A micro cinema has won the Network Wales Award for best communication project of any organisation from across the country.

A hand engraved Crystal trophy was awarded to Undercurrents of Swansea at a prestigious awards dinner hosted by WCVA in Cardiff.

The Undercurrents project which attracted the attention of the jury was The Sol Cinema -a micro movie house powered entirely by the Sun. Complete with smartly dressed usherette and red carpet, the tiny movie theater has been dubbed by the BBC as ‘the smallest mobile cinema in the World’ .

Penclawdd artist Jo Furlong designed the micro cinema by recycling a 1960’s 2 berth caravan to accommodate 8 adults in comfort for a unique cinematic experience. The Sol Cinema has a full library of comedy, music videos and short local films with inspiring environment themes.

Sol Cinema co-founder Paul O’Connor said
‘Winning the Network Wales Award is a brilliant end to our first year out with the Sol Cinema. We have spent the entire year touring across Wales, from music festival to community events to National Museums. This award inspires us to carry on showing films in rural areas which lack access to a cinema.’

The strong environmental aspect of the cinema won the praise of the jury too.

Sol Cinema designer Jo Furlong added
‘The Sol Cinema has been lavished with pride and style and runs entirely on renewable energy. We use an low energy LED video projector and lithium batteries to store the energy from the Sun.Our photovoltaic panels harness the sunlight, even as the films are being shown, so we never run out of power.’

End
Sol Cinema details can be viewed on  http://www.thesolcinema.org

Undercurrents is a media and arts charity based in Swansea.