SSVC Cinema - Movie Machine

The Movie Machine

At first there was a request, which turned into a dream, which turned into a reality. This is how the Movie Machine was conceived and born….

It all started when many calls were received from the troops in the Balkans in 1999. “Why can’t we have a cinema? Why can’t you get brand new films to us? We don’t just want videos, we want the REAL THING!” So the challenge was set.

The SSVC Cinema Team looked at various options to provide mobile 35mm films showings; converted land rovers, specialised trailers, including containers and so on, but all to no avail. Then we were advised to visit Hi-Arts in Scotland who had something called the Screen Machine.

In November 1999 we saw The Screen Machine in its hometown of Inverness and arranged to borrow it for a months trial in Bosnia in the summer of 2000. The logistics and deployment of such a machine was a demanding project but was successfully achieved. Showing then latest films and screening 3 times per day, we entertained over 5,000 people in the first 4 weeks. Most importantly the reaction was overwhelming, and outstandingly enthusiastic - it left us with no doubt that a mobile cinema was high on the welfare priority list.

We found the best supplier of such a vehicle was the firm of Toutenkarmion in France, and whilst designing and negotiations were underway we had another problem: we had created a big demand for the Screen Machine to return to Bosnia. Thus, it successfully toured Bosnia again in the summer of 2001. SSVC, as a Forces charity, is duty bound to ensure that any profits made are channeled back into Forces Welfare and so in April 2001 the SSVC Trustees approved the expenditure of £500,000 to manufacture the Movie Machine. It was completed in May 2002 and following a ‘shake down’ in Germany was launched at SSVC HQ on 28th May 2002. As part of the Operational Welfare package the running costs are paid by the MoD under a 5-year contract. The film industry has also been outstanding in its support for the project and will be providing the latest films within 4 weeks UK release.