Ireland's only cinema on wheels has just been parked forever
The distinctive Cinemobile, set up under the Millennium Project, was struggling with a lack of funding.
IRELAND’S ONLY MOBILE cinema, which was launched as a flagship Millennium Project, officially shut its doors today.
Cinemobile, which started touring in 2001, was one of the most ambitious projects the National Millennium Committee brought in to celebrate the year 2000.
The distinctive blue-and-green, articulated truck that converted into a 100-seater cinema in less than an hour, was the brainchild of filmmaker and co-founder of the Galway Film Fleadh, Lelia Doolan.
The cinema has brought films across the country for the past 16 years, showing movies at schools, film festivals and community festivals as well as to the general public. However, Cinemobile has now been forced to shut up shop citing a lack of funding.
Funding gap
In a statement, the board of Cinemobile said that despite the best efforts of the directors and staff, and significant success in boosting commercial revenue, “it has been impossible to make up the deficit caused in recent years by the gradual erosion of Cinemobile’s core public funding (and) the company can therefore no longer continue in business”.
It added: “It is with great sadness and sincere thanks to our extraordinary staff that the board has taken this decision.
“On behalf of the staff the board would also like to thank all the company’s service users throughout the years.”
The Irish Film Board said that it has “consistently supported the Cinemobile since its genesis in 2000″ but it couldn’t overcome the shortfall from the loss of other sources of public funding.
The Cinemobile
The Cinemobile had received support from a variety of backers including the film board, Northern Ireland Screen, the Arts Council and RTÉ.
Losses
Accounts for Fis Na Milaoise Teo, the company behind Cinemobile, show that it made a loss of just under €15,000 in the year to the end of 2014 compared to a small profit of €6,500 the year before.
Although its income from commercial activities rose from €70,000 in 2013 to just over €122,000 in 2014, this did not make up for the drop in grants received by the firm. These fell from about €235,000 in 2013 to around €170,000 the following year.
The shock announcement came just days after the cinema completed a stint at the Galway Film Fleadh and less than a month before it was due to travel to Headfort House in Kells, Co Meath for the 10th anniversary Guth Gafa International Film Festival.
Guth Gafa festival director David Rane said that the closure was a major blow to the event, which was planning to show a third of its screenings in the Cinemobile.
“This is a huge body blow for us. The Cinemobile has been our flagship venue for 10 years,” he said.
“We bring the world’s best new documentary films to rural audiences where there are no cinemas, and the Cinemobile was an integral part of that infrastructure alongside other cinemas that we build from scratch.”
“If we can’t come to some arrangement, we will have just three weeks to build a 100-seater flagship venue that will do justice to the work of these filmmakers.”
