Silver screen dream for Nairn cinema club
town will hold a classic movie day following summer film festivals
Published:
MOVES have started to bring cinema back to Nairn after an absence of 30 years.
The Highland seaside town, famed as the holiday resort of early movie star Charlie Chaplin and home to Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, hasn’t had a cinema since the 1970s when the Playhouse projected its final reel and closed its doors before eventually reopening as the British Legion and then Nairn County Social Club.
Over the past two summers Nairn has had a starring role in the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams and Pilgrimage film festivals, and it’s clear to local movie buffs there is a demand for regular screenings.
Now a group of local enthusiasts calling themselves Cinema Nairn have arranged for a day of classic movies to be shown on the big screen at the Community Centre on Sunday, November 29, to gather reaction and, it is hoped, begin the revival of silver screen entertainment in the town.
At 2pm families are invited down the Yellow Brick Road to see The Wizard of Oz. At 5pm fans of Westerns are invited to saddle up for The Magnificent Seven, an all-time classic, starring some of Hollywood’s biggest names, and at 8pm the dreamy Highland tale I Know Where I’m Going will round off the day of film. Audience members are encouraged to don a kilt for the performance.
Tickets priced £4 (£3 for children and concessions) are available from the Community Centre, Nairn Bookshop and Iolaire Photographics at the railway station.
Sue Halliday of Cinema Nairn said: “The recent festivals Nairn has enjoyed thanks to Tilda Swinton and her enthusiasm for film have highlighted the fact that people would regularly go to the pictures if there was a cinema in Nairn. As a result, a bunch of us have been inspired to put in a lot of effort and try to start something wonderful.
“We really feel Nairn deserves and can support regular film screenings. There is an important social element to all of this as cinema brings people together.”
