Plans to bring the magic of the silver screen back to Brechin have taken a step forward.
Flicks, Brechin’s Community Cinema, hopes to bring showings back to the town in its city hall as early as April this year.
Brechin has been without regular film showings since the mid-1980s and the Flicks name pays tribute to one of Scotland’s most popular nightclubs from that era.
The Brechin Community Cinema Project set up a Facebook page at the end of January to gauge support and to let residents know its aims.
Now sitting at 690 likes, the group has announced a partnership with FilmMobile Scotland and hopes to show the first film in two months, with further screenings in June, August and every month thereafter.
Chalmers in Arbroath recently began to show movies in its filmhouse with great success, while the Montrose Playhouse Project is looking to finalise its community asset transfer application for the former swimming pool in the Mall.
Co-organiser Mark Arbuthnott said: “FilmMobile Scotland have established numerous community cinemas throughout Scotland they are very successful and Brechin should be no exception.
“Establishing a neighbourhood cinema is a really achievable project. We can all remember Saturday afternoon matinees at the cinema and this is something we can help our children experience, too.
“We have a number of great venues around the town and there are numerous sources of funding we can tap for equipment.
“This is a realistic, achievable and fun project for cinema lovers of Brechin to back.”
The group has entered into a Saville AV and British Film Institute competition to win cinema equipment, the deadline for which passed on Monday.
Mr Arbuthnott added: “Win or lose, we will continue with the project.”
The Flicks name is well known to a generation of Scottish clubbers, who beat a trail to the nightclub based in the former King’s Cinema.
In April 2008 plans were lodged to demolish the building, retaining the facade, and build housing on the site but these came to nothing and by May 2009 the building was shuttered and unused.
In September 2010 it was purchased by Angus Council, before it was placed on the “buildings at risk” register in 2012.