By Charlene Kelly

A FIFE film and media centre facing closure just last month has been saved, with plans to further develop services, The Courier can reveal.

The Moving Image Media Access Centre (MIMAC) has been operating from its Rothes Halls base in Glenrothes for the last four-and-a- half years, offering moving image opportunities for the whole community, from voluntary groups to aspiring film-makers.

Despite being well-used, the centre heard from Fife Council that it would have to close in June as a result of the council handing over all responsibility of the region’s theatres to a trust.

This prompted an online petition to save the centre and a strident campaign, led by head of MIMAC’s dedicated user group, Mitch Miller.

Said Mitch, “I was both delighted and astounded by the amount of support the campaign received from both current users and established film producers.

“With 200-plus users, there’s no denying MIMAC is a well-used resource and it plays an integral role in Fife’s TV and film industry, attracting both Scottish and international interest. It is also self-sustaining in that it brings in enough money to support itself,” he added.

Following the campaign, a new home for MIMAC has now been found and the centre plans to run itself as an independent social enterprise.

“The campaign led to a number of talks with Fife Council, various politicians and Adam Smith College and we have found new premises in the form of the Roundhouse which is located in the grounds of Adam Smith College’s Victoria Road campus in Kirkcaldy.

“Obviously we’ll be sad to leave our home at Rothes Halls as we have enjoyed our time there but at the same time, moving to new premises in a bigger town will help us to grow and enable us to offer more services to our users.

“We will be taking with us all our current equipment which was purchased with money from lottery grants over the years and I am hopeful we will be able to build on that by applying for further lottery grants.

“Fife Council has also said it will offer future assistance by way of grant funding and we are in talks with the college with the hope to begin working with the audiovisual department —so the future’s looking bright.”

Mitch said there were also plans to set up a satellite service in Glenrothes and St Andrews so equipment could be hired out to people throughout Fife.

“I would like to thank everyone involved in helping to save MIMAC as, without their support, we would not be in such a lucrative position now.”