AUTUMN PREVIEW FILM
Screening calls Eddie Harrison highlights the best of the Scottish film festivals and seasons still to come in 2010
out
F estivaled post Edinburgh? If you’re a red carpet junkie, worry not, 2010 still has plenty to offer the discerning cineaste. But forget Venice, Toronto and London, what about film festivals a bit closer to home? The Scottish arts calendar is jammed with cinematic jamborees, so dust off your Vera Wang and get out your diary.
From Thu 23 Sep–Tue 5 Oct, Edinburgh and Glasgow host the Take One Action Film Festival tackling issues of global and environmental injustice. With a remit like that, it’s no surprise that Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty are patrons, and Laverty himself will be in attendance. Screenings range from classic eye- openers like Loach’s Bread and Roses Sir Richard Attenborough’s Ghandi, to the UK preview of Burdus, with director Julia Bacha discussing filming in Palestine (www.takeoneaction .org.uk). and
Film fans can also head north to the Loch Ness Film Festival, which runs from Thu 23–Sun 26 Sep (www.lochnessfilmfestival .co.uk) with a wealth of shorts, documentaries, live music events and low-budget premieres running alongside fare like Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers. Also, check out the programme of events at the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival with artfully highlights including screenings of Oscar nominees Elling and The White Ribbon (Fri 1–Sun 24 Oct, www.mhfestival.com). chosen
Or why not get on your bike and head up to the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival (Thu 21 –Sun 24 Oct, www.edinburgh mountainff.com) with Mark Beaumont, Mick Fowler and
Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers will be showing at the Loch Ness Film Festival
Benedict Allen all in the saddle for guest lectures. The youth of today are the focus of the Discovery International Film Festival for Young People at Dundee’s DCA, featuring 3D feature Moomins and the Comet Chase, plus acclaimed Irish animation The Secret of Kells (Sat 16 Oct–Wed 3 Nov, www.discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk). There’s an in-depth look at African cinema in Edinburgh’s Africa in Motion Festival (Thu 21 Oct–Fri 5 Nov, www.africa-in- motion.org.uk), which celebrates its fifth anniversary with work from Nollywood and beyond. Or slip down the M8 to Glasgow’s Document 8 Human Rights Festival that this year includes input from the Jazeera Children’s Channel and a cultural exchange with Sarajevo’s Pravo Ljudski festival (Tue 26–Sun 31 Oct, www.docfilmfest.org.uk).
And we’re still awaiting the anticipated programmes from north east Scotland’s s o u n d (Wed 20 M u s i c F e s t i v a l Oct–Sun 14 Nov), the Inverness Film Festival (Wed 3–Sun 7 Nov), the NEoN Digital Arts Festival in Dundee (Mon 8–Sun 14 Nov), that hardy UK-wide perennial, the F re n c h F i lm F e s t i v a l (Thu 11 Nov–Sat 4 Dec), the Dundee Mountain Film Festival (Fri 26 & Sat 27 Nov), the My Favourite Film Festival in Cromarty (Fri 3–Sun 5 Dec) and many more. Throw in gems like the GFT’s celebration of Czech master Frantisek Vlácil (until Tue 28 Sep) and the Filmhouse’s Dead By Dawn’s Un-Hallowe’en (Sat Oct 9) and before you know it Glasgow Film Festival will be lighting up the 2011 calendar. So you might as well flog your TV, you won’t need it anytime soon.
11 BOOKS Luka and the
Fire of Life is Salman Rushdie’s sequel to his 1990 novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Haroun was written amid death threats; although less controversial
nowadays, the author may still have some fire in his belly. Out Thu 30 Sep. 22 THE LIST 9–23 Sep 2010
12 COMEDY Controversy-baiting comic
Frankie Boyle plays a few dates at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre from Thu 30 Sep, before going on a UK tour that concludes with four nights at the SECC: Clye Auditorium on Fri 26 Nov. Expect swearing, jokes about paedophilia, and perhaps the occasional mention of the Queen’s unmentionables.
13 THEATRE Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s
short story I Only Came to Use the Phone forms the inspiration for Dirty Paradise, playing at The Tron from Fri 1 Oct. Set in a remote asylum, it will be performed as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2010.
14 VISUAL ART Ahead of the National
Portrait Gallery’s re-opening in November 2011, the Portrait of the Nation exhibition at the National Gallery Complex will give visitors a chance to see how the renovated gallery will look, from Sat 2 Oct. Meanwhile, some contemporary portraits from the collection will be displayed at the SNGoMA. See feature, page 28.
15 MUSIC Electronica pioneer and serial world record breaker for concert attendances Jean Michel Jarre
(pictured) will be bringing his eye-watering live show to the
Braehead Arena on Sun 3 Oct. Expect the usual lasers and
light shows. See feature, opposite.