A Co Down community cinema faces a huge bill to replace its heating system as it battles to keep providing a service for its town.
Newcastle Community Cinema is registered as a charity and has been operating in the town since 2009.
It moved to its current home in St Mary's Hall in 2015 and is facing a bill of up to £60,000 to replace a broken heating system.
Read more: Meet the Newcastle shop owners adding character to the town
The charity is run by volunteers, apart from one full-time member of staff, Craig Fyfe, the venue manager.
He told Belfast Live a bit more about what the cinema has been offering Newcastle and further afield for the last 14 years.
"We have Silver Screen, which is aimed for the socially isolated, so we aim for the likes of care homes and folds, where people don't have the opportunity to get out in the evenings," he said.
"It's also a way of letting the younger generations see older classics from the 1940s, 50s, 60s on the big screen again too.
"The second one is we do a baby-friendly screening for parents and guardians with children up to about 12-months-old, which gives them the chance to see something during the day that they mightn't have the chance to do otherwise.
"The third one is the Toddler Club, which is a short film followed by a healthy snack and an activity.
"On top of that, we have world cinema once a month, Friday Fright Night and we do lots of collaborative screenings too.
"And once a year we do a Full Moon Film Festival, in November, which we do a week of amazing films, go out into the community and do nomad screenings, doing screenings at galleries and doing workshops as well."
However, that service has been threatened by an old heating system that has given up the ghost.
"We've always had issues with the heating system, it's 30 years old and has been patched up and repaired," Craig added.
"Back in December when we had an incredibly full programme, lots of private parties, lots of schools coming in, it packed in and completely bust and we had to close in January and February which we were very reluctant to do.
"We have a found a very crude workaround, but it won't work long-term, it burns about two to three times the amount of oil compared to a normal system.
"It's a very, very big bill, the highest quote we've had for the taking out and installation of heating systems is £60,000, so we're looking at grants in the background as well."
Craig and the charity's volunteers have been running events to try and raise the money needed to get the cinema back up and running smoothly.
"We've started fundraising, we've had an amazing response from the local community and have raised about £7,000.
"We've had a quiz as a fundraising event, a Fr Ted evening and on Saturday 15 April, we have a cabaret evening.
"We have people coming called Club Fantastique, who have very kindly donated their skills and then we have a raffle and we've had such tremendous support from local businesses for that too, we feel very loved."
That immersion in the community has also seen the charity branch out in how the space is used, to try and provide a space for other community activities in the town.
"Because we're sat right in the middle of Newcastle, we have opened up to being a community hub as well," Craig said.
"So on Monday mornings, we have a baby sensory class, where they rent the space from us and we have a choir that comes in every Monday.
"We have Irish dancing on a Tuesday, jiu-jitsu on a Wednesday, taekwondo on a Thursday and once a month we do a market as well, usually on the second Sunday."
They also provide a safe space for the charity Autism Support Kilkeel (ASK) to come in for a special screening for children and families of children with autism.
Craig said he hoped they could get the heating system sorted so that they could continue to provide for the community.
"The heating system is vital because we cater for vulnerable people, the elderly, children with learning difficulties and having a warm, safe environment has to be a fundamental and that's why we made the hard decision to close in January and February," he said.
"If we can get it sorted we can focus on doing what we love and what people seem to love when they come here."
If you would like to contribute to the cinema's fundraising efforts, you can do so here.
READ NEXT:
- Mourne Gateway project near Newcastle sparks debate
- Co Down café owner on opening extra hours to battle rising costs
- Newtownards woman on cancer diagnosis age 22 after struggling to stay awake
- Newcastle security alert: Controlled explosion carried out after 'viable device' discovered
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
