YEARS ago, before television and electricity came to the area, little dark blue vans with ‘Highlands and Islands Film Guild’ written across their sides, were a welcome sight in many far-flung communities.
The Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Landseer.
Photograph: Diageo.
Established in 1946, the guild showed popular films, newsreels, cartoons and public information titles and were often the social highlight of the month. The fleet of vans with their own self-contained petrol generators, film-projectors, speakers and screens would arrive outside village halls around noon for the day’s showing. In the afternoon children and teachers would attend educational films followed by the evening’s entertainment.