Converting a caravan into a tiny cinema

Kerry Jones is turning her old caravan into one of the smallest cinemas in the UK

Until fairly recently, Kerry Jones' caravan lay rotting and forgotten about in her garden in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders - a home for discarded bric-a-brac.

But during the Covid-19 lockdown the artist and filmmaker saw new potential in the 1980s Swift Pirouette, and resolved to turn it into a tiny, travelling cinema.

With a maximum of eight seats, it could be one of the smallest cinemas in the UK.

"It isn't the first cinema caravan to exist," said Kerry. "There was one over in Dumfries and Galloway that a friend of mine made at the beginning of the 2000s, that was really inspiring.

"I'm really interested in projects that involve people out in your community. I've just seen the impact of showing films to small groups and how that can really make change.

"I love the idea of taking a caravan into rural areas and expanding that cinematic experience."

Ripping out the interior

Over the pandemic Kerry secured a bursary from the Alchemy Film and Arts charity based in nearby Hawick as part of a local arts programme running between July 2021 and December 2023.

She used it to renovate the caravan inside and out, swapping the retro mint panelling for a bright red that could be seen for miles.

The interior panels have also been replaced and the roof made watertight with rubber.

And inside, she plans to install between six and eight seats, again in a plush, cinematic red fabric.

Speaking to Mornings with Stephen Jardine, she said: "These caravans aren't made to last massively so we ripped it out it was quite rotten. It's been a massive project.

"I've had it for 12 years - it's been out and about, it's been used for people to stay, it's been a spare room.

"But over the last few years but it's just been one of those spaces that you put things in and forget about."

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Kerry's caravan cinema project - named Moving Images - will makes its debut at Hawick's Alchemy Film Festival on 28 April, screening nine short films all made by people in the south of Scotland.

It comes at a time when Scotland has lost one of its smallest cinemas - the Schoolhouse Cinema in Shetland.

This 20-seat cinema, run by local magician Chris Harris, was put up for auction in 2020 after he decided to leave the islands.

Around the same time another tiny theatre opened in the Highland village of Cromarty - a 35-seat facility that took two years to come to fruition.

The caravan is painted bright red and will have a screen on the left and seats on the right

Kerry aims to cater for an even more intimate experience, and will be using a small portable projector to save on power without sacrificing picture quality.

The caravan itself is solar powered, but Kerry said she will borrow a high quality battery as back-up until she can crowdfund her own.

Any spare cash will then be put towards taking the caravan on the road - possibly for a tour of free screenings and running filmmaking workshops at local primary schools.

Kerry added: "It's going to be really adaptable.

"Selkirk's market square have said they'd be quite interested in having the caravan there. I'd love to take it out to some of the more rural areas like Duns and Gordon.

"We're also going to work with a group called Connecting Threads and they're doing lots of projects along the Tweed - I'd love to see it there, that would be quite magical."