OUTDOOR cinema could soon be coming to Oswestry in an audacious plan to improve the town’s limited cinematic experience.
Oswestry’s own not-for-profit film provider wants to upgrade its projection facilities and is already attempting to obtain the necessary funding.
KinoKulture currently show films at the town’s 100-seat Attfield Theatre, situated within the Guildhall. It shows independent, specialist, and non-mainstream cinema, but instead of going head to head with the forthcoming CineWorld, which forms part of the ambitious supermarket development on Oswestry's Shrewsbury Road, KinoKulture's technical director insists the provider will be offering something new to the town's film fanatics for as little as £50,000.
“I would love for KinoKulture to show films outdoors at places such as Cae Glas Park, Bailey Head, or even do drive-in showings,” said Ian Garland.
“We already have an enormous screen and a surround-sound system but the major transition in the UK film industry is the change-over to digital formats.
“KinoKulture currently projects film in 35mm prints, but if we want to access newer films as well as the classics, we need to upgrade our equipment.”
KinoKulture has bid for £50,000 of funding to achieve this from Shropshire Council's Market Town Revitalisation Programme, and hope for a speedy turnaround if they are successful.
“The Marches School has a great auditorium and the new leisure centre is licensed to show films too,” Ian continued.
“The mobility of our equipment enables us to take this facility to different wards of Oswestry and revive the cinematic experience in the town.
“This is something that is urgent now because film enthusiasts travel to Wrexham or Shrewsbury to go the cinema - that has a significant impact on money bleeding out of Oswestry.
“This could be retained if the facility was here because we want to do everything feasible with Oswestry traders.
“Diversity can create more demand and this is a fantastic town for choice so let's keep it that way.”
As opposed to battling with CineWorld, KinoKulture say they want to provide films that local people want as opposed to imposing specific choices on viewers like the cinema industry giants.
“Those providers have no local input, but we intend to take notice of our audience,” Ian added.