APRIL 20th 1896 marks the beginning of cinema in Ireland. It was on this date that Dan Lowrey, an illiterate businessman and entertainer of humble Tipperary origins showed moving images of prize fighters and acrobats in his Star of Erin Theatre of Varieties (now the Olympia) in Dublin.
Irish Cinema exhibition grew rapidly with films being screened in music halls, fairgrounds, town and village halls or indeed any where with enough room for a travelling projectionist to set up his apparatus. It was not until 1909, however, that Ireland acquired its first permanent cinema, when James Joyce persuaded four local businessmen to put up the necessary capital to, fund the Volta in Dublin's Mary Street. Although it lasted only a year before it was sold to an English company, the Volta provided a catalyst for the rapid flourishing of this new medium and by 1930 there were 265 cinemas and halls showing motion pictures throughout the island of Ireland, from the beginning Irish audiences displayed a vociferous appetite for the moving image. In 1992, the last year for which figures are available, cinema admissions were clocked at some 7.85 millions, giving a gross box revenue of £19.6 million on a total of 189 screens. After France and Germany, the Irish are the most frequent cinema goers in, Europe.
However, these figures do not tell the whole story. Although major metropolitan areas have seen a rash of investment in new screens and the rising phenomena of the multiplex, audiences outside these areas are still more likely to encounter new cinema on the small screen. County Cavan, for instance, has had no cinema since The Magnet in Cavan town closed down three years ago. The nearest one is now across the county border in Clones, Co. Monaghan. For owners and audiences alike, frequenting cinemas in rural Ireland, such as the Cosey in Kanturk, filmgoing is, more and more, a weekend experience.
Michael O'Riordan, who has run the two screen Cosey Cinema in Kanturk, Co. Cork as a family concern since 1977 believes that "In a country situation you more or less provide a service and you try and make a livelihood from that". O'Riordan is luckier than most other independent cinema owners because the nearest multiplex is over 30 miles away and his cinema has some 15 towns and 2 villages in its catchment area, providing a ready audience. However, like most others he has an ongoing battle trying to secure the latest releases.
"There is a problem with the allocation of product," he says, "I think it will always be there. The multiplexes seem to be allocated product whereas we have to fight for it. The terms that the multiplexes get are probably far favourable than we would get in the country. It's often Monday before you know what you're showing the following Friday night." In a situation like this," he says, it is often impossible to plan ahead: "You live from week to week".
HOWEVER, according to a spokesman for one of the bigger, Dublin based film distribution companies, this is simply an economic fact of life. The spokesman, who asked that neither he nor the company he works for be named, said that 65 per cent of their business is still done in Dublin. "Market forces dictate strategies," he says. "There is no big conspiracy. Smaller operators suffer, but that's life."
The Irish distribution market - like that of most other territories, in the world, is dominated by the Hollywood majors (Buena Vista, Columbia Tristar and UIP). Others players include Ward Anderson's Abbey Films, Dublin Film Distributors and newcomers Clarence Pictures. When a new film is released here there is an "A list" of 26 Cinemas which get the prints first. Other venues have to wait until one of these prints becomes available before they have a chance to screen it. This situation alters slightly with blockbusters (for example, Seven, Toy Story etc) when up to 70 prints can find their way onto the Irish market. However, at a cost each, it is usually only the major American studios which can afford such a comprehensive release strategy and this has led to a situation where up to 94 per cent of films shown on Irish screens are American in origin. This, according to Rod Stoneman, Chief Executive of Bord Scannan na hEireann is "unhealthy and unhappy".
Indeed, only two cinemas in the country provide a regular opportunity to view new films outside the mainstream Hollywood product, and both of these, The Irish Film Centre and the Lighthouse, are located in Dublin. Mick Hannigan, currently the Festival Director of the Cork International Film Festival, has been working for the past two years to try and establish the first alternative cinema outside the capital. With the aid of a £100,000 grant from the Department of Arts Culture and The Gaeltacht, he now hopes to open, for business this autumn in a 200 seater venue to be located on Cork's Washington, Street. Wary of the term "arthouse", which he believes can ghettoise these films, he sees himself operating in a niche market in a city that has been underscreened for some time. He points to the success of the Cork International Film Festival and the annual French Film festival in the city as evidence of audience demand for non commercial or non mainstream films that is just not being met at the moment. He forsees little difficulty in obtaining film prints as he has no effective competition in the city.
THE issue of distribution is also of concern to the Arts Council, whose current three year plan, seeks the establishment of a support network for the distribution of arthouse and non commercial cinema in the regions. The Council already supports the 37 member Federation of Irish film societies, as well as the major film festivals in Dublin, Cork and Galway, and it would like to see the establishment of a network of arthouse cinemas around the country. However, warns Paul Freeny, Film Consultant to the Arts Council: "The only way to approach it would be on a venue basis. If a venue had a particular policy then support would be possible but you have to consider the financial basis of such a cinema."
For the Film Board, which says, its role mainly in the area of production, the areas of distribution, and exhibition are a fundamental part of the problem. "European Cinema," believes Stoneman, "has been driven back by the well worked out, strongly thought - through, well financed marketing distribution of American product." In practice, what this means is that the Americans spend more money on P&A (Publicity and Advertising) as their films come to the screen, with the result that audience awareness of their product is greater. For example, Stoneman adds: "Take a recent film like Guiltrip (an Irish Italian co production, directed by Gerard Stembridge) that had a go at a theatrical distribution here and didn't do badly. But it was only out in most cinemas here for a couple of weeks. With more P&A, who knows, it could have done better."
Yet very few European, let alone Irish, filmmakers can afford to match American marketing strategies. Stoneman laments this situation and points out that it will only he when RTE screens a season of new Irish films at the end of this year that most Irish taxpayers, who have contributed to the work of the Film Board, will encounter the new wave of Irish cinema for the first time.
Such lofty concerns however, don't really occupy the minds of cinema owners throughout the country. For them, the important issue is still bums on seats. As one midlands proprietor put it: "It's a matter of trying to give the public what they want when they want it." This may be one of the reasons why Albert Kelly, Chairperson of the Independent Cinema Owners Association of Ireland believes that, after oil, film is the most corrupt industry in the world. "It's a lovely business, he says, if you can accept the terror in it."
