North Devon Movie Bus

by SWS on 26-Nov-09 11:44

The Movie Bus Could Be Coming to a Place Near You

A North Devon project to take historic films to local communities on board a unique 1967 cinema bus has got underway with the recruitment of a Project Co-ordinator, Emma Giffard.

Emma said:

“When the project was announced back in August there was a huge amount of excitement. We’re now responding to all those who expressed an interest, and scheduling screenings from spring 2010. We want to hear from people and groups that are interested in participating, whether as contributors or spectators.”

The Movie Bus Project will see the original cinema bus restored and converted into a 25 seat mobile cinema, touring schools, communities and events. Historic footage from the South West Film and TV Archive’s collections of nearly 130,000 films and tapes will be digitised in order to create short films on subjects of local interest. Spectators will also have the opportunity to become participants by contributing to an audio record that will provide a soundtrack to a number of the films. Emma hopes that the bus will also provide an opportunity for young film-makers to showcase their work. She invites interested parties to contact her.

“The cinema bus itself provides inspiration and opportunity; we hope that aspiring animators and film-makers will engage in the project and use it as a resource. It’s completely unique, and it’s going to generate a lot of excitement. For schools, it’s such a fascinating thing that it’ll make learning fun.”

The project will also draw on North Devon’s place in film history, with locations from Saunton Sands to Winkleigh having been featured in films in the past. It will also be involved in the North Devon Festival, and is expected to turn up at many different events throughout the Festival.

Alison Mills of the Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon put the project together. She said:

“This is a real opportunity for community groups, schools and anyone interested in the history of our local area or films to get involved. The cinema bus is a striking, one-of-a-kind vehicle, and we’re lucky to have it here in North Devon where we can make full use of its ability to access rural parts of our county.”

The vehicle is believed to be the only surviving one of a fleet of seven movie buses commissioned in 1967 by the Ministry of Technology to showcase films about British Industry. It is currently under restoration in Exeter, having just got a new paint job that takes it back to its original colours.

The Movie Bus Project is a collaboration between the Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon, North Devon Theatres Trust, SWFTA, the Bill Douglas Centre of Exeter University, the North Devon Festival and the Vintage Mobile Cinema, and is being funded in part by South West Screen through the UK Film Council’s Digital Film Archive Fund. The project is expected to run from March 2010 until March 2011.

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