Two short films are to be shown together at Stromness Town Hall this Saturday in a special one-off screening. The evening of entertainment is free and is being presented by the Pier Arts Centre in collaboration with West Side Cinema, a new initiative in Stromness promoting film screenings in Stromness Town Hall.

The Cowboy and the Spaceman by Colin Kirkpatrick will be followed by The Imaginary Worlds of Scapa Flow by filmmaker Mark Jenkins and audiences will get the opportunity to ask both directors questions about their work in a post screening question and answer session.

The Cowboy and the Spaceman, takes up the well known economist and philosopher Kenneth Boulding’s image of Spaceship Earth, and contrasts the archetypes of cowboy and spaceman. Commissioned by Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen in 2006, the film highlights some of the ecological and ethical issues surrounding stewardship of the earth’s natural resources.

The Imaginary Worlds of Scapa Flow is a creative docu-drama inspired by memoirs of service men and women based in wartime Orkney. The short film was commissioned by the Pier Arts Centre in collaboration with the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership.

Thirty three local people took on roles as crew, actors and voice-over artistes. Filming took place in many locations around the coastline of Scapa Flow, and in the Cromarty Hall as a studio for interior filming. The original soundtrack for the film was composed and played by Orcadian James Watson.

Andrew Parkinson, Curator at the Pier Arts Centre said, “This is a great opportunity for people to see two films by Stromness based filmmakers/artists. We screened both films earlier this year and it became clear that we would need to arrange further screenings to satisfy demand. We are very pleased to be showing both films at Stromness Town Hall and hope that we will be able to accommodate everyone that would like to see the films. I’m glad too that we will get to hear a bit of the background to both films from the directors.”

The double bill of screenings will take place at the Stromness Town hall at 7.30pm on Saturday 17 November. Admission is free but booking is essential – contact the Pier Arts Centre on 01856 850 209.

Source: Pier Arts Centre