Save our Cinema group step up campaign

An open air film screening and firework display is the latest event organised in support of the former Odeon cinema in South Clerk Street.

The event will take place in St Patrick Square on Saturday night from 6 pm. There will be a series of short films about the history of the building before the main feature, Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero which will be screened at 7 pm.

The Save Our Cinema group, who have organised the event, have made wide use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness.  Nikki Thomson is responsible for the online campaign and she said: “We set up an online petition which got over 3,000 signatures in under four weeks. Our Facebook page called Save our Cinema currently has around 200 fans and a Twitter account were also set up.”

The message appears to be getting out quite widely as the campaign now has supporters from all over the globe including the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The latest proposal for the site involves turning the building into a hotel. According to Lisa Sibbald who organised Saturday’s screening, this proposal has little support: “Not one person, of all the locals we have spoken to regarding the future of the building, is in favour of a hotel.”

Turning her attention to Saturday’s screening, Sibbald feels that the choice of Local Hero as the main film is a relevant one saying: “It’s about the local people taking on the big guy and winning, so we thought there was a nice parallel with what we are doing here in the Southside.”

The Save our Cinema group hope that the event will help raise public awareness of the plight of one of Edinburgh’s most iconic buildings.