Swinton, who lives in the town with partner, playwright and artist John Bryne and their two children, has converted the former Ballerina Ballroom on Nairn's High Street into a "Cinema of Dreams" for her eight-and-a-half day festival of films picked by herself Bryne, Mark Cousins, the former director of the Edinburgh Film Festival, of which she is patron, and other friends and colleagues, including Joel Coen of the Coen Brothers, the writing and directing partnership which collected three Oscars at this year's Academy Awards with the acclaimed "No Country For Old Men".

The festival begins at 2pm this afternoon with one of Swinton's favourite films "Peter Ibbetson", starring Gary Cooper, and will run until Saturday 23rd August with feature films from the USA, the UK, Ukraine, Poland, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Senegal, along with short films, animation and a Bjork video.

In an exclusive interview with The Inverness Courier, Swinton revealed she took the lease of the Ballerina Ballroom, a former bingo hall which in the 1960s saw bands such as The Who, Pink Floyd and Cream perform, on an impulse, but was vague on what the future might hold for both festival and venue.

"Maybe the Cinema of Dreams will be like Brigadoon and reappear every 200 years... maybe never again," she said.

"Its transformation from Ballerina Ballroom, venue for glorious rock bands 40 years ago into disused bingo hall three months ago into Cinema of Dreams now only goes to show that transformation is possible any and everywhere.

"One of my dearest hopes is that people see the possibility for a Cinema of Dreams in every abandoned corner shop in every town and village in their country... or dream rock venue, dream exhibition space, dream dance hall, dream cheese shop..."

As for the Ballerina's future, Swinton commented: "The possibilities are both rich and unknowable until we are on the other side of this month.

"There are plenty of dreams, though, and the collective support and goodwill and general blitz spirit of Nairn has been — and will be — all we ever need.

"The pretty much unilateral enthusiasm is, in itself, the most profound thing about the Cinema of Dreams: it is a balloon bouyed up by goodwill and fantasy alone. Like all the best things in life, all heart. Let's just live in this moment, this year and savour it for what it is.

"One thing I would like is for any following festival to retain a unique, unrepeated character... so whatever may follow will, surely, be different from this year. Anything's possible.

"Don't worry about the future. It's rosy, believe it. But let's just say that this is a once only deal and enjoy it to the full."

Designer Claire Halleran has been called in to spruce up the interior of the Ballerina ahead of the festival while Byrne, whose own television film "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles" will be on the programme, has painted a new mural for the building.

'All About Eve'

The films will be shown on digital projection equipment loaned from Salzgeber and Co in Berlin, but Byrne has left a poster outside the cinema suggesting patrons might like to bring their own folding chairs rather than trust to the bean bags provided.

Tickets for each show will be £3 or £2 concession, though the festival organisers have also suggested free entry would also be granted for anyone providing home-baking or sandwiches.

Swinton admitted there were some films which had got away "A couple we literally couldn't find, some obscure, supercamp Elizabeth Taylor film that Joel wanted," she said.

She also revealed that she had considered showing some films from the other film star with Nairn connections, Charlie Chaplin, who used to holiday in the town.

"Not because of his local man status, but because 'The Kid' and 'The Great Dictator' are among my children's favourite films," she said.

"I'm sure he will appear at some point, if not this year. I can't quite remember why he wasn't in the final selection, possibly because of our inclusion of 'I Was Born, But', which is silent, needing accompaniment and less well known than Chaplin's films."

Asked for her own pick of the films on show, Swinton had a number of suggestions. "The Bill Douglas Trilogy is a true masterpiece of Scottish cultural heritage. I am inordinately proud to be showing it in Nairn," she said. "'Crows', 'The Boot' and 'Palle Alone in the World' are intergalactic classics guaranteed to inspire wonder, especially in the young. And 'I Know Where I'm Going', 'Boswell and Johnson', Margaret Rutherford and our Singing day are family swoonfests for sure.

"But my personal favourite may be "Peter Ibbetson", our opening film, Henry Hathaway's 1933 film fetiche of the Surrealists — a great love story, Gary Cooper more beautiful than anything ever and the immortal line 'the strangest things are real and the realest things are strange'. Bliss."

The festival was inspired by watching the reaction of some children to a showing of Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film "Rebecca" at the Screen Scene mobile cinema in Easter Ross and realising they had probably never seen a black and white film on the big screen before.

Swinton hopes that her own and other children will take something away from their experience of watching films at the Ballerina Ballroom. "A sure knowledge that there is more than enough inspiring cinema out there to last a lifetime," she said.

"That a cinema is possible anywhere there is a love of film, that cinema is a broad, elastic old beast that can stretch everywhichway and if one truly loves cinema one loves its endless possibilities, that one never need feel lonely or companionless among the world's filmmakers."

'Singin' In The Rain'

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