture House was born.

Cinema Paradiso

With its initial, picturesque setting, the society was dubbed ‘Cinema Paradiso’ by fans, but the golden age of the Montrose Picture House was about to come to an end, sparking their long-running quest for the perfect venue.  With the church taken over for different purposes, they had to move out, and are currently lodging at the Links Hotel in Montrose.

“The Links Hotel is working well for us”, Anthony admits. “It’s warm, it’s clean, it’s dry, it’s got toilets, it’s got a bar, it’s got disabled access. Before, we had to tell people to bring cushions because the pews in the church were so hard, but here they’ve got comfy seats.” However, not having a dedicated venue means setting up and taking down all the equipment before and after each screening, which is not an ideal scenario.

Bingo – a New Home

Always on the lookout for a permanent home, the society has launched a campaign to reopen a disused cinema. The derelict Gala Bingo Hall in Montrose is being taken over by a Brewery, who plans to turn it into a pub. Originally, the building housed a cinema, which was boarded over when it was turned into a bingo hall. “Upstairs, the original tiered balcony and seats are untouched”, enthuses Anthony. He envisages the cinema being run commercially, with the film society running it one day per week, showing more art house films and bearing responsibility for their own profits and loss.

 “We’ve had a favourable response from Belhaven who said they liked the idea but wanted £20,000 to do it. So at the moment we’re speaking to local businesses to see if they want to invest.”

35 Folk or Flop

For the moment, the bingo hall is a dream that the society are pursuing when time allows. In the meantime, they’ve got a thriving film society to run. The society has a “break even point” of 35 people per screening, so they can’t afford a flop. “You go to a commercial cinema and quite often you see two people in the audience, but we don’t have that luxury. We have to pay Filmbang, the venue, and other costs, and if we don’t get 35 people we make a loss.”

The Montrose Picture House has a core fee-paying membership, which allows them to plan ahead.  Although they manage to attract new members at every screening, the majority of film-goers to the Montrose Picture House are non-members.

Pick 'n Mix

Selecting the right films for this mixed audience of casual viewers and dedicated members is crucial. “We ask for suggestions from the society,” Anthony explains, “and then three or four of us meet to work out which would be best to show.” The result is an interesting programme on the mainstream edges of arthouse. Unusually, the program has also included some children’s films. Families are encouraged to come along through family ticket deals, but audience numbers for these films are still not as high as they might be.

Supporting Acts

Anthony is a TV and film producer with access to major film-making talent, and the society boasts big name supporters such as Ken Loach and Richard Jobson, who has even visited to give a talk about directing.

Speakers like Jobson don’t just attract the audience; they also provide a hook for the press. “Getting people through the door is dependent on getting something in the papers. We always come up with a news line if we can – something that will appeal to the local paper. We try to keep ourselves in their minds.”

With a planned repeat of last year’s ‘drive-in’ film experience, the continued campaign for the Gala Bingo hall cinema, and hopes of another high-profile film-maker  visit in the pipeline, the Montrose Picture House will be giving the press plenty to write about.

by Rebecca Thompson