Gaby Chiappe and Richard Davidson are visiting Shetland to lead the workshop and to research the upcoming crime series, Shetland. It is a 6 part series which they are in the process of adapting from two of Ann Cleeves’s Shetland novels, Raven Black and Blue Lightning.

Gaby Chiappe has been a screenwriter for fifteen years. Her recent work includes episodes of Survivors, Lark Rise to Candleford and The Paradise for BBC 1, and Vera for ITV. She has also adapted Lissa Evans novel Their Finest Hour and a Half for Wildgaze Films, Number 9 films and BBC films. She is currently adapting Ann Cleeves’ Raven Black for the forthcoming series of Shetland.

An award-winning playwright, Richard Davidson’s screenwriting career began with Eastenders. He was a lead writer on the show for six years, contributing more than 60 episodes. Recently, he’s become a key writer on Silent Witness – writing for the last 3 seasons – and is currently working on Vera for ITV, and an adaptation of Ann Cleeves’ Blue Lightning for Shetland. Richard is also adapting Midge Gillies’ Barbed Wire University for BBC Drama.

As its title suggests, the subject of the workshop will be adaptation of existing texts, including novels and short stories for the screen.

The workshop will be a practical one in the sense that participants will be encouraged to do some structuring and writing themselves. It will also include the analysis of and discussion about some existing screen writing and of the finished on screen product.

Shetland Arts Literature Development Officer, Donald Anderson said: “This is a great opportunity for anybody who is interested in developing their writing for screen to take part in what promises to be a fascinating and helpful workshop, led by two vastly experienced screen writers.”

Places on the workshop cost £5 and can be booked via Shetland Box Office in Mareel & Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555, or online here. Places are limited, so prompt booking is highly recommended.

Source: Shetland Arts

The community-of-interest radio station has been broadcasting in Dublin since 1993, providing high quality community-based Irish language radio service with an urban identity to the Irish-speaking community of Dublin and surrounding areas on a non-profit basis. It beat off stiff competition from BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, BBC Radio Wales, Isles FM 103, Radyo an Gernewegva and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, with an international jury awarding the community station with the prestigious prize at tonight’s ceremony.

The Kieran Hegarty Award for Innovation went to CBBC Sports Superstars – a collection of sporty online games for CBBC, in which players create their Sport Superstar, then perfect their endurance, balance, strength, coordination, agility and aim skills in the Training Ground. Sport Superstars is a fast and fun way for all kids to feel like sporting champs.

Welsh film Catherine and Kirstie: Beyond Words won the Torc for Factual Single. It is a powerful and moving film authored by twins Catherine and Kirstie Fields from Llanelli, the only people in the world that suffer from Fields Condition. Gradually, this devastating illness has confined them to their wheelchairs and rendered speech impossible. Communicating through speech aids for the first time, the film is the remarkable story of their bravery, humour and deep love for each other, their family and friends.

Ireland’s Rás Tailteann – Rothai an tSaoil was presented with the prestigious Gold Torc for Spirit of the Festival Award, which is bestowed upon a film or television programme wholly or substantially in a Celtic language that encapsulates the spirit of Celtic Media Festival each year. The documentary won the Sport category on Wednesday for its fascinating insight into the story behind one of Ireland’s greatest sporting institutions: The Rás Tailteann cycling race, and was presented with the overall Spirit of the Festival Award this evening.

Highlights from the final day of the 34th annual Celtic Media Festival today included talks by Guto Harri and Peter J. Devlin, with Maggie Brown chairing a panel featuring Dafydd Rhys, Marc Webber, Rab McConaghy and Simon Bolus on rising significance of social media as an indicator of audience demographics, exploring the value of hashtags vs BARB, plus a visit from special guest Daleks as the festival paid tribute to Doctor Who in its 50th year.

Earlier in the day, Ireland’s Documentary On One – Míne Bean Uí Chribín, My Granny won the Bronze Torc Award for Radio Documentary. In this documentary, the grand-daughter of Míne Bean Uí Chribín to reconcile her memory of an elderly woman who was endlessly available to others with the image of an ultra-conservative hate figure. One of the most provocative and colourful public figures in Ireland in recent decades, Míne Bean Uí Chribín voiced her staunch opinion that Ireland was a Catholic country and should remain so passionately, in newspapers, at public meetings, on radio and TV.

Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile was named Radio Presenter-Personality for her work as the presenter of RTE Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Iris Ania. The show tackles a variety of issues, such as politics, the environment, community activities and health issues, as well as concentrating on issues such as bullying, depression and emigration, as well as featuring live music, regular gardening items, competitions and comedy.

Welsh drama series Gwlad yr Astra Gwyn emerged victorious in the Young People’s category. Set entirely within a taxi, Gwlad yr Astra Gwyn creates an entire “world” inside a cab where the transience of Saturday night is portrayed by the fleeting and interlaced appearances of a myriad of characters led by gullible taxi driver Trefor.

London 2012: Winning Women after the Games took home the award for Radio Sports for its coverage of Irish women athletes making history at the Olympic Games. With Katie Taylor winning Gold and more women qualifying and competing than ever before last year, for the first time about half of the Irish team were women, and Athena Media profiled some of the women athletes and their stories for Newstalk Breakfast.

Welsh series C2: Canu Protest won Radio Music Programme. Presented by Yr Ods singer Gruff Lynch, this 6-part series takes a look at the history of popular protest songs over the decades in Wales. Spurred on by the 60s civil rights movement worldwide, musical protest amongst young people in Wales began a long tradition that has embodied the fight for language rights for at least three decades – overarching the fight to save Tryweryn in the early sixties to the creation of Radio Cymru and S4C some decades later – and remains to this day an integral and vibrant part of the Welsh language cultural scene.

Tai Bach y Byd was named best Factual Series for its quizzical look at the toilet in various cultures, from the earliest mention of toilets in the Bible, to the hi-tech toilets of Japan, exploring how the design has changed over the years, and the importance of sanitation.

Highlights from today’s event included talks by Guto Harri and Peter J. Devlin, with Maggie Brown chairing a panel featuring Dafydd Rhys, Marc Webber, Rab McConaghy and Simon Bolus on rising significance of social media as an indicator of audience demographics, exploring the value of hashtags vs BARB, and a special guest appearance from Daleks as the festival paid tribute to Doctor Who, which is filmed in the host country Wales and celebrates its 50th year this year.

For further details, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

Irish drama Saving the Titanic picked up the Bronze Torc Award for Feature Length Drama today. A fascinating hybrid of documentary and drama, complemented by stunning CGI, Saving the Titanic charts the ship’s final hours and features a stellar ensemble cast.

The award for Short Drama went to Loserville, which tells the story of ‘K’, a teenager who finds herself, suddenly living out on the streets, homeless and alone. The film was entirely made by the staff and film students of Newport Film School and financed by a grant from the Wales Government, and has been screened on BBC Wales and distributed throughout all schools in Wales by The Homelessness Network to promote debate and awareness of the issue.

The Irish documentary Scéal na Gaeilge won the Torc for Factual Entertainment. Through a mixture of animation, green screen and location filming, this series traces the journey of the Irish language from earliest times to the present day, and reveals its history by shining a humourous light on the historical and mythological stories that are associated with it.

Welsh production Gwaith/Cartref (Home/Work) took home the Drama Series award. A dynamic and cosmopolitan drama made by Fiction Factory for S4C, it follows a gang of teachers working and living in the Welsh capital. By day they work together in a Welsh language high school, but by night their disparate personal lives are scattered across the city.

BBC Northern Ireland’s documentary This World: Shame of the Catholic Church was awarded the Bronze Torc for Current Affairs for its investigation into the child abuse scandal that has plagued the church in Ireland for decades, and which created headlines around the world when it was broadcast.

As the second day of the festival drew to a close, the jam packed programme events is well underway. Media delegates from across the world attended screenings and talks from some of the most influential figures from the broadcasting and film industries, including The Killing director Birger Larsen, Tone C. Rønning (Commissioning Editor for NRK), Gethin Scourfield (producer of Hinterland), Darach Mac Con Iomaire (the writer and director of Corp + Anam), Ron Jones (the Swansea-based founder of the Tinopolis Group – one of UK’s largest independent television suppliers to major broadcasters), with BBC Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies due to speak later today.

Tomorrow, News International’s Director of Communications (and former Communications Director for Boris Johnson) Guto Harri will discuss the necessity of news, and the challenges for lesser spoken languages in the fast paced and changing world of newsgathering.

For further details, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

Swansea City Council Leader Cllr David Phillips and writer, broadcaster and historian Peter Stead launched this afternoon’s opening ceremony, which saw the first of this year’s prestigious Bronze Torc Awards for Excellence presented, honouring the very best of best of film, television, radio and digital media to emerge from within the Celtic diaspora within the last year.

This year’s Bronze Torc Award for Animation went to I Am Tom Moody. Produced and directed by Ainslie Henderson, it is a surreal trip through the subconscious of a stifled musician as he struggles to sing.

Winning this year’s Arts category was John Doherty – Ar Leirg na Gaoithe, a documentary which follows the young Irish fiddle player, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, as he explores the life and influences of his musical hero, the master fiddler, storyteller, singer and travelling tinsmith John Doherty.

Afterlife: Rot Box Detectives was named best Children’s Programme by the international jury. Offering an unprecedented look at a normally hidden world, Rot Box Detectives takes complex specialist science and presents it to a young audience aged 7- 11 years, joining a team of young scientists who investigate rot and decay through a series of experiments and activities, assisted by Dr George McGavin.

Jonathan – Pencampwriaeth y Chwe Gwlad 2012 was presented with the Bronze Torc Award in the Entertainment category. The sports entertainment chat show, broadcast on the eve of Wales’ international matches and hosted by rugby legend Jonathan Davies has gathered a cult following of rugby fans and light entertainment audiences alike.

Winner of this year’s Sport category is Rás Tailteann – Rothai an tSaoil, which tells the story behind one of Ireland’s greatest sporting institutions: The Rás Tailteann cycling race. The tumultuous history of the Rás Tailteann also offers a unique, parallel take on the cultural and political development of late 20th century Ireland – a revealing through-line from the 1950s to the modern day.

TG4’s CúlaCaint won the inaugural Best App award – which is brand new category for 2013. CúlaCaint is TG4’s first app for kids, launched by the station’s young people’s service “Cúla4” in October 2011, and features over 100 fun Irish language words and images for pre-school kids or learners.

Organisers were inundated with over 425 submissions from across Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, the Isle of Man and Ireland, and more Bronze Torc winners – which have been selected by an international jury – will be announced over the next three days.

Domhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to launch the 34th Celtic Media Festival today in Swansea. Over the next three days, we’ll hear from a stellar line-up of influential figures from the broadcast, film and digital media industries and will celebrate the very best in Celtic media talent at the Bronze Torc Awards, with the first winners being announced tonight. It’s going to be a fantastic festival, and we’re absolutely thrilled to welcome our delegates to Swansea.”

Cllr David Phillips, Swansea Council Leader, spoke at this afternoon’s opening ceremony. He said: “It’s terrific news that Swansea is hosting the Celtic Media Festival for the very first time. It means hundreds of delegates will be staying here, which will help raise Swansea’s profile as a leading city of culture.

“The programme of speakers and events will make for a fascinating occasion. Major names from the worlds of film, TV and the media are coming here – and all within a week of Swansea Bay making headlines across the world as the place where new smash hit TV programme ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ was filmed.

“This festival shows that Swansea is more than capable of hosting major cultural events as well as major sports fixtures. This is especially important at a time when the city is gearing up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’ birth next year.”

Some of the most influential figures from the broadcasting and film industries will attend the Celtic Media Festival 2013 over the next three days, including The Killing director Birger Larsen, Tone C. Rønning (Commissioning Editor for NRK), Gethin Scourfield (producer of Hinterland), Darach Mac Con Iomaire (the writer and director of Corp + Anam), BBC Scotland Commissioning Editor Ewan Angus, Ron Jones (the Swansea-based founder of the Tinopolis Group – one of UK’s largest independent television suppliers to major broadcasters), BBC Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies, News International’s Director of Communications (and former Communications Director for Boris Johnson) Guto Harri, the four-time Academy Award nominee Peter J. Devlin, Siân Lloyd, and many more.

For further details, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

The interactive schedule allows you to pick your bus route and automatically generates the most suitable times for you for any given screening. The app was designed by MH Apps, a Shetland based software development and consultancy service for businesses, founded by Shetlander Mark Hume.

Shetland Arts’ Marketing Officer, Lisa Ward, said: “This is a very useful new feature on the Mareel Cinema app, and we hope it will be helpful for customers who rely on public transport to plan out their cinema visits. We’re keen to get people trying it out and letting us know what we think so we can continue to improve our service and make films at Mareel accessible to all who want to see them.”

Tickets for films at Mareel can be purchased via Shetland Box Office, based in Mareel & Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555, online by film at http://www.mareel.org/watch or online by day at http://m.mareel.org

Source: Shetland Arts

Delivered by 104 Films in partnership with Edinburgh International Film Festival and supported by Creative Scotland’s Creative Futures Fund.

Dates Tuesday 25th & Wednesday 26th June 2013 

At The Edinburgh International Film Festival
_____________________________________________

Who the Workshop is for

We’re looking for new and emerging deaf & disabled film talent. So if you want to make films, have started making films or just want to learn more, this workshop is for you. 18’s and over only.

About the Workshop

This workshop is designed to start you on your journey of making films and building a career in the film industry. On day one we’ll run a workshop through which we give  you the fundamental skills and confidence you need to start your career. We’ll talk with short film-makers and disabled talent working in the industry. In the afternoon we’ll run our 104 films Directing workshop to give you a feel for what it’s like to direct and how to work with actors and camera. Finally, we’ll talk with you about your ambition as film-makers and tell you more about what we do at 104 Films and possible opportunities with us.
On day two we’ll connect you with the Edinburgh International Film Festival. We’ll see films, meet film-makers, get a feel for how the industry works and do some networking. We’ll put you up in hotel in Edinburgh and feed you. All you have to do is get there. We’ll start the workshop at 11 on day one and be finished about 6 pm on Day two. We’d like you to take part in as much of the workshop as possible but we are very flexible and are happy for you to participate in any way that suits you.

About 104 Films
104 Films are the world leaders in disability cinema and talent training and development. We produce feature films and short films with deaf & disabled talent and run a wide range of training and development programmes around our films. 104 Films run a talent development ladder for deaf & disabled film talent.
Our feature films have included Special People, a comedy about four teenagers in wheelchairs and a bumbling film director described by The Guardian as ‘a milestone in mainstream cinema for its use of disabled cast’ ,the BAFTA nominated Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and most recently our thriller NFA made with young homeless people which premiered this year at the Edinburgh Film Festival. We also run The Magic Hour short film scheme and training and development programmes for Creative Skillset, the BFI and Creative England.

We develop deaf & disabled film talent to be able to make films and to build a career in the film and TV industry. If you have the talent, we want to work with you.

How to Apply
Just send Michelle an email requesting a place to michelle@104films.com and we will be in touch. Please mention ‘2 Day Film Workshop’ in the subject line of your email and let us know if you have any dietary, access or support requirements when you book.
This workshop is free of charge.

A 104 films workshop in association with Edinburgh International Film Festival and supported by Creative Scotland’s Creative Futures fund.

About Creative Futures 
Creative Futures is a Creative Scotland programme of residencies and other activities, designed to promote the professional development, capabilities, connectivity and ambitions of Scotland’s creative practitioners and organisations.

About Edinburgh International Film Festival
Established in 1947, Edinburgh International Film Festival is renowned around the world for discovering and promoting the very best in international cinema – and for heralding and debating changes in global filmmaking. Intimate in its scale, ambitious in its scope, and fuelled by pure passion for cinema in all its manifestations, EIFF seeks to spotlight the most exciting and innovative new film talent, in a setting steeped in history.

THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS

Apple products – their computers iPhones, IPads and the like – command a very loyal following amongst their customers. But are they as popular with the Chinese workers labouring all hours in poor conditions to produce them? This controversy is addressed by a new theatre show coming to the Universal Hall on 19th April at 8pm. THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS is a one-man monologue – a harrowing yet funny tale where we meet Steve Jobs, the late head of the Apple Corporation, and the Chinese workers toiling to make our beloved iPhones. Written by Mike Daisey, performed by Grant O’Rourke, and presented by the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh, this is a passionate diatribe that will make you question what you thought you knew about one of the world’s most worshipped brands. It explores the legality and morality of electronic sweatshops in China and shows how one man’s story might not be enough to topple an empire, but it can certainly give it a righteous shove. Admission is £12 full, £10 concessions and £8 U16s. Tickets are available at the Phoenix Stores tel 01309 690110 and online at www.wegottickets.com/UniversalHall

Sat 20th April, 2pm

EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM

A wonderful and colourful show for little ones and their adults comes to the Universal Hall on 20th April at 2pm. Presented by the Puppet Lab, EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM is adapted from the book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg and is a game of ‘I Spy’ for little ones and their families. The setting is a delightful green meadow with a river running through it. With songs and music the production brings to life a variety of nursery rhyme characters played by a wide range of puppets, all on their way to Mother Hubbard’s for some Plum Pie. Suitable for ages 3+ Admission is £7 full, £6 concessions and £4 U16s. Tickets are available at the Phoenix Stores tel 01309 690110 and online at www.wegottickets.com/UniversalHall

Sat 20th April, 7:30pm

Amour (film)

A film that came top of many critic’s polls as the best film of 2012, and also won a Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards is shown at the Universal Hall on 20th April at 7.30pm. Amour is the story of Georges and Anne who are in their eighties, both cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack and the couple’s bond of love is severely tested. This difficult and rewarding film is directed by Michael Haneke and is in French with English subtitles. Rated 12A Admission is £5 full, £4 concessions and £3 U16s – pay on the door

Fri 26th April, 7:30pm (film)

Rust and Bone

An unconventional love story is the basis of the film at the Universal Hall on 26th April at 7.30pm. Rust and Bone follows a struggling single father who helps a beautiful killer whale trainer recover her will to live after losing both her legs in a terrible accident. In French with English subtitles. Lonely and destitute, Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) leaves the north of France for his sister’s house in Antibes after becoming the sole guardian of his estranged five-year-old son Sam. When Ali lands a job as a bouncer in a nearby nightclub, things quickly start to look up for the itinerant father and son. Then one night, after breaking up a fight in the club, Ali meets the radiant Stephanie (Marion Cotillard), and slips her his number after dropping her off safely at home. Though Stephanie’s position on the high end of the social spectrum makes romance an unlikely prospect for the pair, a tragic accident at Marineland robs her of her legs, and finds her reaching out in desperation to Ali. Her spirit broken by the same tragedy that took her legs, Stephanie gradually finds the courage to go on living trough transcendent moments spent with Ali — a man with precious little pity, but an enormous love of life. The film is rated: 15, and is directed by Jacques Audiard in French with English subtitles. Admission is £5 full, £4 concessions and £3 U16s – pay on the door.

Source: Universal Hall

DONNIE MUNRO

£15/£12 concs

A member of the legendary band, Runrig, arrives at the Universal Hall in Findhorn on 11th April. Former frontman, Donnie Munro, who has enjoyed considerable further success as a solo artist and writer, has recently embarked on a series of acoustic shows in which he has taken the opportunity of revisiting a wide range of material spanning his career with Runrig and with his own band. His new acoustic project has already resulted in major sell out shows in Denmark, and this concert is part of his Spring 2013 UK tour. Besides his incredible success with Runrig, Donnie’s Heart of America, won Album of the Year in the Scottish TradMusic Awards. You’ll find tickets at the Phoenix shop on the Park site at Findhorn (tel 01309 690110) or online at www.wegottickets.com/UniversalHall

Fri 12th April, 7:30pm

The Master

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

This recent movie follows the journey of an American naval veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who arrives home at the end of World War II unsettled and uncertain of his future – until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman), whose character is loosely based on L. Ron Hubbard of Scientology fame. The film is directed by the always interesting, Paul Thomas Anderson, and poses interesting questions about the psychological state of the military and indeed the whole population at the end of World War 2 – a time of enormous change across the globe. It is rated: 15, with a running time of two hours and 24 mins.

Source: Universal Hall

The 2013 programme will celebrate the influential media industry of the Celtic nations and regions, with leading media figures set to appear at the festival, including many from its host country Wales. The programme will also pay tribute to Wales’ reputation as a top fantasy and drama TV production destination, with sessions including discussions on what the future holds for soaps and the rising significance of social media as an indicator of audience demographics, exploring the value of hashtags vs BARB.

Celtic Media Festival 2013 programme highlights will include:

A star-studded panel discussing the capacity of storytelling to transcend the language barrier, following the huge success of hit shows like The Killing, Borgen, Lilyhammer and Corp + Anam. Featuring The Killing director Birger Larsen, Tone C. Rønning (Commissioning Editor for NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster behind the smash hit drama Lilyhammer starring Steve van Zandt of The Sopranos and E Street Band fame), and Darach Mac Con Iomaire (the writer and director of Corp + Anam which won the awards for Drama Series and Spirit of the Festival at last year’s Celtic Media Festival), the panel will be chaired by BBC Scotland Commissioning Editor Ewan Angus.

The 2013 festival also celebrates Wales’ international reputation as the go-to location for sci-fi, fantasy and drama TV production, with shows such as Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sherlock all produced there. Delegates will also be able to tour the set of Da Vinci’s Demons – the eagerly awaited new drama from David S. Goyer, the co-writer of the Dark Knight Trilogy, which has been shot in host city Swansea and is expected to be a huge hit when it airs on Fox UK this spring.

The festival will also host the premiere of Swansea Market, a BBC Wales documentary which offers a fly on the wall insight into the 2013 host city’s historic and iconic attraction. High profile speakers to appear over the three days include the renowned Welsh historian, writer and broadcaster Peter Stead, Ron Jones (the Swansea-based founder of the Tinopolis Group – one of UK’s largest independent television suppliers to major broadcasters, which counts including Question Time, Daybreak, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Hell’s Kitchen and An Idiot Abroad amongst its roster) and BBC Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies. News International’s Director of Communications (and former Communications Director for Boris Johnson) Guto Harri has already been announced for the festival. The Cardiff-born Welsh speaker will speak about news gathering and his career in media, which began at a Welsh-language radio station and included a stint at S4C plus 18 years at the BBC.

The 2013 festival will also offer independent film makers and producers a rare opportunity to meet with commissioners and channel heads from the Celtic nations and regions to obtain their feedback as they seek to develop new projects, in a brand new initiative called The Clinic, sponsored by MEDIA Antennae Galway, Scotland and Wales. Representatives from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund; RTÉ Television and Radio; TG4; BBC Wales; S4C; BBC Scotland; BBC ALBA; BBC Southwest and BBC Northern Ireland will be on hand to offer their advice to indie production companies.

The four-time Academy Award nominee Peter J. Devlin will appear as part of the festival’s Green Light strand. Originally from Northern Ireland, he is a hugely in-demand sound mixer, having worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Transformers, Thor, Star Trek (2009) and Angels and Demons.

Delegate registration is open now, with delegates able to access to the full daytime programme of events, as well as the Bronze Torc Awards for Excellence, which celebrate the very best of film, television, radio and interactive media to emerge from within the Celtic nations. The prestigious Bronze Torc Awards see over 100 productions from over 60 production companies and broadcasters shortlisted across the 20 award categories, which include animation, current affairs, drama, entertainment, sport, factual and feature length drama, plus brand new categories Best App, Music Programme and Radio Sports. Organisers were inundated with over 425 submissions from across Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the winners will be chosen by an esteemed panel of judges and announced over the three days of the festival.

Domhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival, said: “We’re very excited to announce a stellar line-up of influential figures from the broadcast, film and digital media industries for the 34th Celtic Media Festival programme. The 2013 programme has taken inspiration from the esteemed media industry of its host country Wales, and we’re thrilled to be welcoming such a wealth of talent to Swansea this spring for what promises to be a fantastic 3 days.”

For further details on delegate registration, the programme and shortlist for the Bronze Torc Awards, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

As the film is slightly longer we will start the screening at 7:30 pm.

Tickets £5, free for members.

CRFS 2013-14 Membership

Always wanted to be part of the cool group? Run with the wild ones? Party with the 24 hour people? Then membership in the Cromarty and Resolis Film Society is for you! Seriously.

The CRFS is an entirely volunteer run Society which exists to celebrate and share film on the Black Isle and we put on 10 regular screenings a year along with the annual Festival in December. We try to programme a mix of films including classics, foreign, recent favourites and cults. We love film and would love to share even more, the challenge as always is money. Every screening we put on costs approximately £150 and we want as many people to be able to enjoy film as possible so are committed to keeping our ticket prices low. That’s why membership is so critical to us as that way we have a commitment and know we won’t go bankrupt half way through the season.

A year’s membership costs just £50 for individuals and £70 for a family and can be paid annual or monthly.

In addition to free attendance at our regular screenings, Members will have priority access to Festival tickets. To reward our loyal members we will be giving you the chance to buy tickets to all events on a first come first serve basis before the box office opens to the general public.

We recognise that we have keen film supporters who don’t live close enough to take advantage of our regular screenings and therefore are also offering a ‘Friend of the Fest’ membership which will also give priority access to Fest tickets on the basis outlined above.

So dig deep and support the celebration of film!

See our website http://www.cromartyandresolisfilmsociety.org/ for a membership form.

Source: Cromarty Film Society

THE LOCAL community centre, in popular imagery, is a traditional space which is under threat, a hub for people to congregate around and form a social group in the face of funding cuts and the decrease in activity which runs alongside those cuts.

YET that doesn’t tell the whole story of people’s determination to keep their communities alive across the country, and the network of village halls in the Highlands and Islands is representative of that.

Ron Emslie in rehearsal for Watching Bluebottles

Based in Alves in Moray, theatre production company Right Lines have created a new, cross-generational performance event which celebrates both this fact and the role the village hall continues to play in people’s lives. Across six local halls, Hall Tales has been an ongoing community engagement project which saw filmmaker Tim Flood run basic film production courses for young people in each village, with the students then going out to film the village hall recollections of elder members of their communities for one Hall Tales film to be shown at each final performance.

This month’s tour of six shows spread over a fortnight will also feature exhibitions of artefacts related to the village halls they’re staged in and a central performance of a past Right Lines production, the one-man, site-specific play Watching Bluebottles, in which actor Ron Emslie plays a hallkeeper preparing for his own retirement.

“The local hall has a very special place in our hearts,” says Euan Martin, who runs Right Lines alongside Dave Smith. “Both Dave and I were brought up in church and village halls and see them as fantastic, adaptable venues. Since we set up Right Lines ten years ago we’ve principally toured our shows there, and it’s only recently we’ve started creating them for more traditional theatre spaces.”

When he points out that these places are adaptable and versatile, he’s suggesting that the imagination really is the limit for those who want to use them for new and interesting purposes. “One of our first shows was called Accidental Death of An Accordionist,” Martin points out by way of illustration, “and it was set at a ceilidh in a village hall. So we took the show out to these small venues and the people arrived at the hall as if they were coming to a ceilidh, getting involved in dancing and listening to music before the actual show broke out around them.”

Ron Emslie - the allure of the draughty old hall

A lot of the allure of such places, he suggests, is the individual character they’ve built up over time, the fact that each one is different. “Although over the last few years, a remarkable number of halls have managed to get grants to do them up,” he points out. “One of the funny things about Watching Bluebottles is that we very much wrote the story about the old hall and the old hallkeeper, and in the show he talks about the new hall being built down the road and how he’s not going to transfer. So what we wanted was the old, crumbly, draughty halls to perform it in, because they had the greatest character. But when we booked it the committees were so excited they decided to stage it as the first show in their brand new, centrally-heated and wonderfully decorated hall instead.”

For their next project Martin and Smith are debuting a version of Roger Hunt’s book Be Silent Or Be Killed, a true account of the Scots banker’s days caught amidst the Mumbai massacre. Opening at the beginning of May and touring throughout the month, the piece was made possible by a little seed funding from the National Theatre of Scotland and full funding for the tour from Creative Scotland. Yet Smith believes that the future climate for such projects will become more difficult given the controversial news about Moray slashing its entire arts budget.

“It’s a very short-sighted move,” says Smith. “I think it’s much less likely that larger organisations will want to bring shows into Moray, and it also hits your personal enthusiasm for doing this. Everyone knows you just have to go out there and make things happen, but that’ll be even harder now in terms of the level of administration involved.” The loss of a dedicated arts officer, the feeling is, will be the biggest blow, with nobody on hand to discuss arts projects with the council on a daily basis.

“Yet there are two wonderful organisations in the Highlands and the north-east,” points out Martin. “There’s NEAT (North East Arts Touring) and the Touring Network (formerly PAN, the Promoters’ Arts Network), with both of their specific aims being to support touring theatre companies in the area, so they’re helping keep village halls and village hall theatre alive. And if this is under threat, that’s why people should put all the more effort into making things happen.”

Hall Tales opens tonight (15 March) at Kinloss Church Hall, and runs until 30 March at Dyke Village Hall. Full details at Right Lines website below. 

© David Pollock, 2013

Links

• Right Lines

THAT this show had only been initiated five days before within the rehearsal space of the Tramway, with three days for the vocalists to perfect their parts, made it all the more strikingly different.

PERFORMED as part of the Tramway’s Rip It Up season of new commissions and work-in-progress pieces designed and executed within and with support from the theatre itself, Away With the Birds is a collaboration between artist and composer Hanna Tuulikki, choreographer Rosalind Masson and film-maker Daniel Warren.

Rosalind Masson in Away With The Birds

The core idea is simple, yet gives the impression of being intensely complex to actually arrange. A meditation upon both the sound of birdsong and that of Gaelic folk singing, the piece involves six female performers – Tuulikki and Masson amongst them, all dressed uniformly in simple black dresses and red tights – performing Tuulikki’s voice-only score ‘Voice of the Bird’ against a backdrop of films by Warren showing scree and cliffs, sea waves rushing by and the performers themselves on a desolate grey beach.

Backed by gentle but evocative field recordings made on the Small Isles by Geoff Sample, the performers vocalise the song of birds as a series of squawks and syllables which are lent a chorus-like quality when the voices merge together, and a real sense of relational interaction through Masson’s deft, delicate choreography. The performers are unhurried as they glide steadily around the stage, falling into a V-shaped flight pattern and away into pairs and trios who regard each other with curious interest.

Then on more than one occasion these voices coalesce into haunting Gaelic melodies – even more impressive given that not all of the singers are native speakers – and the effect is complete. This is not a high-concept experiment, more a complete and immersive evocation of place and sense, an attempted re-imaging of wilderness landscapes both without any human involvement and filled with the echoing resonances of history and tradition.

Even as a forty-five minute try-out it was mesmerising to watch and listen to. The nine-voice version at May’s Tectonics festival in Glasgow (Old Fruitmarket, 11 May) and the intended 2014 performance and installation on the Isle of Canna – a great inspiration for the piece – will be worth waiting for.

© David Pollock, 2013

Links

• Project website
• Tectonics Festival

Over 24 – 26 April, some of the biggest names in the broadcasting and film world will descend on Swansea for the Celtic Media Festival 2013. The 3-day festival will feature a packed programme of events and talks by some of the leading names in media, and today organisers have unveiled details of a brand new initiative designed to provide industry guidance to independent production companies – The Clinic.

Sponsored by MEDIA Antennae Galway, Scotland and Wales, The Clinic will offer indie film makers and producers a rare opportunity to meet with commissioners and channel heads from the Celtic nations and regions to discuss ideas and obtain their feedback as they seek to develop new projects. For the first time in its 34-year history, the Celtic Media Festival will be offering film makers and producers the chance to sign up for one to one sessions with commissioners, creating the invaluable opportunity for them to meet with the brightest and best from the major broadcasters and funders from the Celtic nations and regions, and benefit from their advice.

The following broadcasters and funders will participate in The Clinic, and offer their advice to indie production companies: Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund; RTÉ Television and Radio; TG4; BBC Wales; S4C; BBC Scotland; BBC ALBA; BBC Southwest and BBC Northern Ireland.

Judy Wasdell, manager of Media Antenna Wales said: “MEDIA Antennae Galway, Scotland and Wales are delighted to support the Celtic Media Festival in 2013.

We are particularly excited to be involved with the The Clinic since we recognise the importance of producers obtaining valuable feedback from broadcasters and funders on their projects early on.

Representatives from MEDIA Antennae Galway, Scotland and Wales will be on hand during the Festival to answer queries on the MEDIA Programme and how it may support your company.”

Domhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival, said: “As we enter into our 34th year, we remain committed to promoting the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations and to championing and fostering excellence on screen and in broadcasting. We’re extremely proud to announce our brand new initiative The Clinic, which very much embodies this ethos and which we hope will be a source of inspiration and a valuable opportunity for independent production companies and film-makers.”

Last month, the Celtic Media Festival announced that over 100 productions from more than 60 production companies and broadcasters have been shortlisted for the prestigious Bronze Torc Awards, which celebrate the finest films, TV and radio productions, and digital media to emerge from the Celtic nations and regions over the past year, and which will be presented at this year’s festival. Shortlisted entries include Sport Wales: A Tribute to Gary Speed, BBC Wales Sport’s moving tribute to the former player and Wales manager. BBC Northern Ireland’s documentary This World: Shame of the Catholic Church is nominated in the Current Affairs category for its investigation into child abuse claims.

News International’s Director of Communications (and former Communications Director for Boris Johnson) Guto Harri is the first name to be confirmed for the 2013 festival programme. He’ll speak about his career in media and shaping media at this year’s festival, with further details on the Celtic Media Festival 2013 programme (as well as full details of the commissioners and channel heads representing the broadcasters and funders participating in The Clinic) due to be unveiled on 14th March.

Delegate registration for Celtic Media Festival 2013 is now open. To register as a delegate and for further information on the history of the festival and the shortlist for the Bronze Torc Awards, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

One The Road (Film)

Based on the classic Jack Kerouac novel, On The Road is the story of Sal Paradise, an aspiring New York writer, and Dean Moriarty, a charming ex-con, married to the very liberated and seductive Marylou (Kristen Stewart). Sal and Dean bond instantly upon meeting. Determined not to get locked in to a constricted life, the two friends cut their ties and take to the road with Marylou. Thirsting for freedom, the three young people head off in search of the world, of other encounters, and of themselves.

Rated: 15, Running Time 124 min. Directed by Walter Salles

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Wed 20th Mar, 7.30pm

THE FENCE COLLECTIVE

Based in Fife, The Fence Collective is a loose-knit amalgam of singer-songwriters, bands and electronic artists who collaborate with one another on record, as well as on stage. Although their music isn’t always strictly ‘folk’ in the traditional sense, the Collective’s tendency to hand-down and share songs with one another is very much in the folk spirit. Three members of the Collective; James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail (the nom de plume of singer-songwriter Johnny Lynch, who – alongside Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote – runs Fence Records) and Seamus Fogarty will be on stage, sharing songs, a laugh and some blether.

£15/£12 concs

Fri 22nd March, 7:30pm

To Rome with Love (Film)

A comedy set in one of the world’s most enchanting cities. The film brings us into contact with a well-known American architect reliving his youth; an average middle-class Roman who suddenly finds himself Rome’s biggest celebrity; a young provincial couple drawn into separate romantic encounters; and an American opera director endeavoring to put a singing mortician on stage.

Rated: 12A, Running Time 112 min. Directed By: Woody Allen

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Wed 3rd April, 7.30pm

KARINE POLWART

Rising star Karine Polwart draws from folk music’s long tradition and her talent for crafting unique, enduring melodies produces songs of powerful, contemporary relevance. Currently Karine has three nominations for the Radio 2 Folk awards, including one for her new album Traces. (The Scotsman recently reported that Traces has topped numerous year-end critics’ polls). She will perform as a trio with her brother Steven Polwart (acoustic and electric guitars, ukulele and vocals) and singer, songwriter Inge Thomson (accordion, percussion, loops and vocals).This concert is part of the EarthSings festival of workshops and performances at the Universal Hall. See www.universalhall.co.uk for further details. Tickets are selling fast, so book quickly to avoid disappointment.

£14 /£12 concs/£10 U16s

Source: Universal Hall

The Grease Singalong will take place on Saturday 30 March at 8pm, giving fans a chance for fans to don their pink jackets, grease up their quiffs, and let their inhibitions go for an evening. This is a fully interactive singalong event, guaranteed to get you dancing in the aisles.

Madama Butterfly 3D will be shown on Sunday 31 March at 3pm. This classic opera is sung in Italian with English subtitles. Puccini’s heartrending tale of love and betrayal has been brought to the big screen in this exquisite Julian Napier film, in which the characters and key moments of the action are heightened and enriched through the immersive power of 3D.

Tickets for both screenings go on sale this Saturday, 9 March, at 2pm via Shetland Box Office in Mareel & Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555, or online at www.mareel.org and www.shetlandboxoffice.org

Source: Shetland Arts

Over 100 productions from over 60 production companies and broadcasters have been shortlisted across the 20 award categories, which include animation, current affairs, drama, entertainment, sport, factual and feature length drama, plus brand new categories Best App, Music Programme and Radio Sports. Organisers were inundated with over 425 submissions from across Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, the Isle of Man and Ireland, and a shortlist of some of the finest films, TV and radio productions and digital media to emerge from the Celtic nations and regions over the past year has been selected by an international jury.

Shortlisted entries include Sport Wales: A Tribute to Gary Speed, BBC Wales Sport’s moving tribute to the former player and Wales manager. BBC Northern Ireland’s documentary This World: Shame of the Catholic Church is nominated in the Current Affairs category for its investigation into child abuse claims.

Also shortlisted for an award is Steip le Tura – a documentary which tells the story of African dancer Cuthbert ‘Tura’ Arutura as he fulfils his ambition to learn one of Ireland’s most ancient and emotive forms of dancing; Seán-Nós. The production tells the fascinating story of Gaelic speaker Tura, a dancer from Zimbabwe who moved to Belfast in 1993 when he was 19 years old, and who now he teaches dance and has become a familiar face in Irish language circles after he started attending classes 5 years ago. Matchlight’s Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery is in the running for a Bronze Torc Award in the Factual Single category. The documentary offers an insight into the comedian’s battle to stay clean, and challenges how our society deals with addiction.

The festival will honour the important role of digital technology in the promotion of Celtic languages and cultures in 2013, with podcasts accepted as entries in the Radio category and the introduction of a Best App award for the first time ever this year. Shortlisted apps include Hiort (a bilingual mobile app which tells the rich tale of St Kilda and the story of human survival), Welsh language weather app Y Tywydd, Irish language app Cúlacaint and the app from one of Ireland’s most progressive and ambitious theatre companies Fíbín Teo.

The festival will also present a Gold Torc to the winner of the Spirit of the Festival Award – a film or television programme wholly or substantially in a Celtic language that encapsulates the spirit of Celtic Media Festival.

Earlier this month, festival organisers confirmed the very first details of the 2013 festival programme, with the announcement that News International’s Director of Communications (and former Communications Director for Boris Johnson) Guto Harri will speak about his career in media and shaping media at this year’s festival. Harri is the first name to be confirmed for the 34th edition of the annual event, and further details on the Celtic Media Festival 2013 will be unveiled shortly.

Domhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival, said: “We are thrilled to announce our shortlist for the prestigious Bronze Torc Awards. This shortlist demonstrates the exceptionally high calibre of broadcasting and digital media talent from within the Celtic nations and regions, and we were overwhelmed by the response we received to our call for entries.

“This year we introduced three new award categories which marked an incredibly exciting development for the festival. We’d like to thank every production company that submitted an entry and we’re very much looking forward to visiting Swansea this April to celebrate the very best in Celtic media.”

Delegate registration for Celtic Media Festival 2013 is now open. To register as a delegate and for further information on the history of the festival and award categories, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

Fri 22nd Feb, 7:30pm

Ginger and Rosa

A look at the lives of two teenage girls – inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa — growing up in 1960s London, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms.

Rated: 12A, Running Time 90 min. Directed by Sally Potter

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s Pay on the door

Sun 24th Feb, 12:30pm

The World On Your Plate (2 films)

Can we eat our way to a better world? Kicking off Fair Trade fortnight, this double bill of inspirational films explores our global relationship to food.

The Dancing Forest (Reykjavik International Film Festival Award) celebrates the extraordinary women of rural Togo who are taking back their food system from overseas control, while Best Before offers a snapshot of similar projects in the UK.

As the UK steps up to lead the G8 in 2013, and with a billion people now living in hunger, there has never been a more important time to learn from and champion such positive alternatives. Part of Take One Action! Film Festival. Screening followed by discussion with special guests including Kathy Galloway, director of Christian Aid Scotland. £4/£3 U16s Pay on the door

Sun 24th Feb, 4pm

The Blue Tiger

Johanka and Matyas’s playground is the lush botanical garden in the old quarter of a Czech city. When the new mayor reveals his intention to scrap the garden and modernize, Johanka’s terrific imagination takes hold and the pair plan to stop him. Suddenly rumours of a mysterious Blue Tiger in the city circulate. Can they protect him from the Mayor and save the garden? This heart-warming Czech film, a hit on the indie festival circuit, explores play, environmen and social responsibility themes with bags of charm. Part of Take One Action! Film Festival. In Czech with English subtitles ages 8+, Running Time 90 min. Directed by Petr Oukropec, Bohdan Sláma

£4/£3 U16s Pay on the door

Fri 1st March, 7:30pm

Beasts of the Southern Wild

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

Rated: 12A, Running Time 93 min. Directed by Behn Zeitlin

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s Pay on the door

Source: Universal Hall

Cape Spin (Weds 26th), hailed by the Hollywood Reporter as “one of the most notable films of the year” is particularly pertinent for Shetland. The film follows both sides of the debate raging over a large-scale wind farm development off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in the USA. With a great deal of good humour and a commitment to impartial storytelling, it foregrounds powerful questions about what works, and what is acceptable, when people campaign for things they are passionate about, or have a vested interest in

Equally timely, Call Me Kuchu – which recently won best documentary at the prestigious Belin Film Festival – zones in on ground zero in Africa’s division over homosexuality: Uganda. Coinciding with LGBT History Month and the ongoing debate in the UK over gay marriage, it tells the heartbreaking story of gay rights activist David Kato and his courageous efforts to protect the human rights of his fellow “kuchu”.

Lisa Ward, Marketing Officer for Shetland Arts said:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with Take One Action to bring these two excellent films to Mareel in February. Call Me Kuchu is a very important documentary and our discussion the Reverence Neil Bryce and Brighton-based Ugandan gay rights activist, John Bosco, after the screening is a must-attend for those passionate about human rights. And Cape Spin covers a topic that many Shetlanders feel passionate about – wind farms! – so we’re expecting a big turnout for that one too.”

Take One Action director Simon Bateson said:

“These wonderful films foreground issues which people in Scotland need to talk about more than ever before. Cinema is a great way to help people look again at things they may feel they’ve made up our minds about, so we’re thrilled to be back in Shetland with two of the best feature documentaries of the last year.”

Source: Take One Action

The Cardiff-born Welsh speaker will return to his home country to speak about his distinguished media career at the festival, which celebrates the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations and regions on screen and in broadcasting. Harri’s career began at a Welsh-language radio station before he moved to national Welsh-language channel S4C, where he worked on the news programme Newyddion as well as a number of historical documentaries.

He spent 18 years with the BBC, where his assignments included covering the collapse of communism in East Germany and reporting from inside Iraq during the first Gulf War, as well as stints as their chief political correspondent, North America business correspondent and Rome correspondent. He was appointed Communications Director for the Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s administration in 2008, and left his post after Mr Johnson’s successful re-election in May last year to join News International as Director of Communications. In what is sure to be a highlight of the festival, Harri will appear in conversation with Peter Florence – the Director and co-founder of the Hay Festivals – the renowned celebration of arts and literature which is rooted in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, and which has expanded across the globe.

Further details on the Celtic Media Festival 2013 will be unveiled shortly, with the shortlist for the prestigious Bronze Torc Awards for Excellence set to be revealed later this month. The shortlist will celebrate the very best of film, television, radio and digital media promoting the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations and regions.

Domhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival, said: “We’re thrilled to announce Guto Harri as our first speaker for the Celtic Media Festival 2013. He is one of the most highly respected figures in the industry and has a long-standing association with Celtic media through his background in Welsh-language broadcasting, and we’re delighted to be bringing him to Swansea for the festival. This year’s festival is already shaping up to be a fantastic event, and we’ll be announcing further details of the programme, as well as the hotly anticipated shortlist for the prestigious Bronze Torc Award for Excellence over the coming months.”

Guto Harri said: “News is a basic human necessity… Like food, drink, clothing and shelter. But it’s changing fast and those in media and those dealing with it have a major challenge. Smaller communities and those communicating through less dominant languages have a greater challenge, but there are opportunities too and I look forward to being in Dylan Thomas’s town exploring how a good story properly told can resonate far afield.”

For more details on the history of the festival, award categories and delegate registration, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

Fambul Tok (FILM “Family Talk”)

Filled with lessons for the West, Fambul Tok explores a culture that believes true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals – and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leon’s brutal civil war come together for the first time in tradition-based true-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. By reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk), Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grass-roots level.

In English and Krio with English subtitles. ages 16+, Running Time 82 min. Directed by Sara Terry

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Source: Universal Hall

A HIGHLAND production which puts Scotland’s DNA under a theatrical microscope has been sparking imaginations and inspiring audiences across the country.

INFINITE Scotland, touring now as part of the Year of Natural Scotland, explores the country’s contrasting landscapes, coastlines and cities using breathtaking images, music, film and words.

David Allison, Blythe Duff, Kenny Taylor and Bryan Beattie (photo Douglas Robertson)

‘Scotland small? Our multiform, infinite Scotland small?’ was a famously incredulous question posed by poet Hugh MacDiarmid, and inspiration for the groundbreaking multi media show, narrated onstage by Taggart actor Blythe Duff and writer and Culbokie-based broadcaster Kenny Taylor.

“Scotland’s environment and culture are inextricably linked strands of the country’s DNA,” explained producer Bryan Beattie, who is also from the Black Isle. “We wanted to explore that, using images, music and words. Putting Scotland’s DNA under the microscope in this way helps open our eyes to what’s around us.

“There are remarkable things around us every day that sometimes we just don’t notice – and some things that we have just not been aware of at all. Sometimes looking at what’s around us in a fresh way can reveal something completely new about it.”

Infinite Scotland blends scientific eyes and artistic creativity with astounding results. Grains of sand under an electron microscope, ancient sacred places, rocks, trees, mammals, birds – discovering the life and landscape around us and how we have interacted with it over millennia is profoundly compelling.

The stage show weaves awe-inspiring images by National Geographic photographer Laurie Campbell with atmospheric live music composed by David Allison and Gaelic singer Maeve MacKinnon. Films feature explorer Mark Beaumont, writers and broadcasters Richard Holloway and Muriel Gray, architect Malcolm Fraser and Gaelic singer and folklorist Margaret Bennett.

Video and production designer John McGeoch of Highland company Arts in Motion brought all the pieces together to create a spectacular multi-media journey across the beauty and wonder of Scotland.

“Visually the show was absolutely superb and I loved the clever and imaginative way it drew together its various strands,” said Alison Bell of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), who was among the audience at the packed opening night at Eden Court on Monday.

“Infinite Scotland combines superb literature with images, songs and music to give a great evening’s entertainment. I came away feeling I’d really learned a lot – and bursting to check out more. The first thing I did on getting home was dig out a book of Norman MacCaig poems!

“SNH funded the show along with Creative Scotland as part of the Year of Natural Scotland, which is all about promoting Scotland’s stunning natural beauty and biodiversity,” Alison added.

“Infinite Scotland does exactly that – it awakes a real interest and desire to find out more about our wildlife, landscapes and culture.”

An innovative web and social media presence is integral to the Infinite Scotland project, which invites audiences and online followers to interact and submit their own questions, words and images. Feedback on social networks has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Catriona Ross is a freelance journalist and communications specialist who has been working on press and PR for Infinite Scotland.

© Catriona Ross, 2013

Links

• Infinite Scotland
• Infinite Scotland Facebook

SESSION A9 (MUSIC)

Winners of 2012 Best Live Act at Trad Music Awards, Session A9 have established themselves among today’s most accomplished and exciting traditional music acts. Featuring fiddlers Charlie McKerron (Capercaillie), Gordon Gunn, Adam Sutherland (Treacherous Orchestra), Kevin Henderson (Fiddlers’ Bid, Boys of the Lough) with vocalist/guitarist Marc Clement (formerly of Blazing Fiddles), keyboards, Brian McAlpine and David Robertson (Capercaillie) on percussion. This welcome return visit to the Universal Hall is accompanied by their newly released, highly appraised, CD titled simply “Session A9″.

‘A richness of sound that can verge on the symphonic… from reflective to mesmerising to downright barnstorming.’ The Herald

£14/£12 concs/£10 U16s

Fri 1st Feb, 7:30pm

Peas at 5:30 (FILM)

A man and a woman, two blind people on an extraordinary journey through Russia – a road movie where love is found through blindness. Fate hits Jakob when, through a car accident, he loses his sight. Helpless and distressed, not wanting to live any more, he meets Lily who is blind from birth who offers help, which he rejects. The only wish he has is to visit his terminally ill mother who lives far away in Russia. Through Lily’s insistence to offer help, both find themselves on a long journey into the wild East. This is a film with dry humor that’s not afraid to address taboos.

In German with English subtitles (The title refers to the description you would give to a blind person to describe the whereabouts of food on their plate). Rated: PG-13, Running Time 107 min. Directed by Lars Büchel

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Fri 8th Feb, 7:30pm

Untouchable (FILM)

An irreverent, uplifting comedy about friendship, trust and human possibility, Untouchable has broken box office records in its native France and across Europe. Based on a true story of friendship between a handicapped millionaire (Francois Cluzet) and his street-smart ex-con caretaker (Omar Sy), Untouchable depicts an unlikely camaraderie between two individuals who, on the surface, would seem to have nothing in common.

In French with English subtitles. Rated: 15, Running Time 112 min. Directed by Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Source: Universal Hall

The Angel’s Share

A film by the brilliant Ken Loach (Kes, My Name Is Joe, Looking for Eric, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) the Angels’ Share is set in Scotland and tells the charming story of Robbie, an ex-offender and new father who embarks on an adventure with three criminal friends to a whisky distillery and discovers that turning to drink might just change his life. Will it be ‘slopping out’ for the next twenty years, or a new future with ‘Uisge Beatha’ the ‘Water of Life?’ Only the angels know……..

Running Time 106 min. Directed By: Ken Loach Rated:15

£5/£4 concs / £3 U16s

Pay on the door

Fri 26th Jan, 7.30pm [Note change of date]

Samsara (Film)

Samsara reunites the team, whose award-winning films Baraka and Chronos were acclaimed for combining visual and musical artistry. Samsara is a Sanskrit word that means “the ever turning wheel of life.” Filmed over a period of almost five years and in twenty-five countries, Samsara transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, Samsara encourages our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern. Having no dialogue, this film is also suitable for the heard of hearing.

PG-13, Running Time 99 min. Directed By: Ron Fricke

£5/£4 concs/£3 U16s

Pay on the door

Source: Universal Hall

BMFF is an international film competition hosted by The Banff Centre, based in the Canadian Rockies, and accepts over 300 entries every year. Following the original screenings that take place every autumn, 25 award-winning films and audience favourites are selected for the World Tour. To give you an indication of the tour’s mind-blowing popularity, it now visits nearly 400 communities across 35 countries!

There are 35 screenings planned in UK alone, expected to attract over 16,000 adventure lovers and promising even more sold out shows than last year. Each location has handpicked films that best match local interests, from adrenaline-raising adventure-sport shorts to longer, heart-warming tales of environment and culture.

Among the exhilarating and provocative titles to hit UK theatres this winter, highlights include:

CROSSING THE ICE – Two Australians set off across the ice in a bid to be the first adventurers to walk unsupported from the coastline of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again. This epic expedition is an immensely emotional and physical struggle for the duo and concludes with an incredibly surprising and deeply moving twist.

THE GIMP MONKEYS – What has four legs, five arms, and three heads? The Gimp Monkeys! Three climbers are linked by their missing limbs, but it is their shared passion for climbing that pushes them towards an improbable goal – to achieve the first all-disabled ascent of Yosemite National Park’s iconic El Capitan. A refreshingly humorous film that portrays what’s possible with the right combination of guts, determination and climbing ability

NDIZOTHEKA – From opposite corners of the earth, two men are united by a common dream: to be the first to paraglide from Mount Mulanje, Malawi’s highest peak. Adding another dimension to this already ambitious mission, audiences discover that one has never paraglided before. Illuminating Malawian culture, this uplifting story shows us what really is possible as both men confront and overcome the challenges on their shared journey.

Now in its fourth year, the BMFF UK and Ireland tour is so much more than a series of film nights. The events are fun, social evenings where outdoor lovers of all backgrounds and ages come together to celebrate mountain culture. While the inspirational films are incentive enough, audiences also have a chance to win some lucrative prizes provided by the tour’s sponsors.

This year BMFF is delighted to be working with Arc’teryx as the Presenting Partner of the 2013 UK and Ireland Tour. The festival’s organisers are also pleased to welcome Patagonia as a new Principal Partner to the 2013 Tour as well as Cotswold Outdoor, Buff, Keen and Banff Lake Louise Tourism. The upcoming Tour is also supported by Sea to Summit, Black Diamond, World Expeditions, Clif Bar and Artemis.

Audiences will also have the opportunity to enjoy a photography exhibition from award winning wildlife photographer, Jasper Doest.

UK and Ireland Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, Inverness
Date: 31 January 2013
Venue: Eden Court , Inverness
Times: 1930 (doors and bar opens at 1830)
Tickets: £13/£10 concession
For tickets: www.banff-uk.com

UK and Ireland 2013 Tour dates are as follows:

• 25 January Forum Theatre, Malvern

• 26 January The Hall Venue Cymru, Llandudno

• 30 January Mitchell Library Theatre, Glasgow

• 31 January Eden Court Theatre, Inverness

• 1 February The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

• 2 February The Playhouse, Whitley Bay/Newcastle

• 6-7 February The Carriageworks, Leeds

• 8 February Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

• 9 February The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham

• 13 February Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury

• 15 February Komedia, Bath

• 16 February Lighthouse Theatre, Poole

• 21 February- 1 March Union Chapel, London

• 2 March The Plaza, Stockport

• 7 March The Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl/Bridgend

• 8 March The Ffwrnes, Llanelli

• 9 March Corn Exchange, Brighton

• 14 March Dorking Halls, Dorking

• 15 March Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford

• 16 March Plaza Cinema, Liverpool

• 20 March OPEN Theatre, Norwich

• 21 March City Hall, Salisbury

• 22 March Corn Exchange, Exeter

• 23 March Victoria Rooms, Bristol

• 5 April Hall for Cornwall, Truro

• 10 April Devere Hall, Cork

• 11 April The Set, Kilkenny

• 12 April Awesome Walls, Dublin

• 13 April Waterfront, Belfast

Source: Neil Teasdale

Followed by a buffet lunch reception, the screening featured a variety of filmmaking styles, including stop-motion animations and live-action films. The screening reflected the major focus on Eden Court CREATIVE’s Let’s Make a Music Video project where young people from Fort William, Cannich and Inverness worked with dance, film and music specialists to create their own unique films.

Also included was the new Get Scotland Dancing documentary, which illustrated the events and courses organised across the nation as part of the Scottish Government’s Get Scotland Dancing initiative. The four-year long programme of events aims to encourage more people to get active and participate in dance, bringing together professional and amateur dancers of all ages to dance in public spaces in towns, villages and cities.

Awards were presented to those who had taken part in both the Dance Leaders Level 1 Award and the Eden Court Filmmaking Award programmes which took place at Eden Court in October. The five-day courses ran during the October holidays and encouraged people aged 13-18 to learn a new skill or gain a qualification in the arts. The awards were presented by Scottish Bafta nominee Johnny Barrington, who guided the Film Award candidates, helping them to produce a film noir style detective movie which was included in the showing.

Eden Court CREATIVE’s Digital Artist, Graeme Roger, said: ‘The screenings of young people’s work at Eden Court is a fantastic experience for them and a fitting reward for all the hard work they’ve done over the past term. We’re very pleased to be able to offer young people the opportunity to learn and create with new technologies, as well as have great fun in the process’.

Eden Court CREATIVE’s Dance Artist, Louise Marshall, said: ‘It’s great to be getting more young people active on both sides of the camera, and demonstrating the commitment, whether in dance or film, to be receiving these awards’.

Eden Court CREATIVE Manager, Kati Kozikowska, said: ‘The Eden Court CREATIVE Film screening is a brilliant example of the opportunities that are available through the Scottish Government’s Cashback for Creativity and Get Scotland Dancing Initiatives. Eden Court CREATIVE is dedicated to providing a wide range of high quality arts programmes for the entire Highland community, and this event celebrates the large number of people we’ve brought together to work on these various projects. It’s fantastic to be able to offer these opportunities and continue the work Eden Court is doing to develop dance and digital media education and participation across the Highlands’.

For more information about Cashback for Creativity, Get Scotland Dancing or the Eden Court CREATIVE programme of classes and activites, contact the CREATIVE department on 01463 239 841 or email creative@eden-court.co.uk.

Source: Eden Court

THE FIRST weekend in December starts with mulled wine in a boat store and ends with curry and malt whisky in Resolis.

IN BETWEEN there are screenings of an eclectic selection of films, so eclectic it’s hard to pick out a common thread. Not so surprising when you see who’s chosen them – this year the guests are a human rights lawyer turned screenwriter (Paul Laverty), a comedian who’s also an author (Rhona Cameron), a fireman turned horologist and automata expert (Michael Start) and an armourer (Carl Summersgill).

Zeffirelli's La Traviata

The guest whose screenings sold out in a matter of minutes, however, is that national icon of tea-drinking, pipe-smoking and political integrity, hereditary peer turned Labour politician, Tony Benn. Or ‘God’, as director Don Coutts calls him.

He’s here to talk about the documentary film of his life story, currently in production, entitled Last Will and Testament, of which an extended trailer has been made exclusively for the Festival. It’s screened again the following morning, introduced by its producer, Sanjay Kumar; it’s already plain this is going to be an inspiring and, judging by the surreptitious deployment of handkerchiefs, moving account of someone once described as “the most dangerous man in Britain”. “I got a death threat the other day”, he confides cheerfully. “I hadn’t had one for ages – I was so chuffed’.

Benn’s words have a ringing clarity that is generally lacking in today’s carefully groomed and focus-grouped politicians. He walks through a room that symbolises his life and reminisces about discovering that ‘being in government is not about changing things but about running the system better’. Unforgettable.

Michael Start's Maraccas Monkey and a head from Hugo (Jennie Macfie)

But this film festival is as full of unforgettable moments as a Christmas pudding is full of dried fruit. The workshops by masters of their craft are enthralling glimpses behind the curtain – who could fail to be beguiled by Michael Start’s antique automata? The cat that shines boots, the maraccas monkey, the rabbit in the cabbage and the tiny feathered singing bird in a silver snuffbox outshine even his tales of working for Scorsese on Hugo .

This year for the first time the Screen Machine has rolled up to Cromarty as a venue. It’s a big lorry which expands, Tardis-lke, into a small but comfortable screening room and every year brings film to communities across the outer reaches of the Highlands and Islands, tens or hundreds of miles from the nearest cinema.

On Friday night it’s sold out for Benn and for his choice, Brassed Off‘, and nearly full for the late nighter, The Woman in Black. Beyond the queues outside waiting to buy their popcorn are the lights of oilrigs in the Cromarty Firth. Meanwhile, just around the corner, short films are screening on the curved tower of the Cromarty Lighthouse, their reflections flickering on the rain slicked street. You just don’t get this in Cannes, or Sundance…

Archive screenings at the Old Brewery (Jennie Macfie)

The other venues are even more atmospheric. The Festival Hub at the Old Brewery has a large-ish room upstairs where the projector is ingeniously and effectively slung from the roof beams in a supermarket shopping basket. It becomes a time machine as archive films reveal a time when heavy horses pulled milk carts through the cobbled streets of Edinburgh and the tones of Harry Enfield’s Mr Chumleigh-Warner were commonplace.

Scottish ‘couthy films’ are screened inside tiny local restaurant Sutor Creek, and the old Stables up the hill shows films as diverse as Zefffirelli’s luscious, extravagant La Traviata and the 2012 remake of Clash of the Titans (its armourer, Carl Summersgill, lets pre-film workshop attenders wield a real sword).

The grand finale in Resolis Hall sold out nearly as quickly as Tony Benn’s event. A screening of Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share, partly set in the Balblair distillery, a long term supporter of the festival, is, after curry from Gabi’s in Avoch and a raffle drawn by Rhona Cameron, introduced by its writer, Paul Laverty. He closes with a salute to the Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, banned and imprisoned purely because his work does not please his government; the audience raises a toast to Panahi in Balblair ’02. It’s a typically Cromarty Film Festival moment, a mashup of wildly contrasting cultures that works, because it all comes from the heart.

© Jennie Macfie, 2012

Links

• Cromarty Film Festival

Films at Mareel are generally shown a few weeks after their official UK release dates because this is when distributors are willing to be flexible about how many times a film shows each day, allowing five or six films to be shown in a week. With big blockbusters like The Hobbit the distributors insist that the films are shown virtually exclusively on Screen 1 for one, and sometimes two, full weeks in order to get them on the release date, so there has to be a high audience demand in order to secure them.

Head of Development at Shetland Arts, Kathy Hubbard, said: “We’ve been eagerly anticipating this film since Mareel opened. We know it is going to be a huge hit, and will no doubt look incredible on the big screen. We are urging people to buy their tickets asap because it’s sure to be very popular, and also encouraging everyone coming on Friday evening to get dressed up and join in the fun!”

As well as this, Shetland Arts is teaming up with the Anderson High School for a competition encouraging young people to read J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Young people can enter the competition by writing a review of the book and submitting to the school librarian. The winner will have their review displayed on Mareel’s website and receive 2 free tickets to the film. More information available from the Anderson High School library.

Tickets for The Hobbit go on sale this Friday, 30th November, at 10am via Shetland Box Office in Mareel and Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555 and 01595 745 500, and online at www.mareel.org and www.shetlandboxoffice.org

Source: Shetland Arts

The cast includes an incredible line-up of dancers including Nina Kaptsova, Artem Ovcharenko, Denis Savin, and Pavel Dmitrichenko. The choreography is by the legendary Yuri Grigorovich who, after being accepted into the Leningrad Ballet School in 1946, went on to become a soloist at St Petersburg’s Kirov Ballet, where he stayed until 1962. He joined the Bolshoi Theatre in 1964, and was artistic director until 1995. His most famous works are The Nutcracker, Spartacus, and Ivan the Terrible.

The score for The Nutcracker is by Tchaikovsky, and it first opened in 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. It was Tchaikovsky’s last ballet. Composed in the space of a year, its score today is one of the most popular of all ballet scores. For The Nutcracker Tchaikovsky again joined forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated on The Sleeping Beauty.

This version, choreographed for the Bolshoi by Grigorovich, is full of romanticism and philosophical reflections on ideal love. It is one of the great classics of the 20th century and, alongside Spartacus and Ivan the Terrible, is one of Grigorovich’s most famous works.

Shetland Arts Marketing Officer Lisa Ward said: “We are honoured to welcome this special screening of The Nutcracker performed by the Bolshoi Ballet to Mareel as our first showing of alternative content in the cinema. We feel that this will be a very popular event and would urge anyone interested in attending to purchase their ticket as soon as possible. What better way to celebrate the festive season!”

It is Christmas Eve in the home of Mr and Mrs Stahlbaum and their children, Marie and Fritz. Family and friends have gathered for the night’s festivities. Presents are distributed to the children. Marie’s godfather, Drosselmeyer, gives her a strange toy: a wooden nutcracker, carved in the shape of a little man. At midnight, after the celebrations are over, all the toys magically come to life. The nutcracker grows to life-size and takes command of the tin solders, flying to the rescue of Marie, who is threatened by the Mouse King and his mouse army.

Tickets for this event go on sale this Friday, 30th Novemember, at 10am via Shetland Box Office in Mareel and Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555 and 01595 745 500, and online at www.mareel.org and www.shetlandboxoffice.org

Source: Shetland Arts

West Side Cinema will offer alternative screenings in the relaxed and informal venue of Stromness Town Hall. Programmes will include shorts and features, fiction and documentary, international and classics, as well as on line content, and will often tie in with established local festivals.

Themed music, candle-lit tables, a relaxed and social atmosphere and patrons can bring their own refreshments. The venue has recently been refurbished with a high definition projector, electric screen and a new sound and lighting system.

The cinema is open to the general public (in accordance with BBFC certification).

Become a member

At £5 per year your subscription will help with operating costs. You’ll get access to the on line Trailer Park to view trailers for possible future screenings. Pick your preference from the menu or offer suggestions of your own. There will also be a monthly ‘members only’ draw for a pair of tickets and other prizes.

West Side Cinema is a not for profit enterprise and any profits will go back into programming. Any size of donation is welcome. Support your local cinema and put Stromness and film on the map.

Source: West Side Cinema

The newly announced Ambassadors discussed their plans for the new scheme, met the CREATIVE team and even managed to squeeze in a matinee performance of The Haunting, a large-scale stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ghost stories.

The CREATIVE Ambassadors scheme gives young people the opportunity to play their part in how Eden Court serves its younger audiences, as well as receiving a range of benefits such as free tickets to selected performances, meetings with cast and crew of shows and an exclusive film screening at Eden Court Cinema chosen by members of the group.

Young people were invited to apply for the scheme in September, outlining how they could contribute to their local area through the arts and how they would like to become more involved in Eden Court’s activities. Successful applicants will hold their post for one year, with new applications opening in Autumn 2013.

Three of the Ambassadors will also be selected to take part in the CREATIVE Mentorship programme. This will allow the selected young people to plan and execute their own creative project, with the help of the staff and resources at the theatre. This could range from writing a play to developing a musical piece for performance, or curating an exhibition of artwork from their school or local area.

The new Ambassadors said: We’re really excited to begin promoting the arts in our local area and becoming more involved with Eden Court. This is such a great opportunity to connect with the theatre and develop our individual interests in the arts – we can’t wait to get started!

Eden Court CREATIVE Manager, Kati Kozikowska, said: We’re very excited to announce our first ever group of CREATIVE Ambassadors. Eden Court has always valued the input of young people into the way it serves the Highlands and this scheme is a structured, proactive way for us to forge partnerships with young adults and the areas they live in throughout the region.

As Ambassadors, they will not only help Eden Court to engage with the community and invite people to get more involved in the arts, but they’ll gain excellent experience in the arts industry and a strong boost to their CVs.

Throughout the course of the year there will be lots for the young Ambassadors to get involved with. The organisers of the Happyness Comedy Festival have already asked for their help in promoting a particular aspect of their festival next year, Class Clowns. This exciting new competition is for secondary school pupils throughout the Highlands and is, in short, a search for the comedy star of the future. It will involve workshops from well known comics, a comedy competition held at Eden Court, a national comedy competition staged in Edinburgh and the winner will get a weekend at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

All schools in the Highlands are being encouraged to take part and each school will be asked to select a winner to represent their school in the next stage of the competition but how they make this choice is up to them. Information packs detailing how the whole scheme works will be issued to every secondary school in the Highlands soon and it’s hoped that the new Eden Court CREATIVE Young Ambassadors will play a vital role in getting their schools involved in this exciting new project.

For more information about the Ambassadors scheme and to keep up to date with their blogs and activities, visit www.eden-court.co.uk/activities/ambassadors.

Source: Eden Court

YOU KNOW what it’s like when it’s your turn to choose the DVD.

YOU’RE tense, you’re nervous, you laugh a bit louder at the jokes, scream a bit more at the scary bits. Because you’ve made yourself a little bit vulnerable. It’s about your taste after all. Up close and personal. Which actually could be the motto of the Cromarty and Resolis Film Festival, now in its 6th year – Up Close and Personal, and unique in many ways.

The Angel's Share - a Gala screening this year

The by-line for this film festival is My Favourite Film Festival, because guests are invited to choose their 5 favourite films, and the committee select one of them to screen. In its 6 years so far the festival has welcomed an impressive array of guests to share their personal cinema favourites and to stay around awhile to watch and talk and eat curry.

Kirsty Wark, Sanjeev Kohli, Eddi Reader, John Byrne, writers Ali Smith, Ian Rankin and AL Kennedy, politician Charles Kennedy. Plus a selection of Scotland’s own brilliant film-makers – Sherlock’s Paul McGuigan, Dr Who’s Douglas Mackinnon, Last King of Scotland’s Andrea Calderwood, Hallam Foe’s David Mackenzie, Rob Roy’s Michael Caton-Jones, and probably Scotland’s most revered producer, Iain Smith – all people at the top of their game with fascinating insight into the business, but all of whom gave of their wisdom and experiences in a chummy, cosy settting. Audiences actually do come away from these sessions feeling not only enlightened but also like they’ve just had a gratifying gossip in Grouchos. Definitely Up Close and Personal.

Cloaked by the fabulous backdrop of Cromarty and its neighbouring parish Resolis, the Committee really make use of the Gothic atmosphere that descends upon the town in deep mid-Winter. There are open-air screenings with braziers and mulled wine, torch-lit walks up to The Stables – venue for gloaming and late night screenings. Animated films are projected onto the mothballed Lighthouse; the warm and welcoming Sutor Creek Cafe is the venue for couthy Scottish gems. The Old Brewery becomes the Festival Hub and offers a chance for a breather and a welcome blether over heart-warming soup, inspiring talks or a dip into the Scottish Screen Archive. And the Gala event on the Sunday night – a curry feast, a fantastic film, and a wee bit of music, is snuggled in to the lovely community atmosphere of Resolis Hall.

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall

And so to this year, the festival looks like another cracker. Added to the venues mentioned this time also the Highland Travelling Cinema, the Screen Machine, will make an appearance for its first outing away from its regular circuit.

Among the guests will be the legendary politician Tony Benn, and they will be showing Will and Testament, a deeply moving intimate documentary portrait of the great man, followed by his favourite film which will be Brassed Off, which includes a tour-de-force performance from the late very great Peter Postlethwaite.

Rhona Cameron, comedian and writer will be there, and her chosen film is Woody Allan’s classic Annie Hall. She’ll be quizzed about life, love and what cinema meant to her when she was growing up in Mussleburgh.

Enzo Staiola in Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves

Screenwriter Paul Laverty, long-time collaborator of Ken Loach’s, in a previous life was a Human Rights Lawyer in Nicaragua which gave him the inspiration for his first feature script, Carla’s Song. His favourite film on this occasion will be the beautiful Italian classic Bicycle Thieves, and this year’s Gala Event will screen his latest hugely popular film, The Angel’s Share.

As if this wasn’t enough also making an appearance will be Moray-based Michael Start, of the House of Automata, who made the models for films like Hugo and the eerie dolls and toys in the Woman in Black, both of which will be screened during the weekend. Armourer Carl Summersgill will give audiences insight into his experiences on films such as the Clash of the Titans and the Eagle of the Ninth. And the lovely Scottish Screen Archive People will be back with a selection of gems with Highland connections from their vaults.

It is worth mentioning, and again this is quite unique, that this film festival is run almost entirely by a volunteer committee – it really is a labour of love and it shows. They work to make themselves sustainable by doing things like creating and selling a beautiful poster of images of ridiculously photogenic Cromarty. But they also get funding from Regional Screen Scotland and other organisations – most happily The Co-op. This year is the International Year of Co-operatives and to celebrate the committee’s relationship with (and on-going support from) the local Co-op membership, the Festival will be screening The Rochdale Pioneers, a recently completed film about the Co-operative movement.

So it’s all go for a full and frantic weekend of all things film.

Comfortable? Certainly. Eccentric? Probably. Magical? Undoubtedly.

And films that mean so much somehow, when seen with people who long for you to like them, no matter who they are.

The 2012 Cromarty Film Festival runs from 30 November until 2 December.

© Lindy Cameron, 2012

Links

• Cromarty Film Festival

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

2012 marks a significant milestone in the history of Inverness Film Festival which has emerged in recent years as a leading cultural event.

THE co-direction of Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd from 2006-2008 and the vision of Eden Court Cinema Programmer Paul Taylor as director since 2009, have consistently raised the profile of IFF and of the Eden Court Cinema as a premier venue. Each November the quality and integrity of the Eden Court Cinema’s annual programme is further distilled into five days of the very best in local, national and international cinema with features and shorts unable to be seen anywhere else.

In celebrating this year’s 10th anniversary, IFF 2012 reflected the evolving language of world cinema from the silent era to the present day; featuring newly restored and hidden classics, special events bringing the earliest Scottish and Highland filmmaking to life and 20 Scottish premieres including; Amour, The Hunt, I Wish, Kaddish For A Friend, Final Cut-Ladies and Gentlemen, Quartet, Great Expectations, Seven Psychopaths, Safety Not Guaranteed and Sightseers.

Amour

Challenging subject matter and pure cinematic excellence defined IFF’s opening gala with the Scottish premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. Nominated for 6 European Film Awards (to be announced in December) and the recipient of the Palme d’Or award at Cannes (2012), this is an intensely powerful and humane work, as emotionally affecting as it is confronting.

Austrian Director Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon, Hidden, The Piano Teacher, The Seventh Continent) delivers an unflinching study of unconditional love and mortality with extraordinary performances from Trintigant and Riva. Their portrayal of an elderly Parisian couple, George and Anne, succeeds in bringing the audience to awareness beyond the screen as we witness Anne’s inevitable decline after a series of strokes, cared for at home by her devoted husband. In a world in constant denial of ageing and death Haneke presents the audience with a mirror, enabling transference from the two main characters and their predicament by framing them as part of a concert audience in the opening sequence. With the camera pulled back the central protagonists are as we are within the crowd, and the music they hear performed, Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 90 No. 1 in C Minor with its tentative and singular melodic line, immediately establishes our inevitable participation individually and collectively in the unfolding narrative. The lone voice of the piano informs our reading of an audience dressed in uniformly grave tones and visually sets the tone of exploration for what follows.

What tempers Haneke’s characteristically bleak vision is human warmth within the intimate domestic space of George and Anne’s apartment, conveyed by subtle use of light and in the nuances of expression that allow us to witness George and Anne’s love for each other in all its hues. As we witness the sadness and humiliation of daily routines trying to cope with failing body and mind, the minute details of their relationship; her growing despair at the indignity of her condition and his tested devotion in the face of death, our conception of love on screen and in life is consistently challenged, bound as it is here to suffering rather than Romance or sentimentality.

With the possible exception of Caspar Noe’s Enter The Void, I have never seen an audience so utterly silent during and after the credits. In Amour, Haneke shows us ourselves; our fears, our loss of those we love and our own inevitable fate; thankfully he and his actors also powerfully convey what allows humanity to endure. In the midst of her decline whilst looking at photographs of their younger selves Anne remarks; “its beautiful – life – so long – long life” each pause poetic in its contemplation. As George seals up their interior life together and leaves the apartment, we know that while he still breathes Anne lives.

The final scene in which their daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) sits in her parent’s apartment ambiguously contemplating their absence, or perhaps her own, seems to speak of a generation. Throughout the film Eva’s dialogue; talking to the wall above her Mother about house prices, her shrug when she says that she thinks she loves her partner Geoff and her comment that her Mother needs more “efficient treatment” speaks of her concern, ultimately for herself. Never one to shy away from social critique, Haneke presents us with an image of a generation in George and Anne’s ineffectual daughter and the nurse who George dismisses for her lack of care.

Haneke’s acute way of seeing, the brutality and compassion distilled in Amour, creates a superbly crafted film of universal relevance with stunning performances from its two leads. Whilst easy crowd pleasing openers are the norm at most festivals, this bold choice was entirely justified by the audience reaction and the sheer quality of the production. There are films that populate the cinema and those that need to be screened and it is gratifying to see the latter given prominence as an opening gala, setting a benchmark for the rest of the festival.

The Hunt

Winner of three awards at Cannes in 2012, including Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt explores the emotive subject of a nursery teacher falsely accused of child abuse. Mikkelsen gives a career best performance as the teacher at the centre of this complex and riveting drama which in its conclusion reveals much about human behaviour and contemporary society. The fears and assumptions of the audience are consistently put to the test with our judgement of innocence or guilt subject to the same paranoia infecting the town. There is also inner conflict between the wider inference of potential innocence and the acute need for justice.

When resolution comes it is as ambiguous as select moments in the film in which judgement is made by a look or a shadow of doubt, engulfing reason within a closely knit Danish community and in the audience as witness. Set against culturally specific rituals of Christmas and the rite of passage first hunt, Vinterberg’s treatment of the subject is broader than its immediate context. Whether a truth or a lie the scenario is sadly, entirely plausible and the truth an ever shifting mark. Although it is profoundly unsettling, this is a film which examines wider ramifications of its subject in terms of how we deliver justice, the nature of innocence and childhood denied by both the media and perpetrators of abuse.

The degree to which we are all complicit in some way is exemplified by the final scene in which the central protagonist’s life remains irreversibly damaged and we are left with the feeling that we’ve been holding a gun all along, either out of righteous protection, fear or paranoia. This is an extremely difficult subject but throughout the intelligence and sensitivity of Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm’s script prevails; innocence is championed – both that of the child and the falsely accused. The camera as our eye is beautifully directed by cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen and adds psychological weight to every frame of unspoken dialogue. The Hunt is both a thriller and a powerful work of social realism, marking a significant comeback from Vinterberg; one of the founders of the Dogme 95 movement and recipient of multiple awards including the Jury Prize at Cannes for his 1998 film Festen (The Celebration).

A consistently strong element of IFF is the screening of work by first feature directors which this year included Scott Graham, Shell (Scotland), Brandon Cronenberg Antiviral (Canada), Leo Khasin Kaddish For A Friend (Germany) and Tim Connery Easton’s Article (USA).

Shell

Based on his award winning short of the same name, Scott Graham’s Shell is an intense and promising debut. Filmed near Gairloch the story of the relationship between a teenage girl and her father living in remote petrol station combines the expansiveness of its setting with the intimacy of human relationships amplified in isolation. Shell feels internationally Northern and distinctly Highland in its aesthetic. Although the deer symbolism is laden and there is a feeling that international interest and perception of the region has had an influence on the creative trajectory in development, Shell is an accomplished piece of work and an important milestone for Graham as an emerging director.

Yoliswa Gärtig’s adept cinematography is suffused with light and a muted palette drawn directly from the landscape. The human figure within the frame is beautifully composed, at times compressed like a Schiele drawing allowing the viewer to feel the emotional centre of core relationships. The camera moves in such a way to allow us to linger on details of the domestic interior as a powerful psychological space. When Shell sits in the bath with just her hands in close up, they tell us all that we need to know about that moment of her being.

Although this is a distinctly interior and sometimes claustrophobic film, the way the central character embodies the surrounding environment is visually poetic and expansive; a scene in which she lies in a field, her body becoming another layer we read within the landscape or a moment of shifting light across a field after her ill fated encounter with Adam become self reflexive. Within the beauty of this imagery there is also an ambiguous edge. Shell’s comment at the dinner table that eating deer is “like eating your own flesh” turns the character and the environment in on itself. Stylistically Graham’s restraint and sensitivity as a Director is to be applauded. When Shell emerges from the petrol station to confront tragedy she is filmed from behind, we do not witness her reaction through the shock of facial expressions but feel it viscerally the moment she opens the door – hit by an icy blast that catches her hair and our breath at the enormity of her loss.

Shell is a fascinating character for exploration; not understood by those around her, not a child but not yet a woman, living in an environment where passing customers are the only contact with a world beyond her own, intensifying the nature of her only constant relationship with her father. Despite her social isolation she is not naïve, there is an almost otherworldly knowing within the character and a longing misinterpreted significantly by the men she comes into contact with. Chloe Pirrie gives an exceptional performance as Shell, her awareness deeply embedded in her eyes, with excellent support from Joseph Mawle as her Father Pete, Michael Smiley as Hugh and Iain De Caestecker as Adam, conveying their character’s motivations with great economy and skill.

The modulation of Mawle and Pirrie’s performances are perfectly pitched as father and daughter, although the relationship is predictably fated in its dramatic conclusion. There is comparatively little dialogue but great exchange between sound and image; “I Love you” as words spoken proceeded by the sight of a frozen hook and chain hanging outside. The indifference of nature in relation to human scale and the film’s design; vaguely modern times but no particular era, gives a feeling of timelessness and universality to the story. With a second project in development we will hopefully see Graham’s next production at a future IFF.

Kaddish for a Friend

Selected and introduced by IFF Youth Programmers Laurie Paul and Alexander Scott, Kaddish For A Friend by Leo Khasin transfers the Palestinian conflict to Berlin in the story of the friendship between a 14-year-old Palestinian refugee Ali (Neil Belakhdar) and his elderly German/Jewish Neighbour Alexander (Ryszard Ronczewski). Ultimately it’s the human element rather than politics that is central to this touching and very enjoyable film. The two lead performances have natural ease and charm and although idealised the heart of the production is resoundingly aspirational.

I Wish

The feel good film of this year’s festival was I Wish by Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking), an uplifting, beautifully observed study of childhood in all its innocence, curiosity and exuberance. The humour in I Wish was an unexpected delight and the interactions between children and adults characterised by warmth and insight. In the hands of a less accomplished and empathic director the story of two brothers separated by their parent’s divorce could so easily have descended into melodrama and sentimentality, especially with the added promise of a miracle; but the miracles here are the blissful everyday things all around us if we would only pause long enough to perceive them and the moment of growth that Koichi’s wish embodies as two mythic/ordinary trains pass by.

Koki and Oshiro Maeda’s performances as the irrepressible Ryunosuke and his older, more introspective brother Koichi are a total joy to watch and the way that Grandparents and a school nurse are co-conspirators in their adventure is knowingly compassionate and humorous. I Wish is a rejuvenating experience that doesn’t subvert the difficulties of modern life in childhood fantasy, but presents the possibility of happiness and contentment in the smallest details of everyday life. Hopefully it will return in March 2013 when it is scheduled for national release.

The Pleasure Garden

New digital restorations of classic British films featured prominently this year, including David Lean’s grand epic Lawrence of Arabia celebrating its 50th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock’s first complete silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925) and his final silent Blackmail (1929) (in its second version Britain’s first talkie) with live accompaniment from Australian pianist Wendy Hiscocks. It is always fascinating to see the evolving vision of a director unfold in their earliest work; from the morality tale of two dancers in The Pleasure Garden to the stylistic development in Blackmail which contains all the burgeoning seeds and obsessions of Hitchcock’s later and best known films.

From his first silent to his last, guilt and morality become progressively distilled in the heightened tonality of what would later define the psychological thriller. Hiscock’s live performance of The Pleasure Garden was seamlessly fluid, evoking the style and energy of the period, interpretative of the characters and their motivations without resorting to clichéd leitmotifs or the trappings of illustration. The expanded tonality of her playing is perfectly matched to the material and I would have loved to have seen her live interpretation of Blackmail which is arguably the more complex work of the two.

Aelita - Queen of Mars

A rare screening of Yakov Protazanov’s 1924 silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars with live music Minima also featured at this year’s festival; a curious hybrid of Soviet propaganda and Sci Fi fantasy whose design has influenced successive generations of artists and film makers. The rediscovery of this and other neglected gems was one of the great pleasures of IFF 2012, returning to the earliest surviving films as a wellspring of inspiration.

The documentary Extraordinary Voyage directed by Sege Bromberg and Eric Lange charting the twelve year colour restoration of George Méliès Trip To the Moon (1902) provided a wonderful introduction to Méliès as creator, the process of restoration and to the screening of the original work which followed. Restored by the Groupama Gan Foundation For Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation For Cinema Heritage with an original soundtrack by French band Air, Trip To the Moon like much of Méliès work is a mesmerising combination of film, theatre and magic, at a time when cinema was still in its infancy and special effects were created live on set.

Trip to the Moon

There is a naivety in Méliès which is enduringly appealing and it was wonderful to see the digital restoration preserve the imperfections of time and the brushstrokes of hand colouring in the final version, pieced together from 13,375 colour fragments and a comparative black and white print. What this film still inspires 110 years after it was made is the timeless wonderment of moving images; conjuring dreams, illusion and imagination out of fragile celluloid.

In the documentary Side By Side: The Science, Art and Impact of Digital Cinema, Keanu Reeves investigates photochemical film and digital production with interviews from cinematographers, film students, editors, exhibitors and directors including Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, Joel Schumacher, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese. With debate raging about the transition to digital both in the creation and delivery of cinema, director Christopher Kenneally presents the subject from all viewpoints, engaging with what we lose and gain in a period of accelerated technological change and consumption.

Significantly at this year’s IFF only two films were 35mm prints, the rest were in digital format reflecting this global transition. With a younger generation increasingly watching film in a myriad of ways, often in isolation or in transit, on computer screens or iPhones, the experience of popular culture feels very much like endless Google searching, never remaining on any one homepage long enough to delve too deep. With cheaper access to equipment, telling stories about ourselves has become a cultural norm; however, the democratisation of this technology without being tempered by visual literacy or an understanding of the crafting of moving images arguably produces quantity rather than quality, sensation rather than understanding.

Side By Side

It is really a question about the function of art and why we need cinema in the first place. This is well articulated throughout the film on both sides of the debate, raising essential questions about the nature of digital production. Contemporary life is a continuous bombardment of digital images so disposable and transitory that we haven’t actually stopped to conceive an adequate means of preserving them. While celluloid film stock could still capture and store images, maintaining the current trajectory, years from now there won’t be a trace of anything we’ve expressed digitally. The choice to use film because it is the most appropriate medium to tell the story you need to tell is rapidly disappearing, like oil painting being perceived as obsolete simply because watercolours are cheaper and generate a higher volume of profit.

While the creative possibilities of digital are incredibly exciting, expanding the visual toolkit, crucially “you still need the eye of an artist to create the code”. Artistry and technological innovation have always driven film as a means of expression, human aspiration and entertainment, sometimes creating work that is timeless and universally relevant, vastly outliving its maker. Martin Scorsese’s comment about the continuation of culture in relation to the next generation – “where do you go to go back to the well?” – feels particularly apt, and education will be vital in the future as a source of cultural renewal in the face of digital and corporate takeover.

In spite of an electrifying programme that revealed everything film is and can be, the element of education beyond screenings was largely absent from the festival and needs to be addressed in future programmes. The social and cultural phenomenon of going to the movies has fundamentally changed but our need for Art, from shadow play on cave walls to the latest digital release, has always been constant. We need stories to make sense of ourselves and of the world. In a secular society, a contemporary culture of “Me” and “Now”, we need those connections and imaginative space for reflection now more than ever.

The winner of the annual IFF Audience Award designed by Steve Dilworth was Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen, Hungarian director György Pálfi’s euphoric homage to cinema, with Amour second and The Hunt in third place as the most popular films. (Sadly it is unlikely that Final Cut will be shown again outside the festival; however, Amour will be screening again from the 30th November and The Hunt from the last week in December.)

Final Cut

Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen plays out the age old story of boy meets girl, editing clips from 500 existing films together from all eras of world cinema and stripping the Romance genre down to its barest elements. The film begins with awakening followed by the ultimate visual film quiz delivered in rapid succession to the unfolding fortunes of love found, gained, lost and rediscovered. More akin to a feature length You Tube Mash Up than the sophistication of Christian Marclay, Final Cut operates on the principle of triggering memory and familiar emotional responses. The simplicity of the story meets collective expectation, its arc resolved in a final reassuring embrace.

There are clever sequences such as the splicing of multiple screen goddesses to Hayworth’s ‘Put The Blame on Mame’ from Gilda or the accelerated rhythm of pursuit, but the thrill and seduction of this film really lies in reading your own memories of cinema into it; the element of identification not just with the titles or stars but the whole emotional ride of self projection. Aptly described by IFF’s Director as “the greatest mixed tape ever made”, this is a work of pure nostalgia and reverie, a hit list of icons, film moments and personal memories that like a really good fairground ride once experienced you want to get straight back on again.

What Is This Film Called Love?

A homage of a different kind What Is This Film Called Love? by director Mark Cousins is the antithesis of his epic 15 hour series The Story of Film: An Odyssey in interest, depth and relevance. His declaration that his walking tour accompanied by a photograph of Sergei Eisenstein is “not trying to change the world in any way” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Punctuated by self-conscious literary and artistic quotations, this is a strange hybrid of pretension and spontaneity, a hand-held ready made stream of consciousness of little interest to anyone but its maker.

There are moments of clarity amongst the self indulgence but not nearly enough to stave off boredom. Screened with Ivan The Terrible Part 2, selected by Cousins to accompany his film, What Is This Film Called Love? is an interesting premise but is ultimately too self-absorbed to lead the audience deeper into either of its human subjects or their imaginative territory. It is the kind of film celebrated by the internet where everyone’s reality is up there to be shared and that’s exactly where this film belongs, although its screening at festivals is sure to generate healthy debate.

IFF continued its commitment to the screening of short films from Scotland and the UK with a series of short fiction and documentaries including the apocalyptic Saved by Stuart Elliot, Eva Riley’s insightful exploration of the relationship between two sisters in Sweetheart, Zachariah Copping’s descent into addiction, love and loss, Foxy and Marina, and Paul Cox’s incisive documentary Steve Dilworth – A Portrait, examining the relationship between the artist’s environment and creative process on the Isle of Harris.

Originally commissioned for the centenary of the Hippdrome Cinema, Boness (1912-2012), Scotland’s first purpose built cinema, The Lost Art of The Film Explainer brought the historical context of cinematic storytelling vividly to life in performance and discussion. A tradition that began in the UK during the silent era when cinema managers stepped in to say what was happening because not all members of the audience could read, the lost art of the film explainer has strong traditions in Germany and in Japan where foreign films required both cultural translation and translation of inter-titles.

Frank McLaughlin, Andy Cannon and Wendy Weatherby

Entertaining Scottish Storyteller Andy Cannon, cellist/composer Wendy Weatherby and piper/guitarist Frank McLaughlin performed live accompaniment to three films drawn from the Scottish Screen Archives; Buy Your Own Cherries (1904) St Kilda: Britain’s Loneliest Isle (1923/1928) and Mairi – Romance of a Highland Maiden (1912), one of the earliest story films made in Scotland and first screened at the Central Hall Picture House, Inverness, on 20 May 1912. Amazingly the grandson of the romantic lead was in the audience having heard about the existence of the film just a week earlier. Filmed on the shores of North Kessock and featuring possibly the slowest chase in cinema history, the film was created by Andrew Paterson and re-edited in 1953 by local film maker and Playhouse Cinema Manager Jimmy Nairn. Nairn’s legacy was also highlighted during the festival with the Inverness Local History Forum’s 20th anniversary screening of films from Scottish Screen archive introduced by SSA curator Alistair Bell.

In performance The Lost Art of The Film Explainer reinterprets and invigorates archival material in a way that gives a modern audience the opportunity to experience human history live through music, spoken word and moving image. There is much scope for international research and exchange in relation to cinematic traditions of the explainer in the UK, Germany and the Benshi tradition of narration in Japan that will hopefully result in the development of future performances. The underscoring of traditional and original music/ song by Wendy Weatherby and Frank McLaughlin enhanced the images on screen allowing the images to them to speak for themselves, while Andy Cannon’s commentary on the action, characters and social context illuminated the past in a way that a lone screening never could. There are many ways into cinema and this event illustrated beautifully the value of research, passion and live performance to bring archival material into the light, stimulating curiosity and connections between local and global traditions of storytelling and acknowledging the community of cinema.

In its tenth year IFF is an event that its Director and Eden Court can be immensely proud of. In each successive year the festival continues to showcase all that film can be; distinctive for the depth, range and quality of programming, committed in its support of local product and bringing excellence in world cinema to a growing audience. In the last 120 years our relationship to cinema has irrevocably changed, however within the scope and vision of IFF 2012 the magic of George Méliès or the miraculous everyday captured by Hirokazu Koreeda take us within and outside ourselves in a way that no other art form can. Cinema is limitless imagination projected on screen and this year’s festival celebrated that restorative vision with intelligence and joy, reflecting innovation and new ways of seeing from the silent era to the latest releases and pre-release productions. In answer to Mr Scorsese’s question about wells of inspiration, they are to be found right here.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• Inverness Film Festival

dulled by winter stodge at the sixth annual Food on Film Festival in

Kingussie. Happily, when you leave the cinema, your mouth watering,

there is a marketplace of delicious food on offer in the Festival’s

own Food Hall, showcasing dozens of gourmet food suppliers.

About to launch its sixth season, Food on Film has grown year on year

in its offering of foodie films and film-worthy food, as well as the

numbers attending.

The 2013 Festival promises a banquet of delicious surprises, including

the Scottish Premier of “Papadopoulos & Son” set in a Greek fish

and chip shop. The premiere will include film-themed food served to

guests in their cinema seats, with a side dish of Greek dancing by

Creative Dance Development Workers from Inverness’s Eden Court

Theatre. It’s going to be a feast for the eyes, ears and taste buds.

“Kalí óreksi” is the Greek for “bon appetit” and it’s

bound to be a call resounding around Kingussie in February.

31st January to 3rd February 2013 at The Badenoch Centre, Spey Street,

Kingussie

Source: Food On Film

In the final, breathtaking fifth instalment in the record-breaking Twilight franchise, the now vamped Bella and Edward Cullen must face the malign Volturi council, who threaten the well-being of their newborn child. Moving towards a colossal final showdown between werewolf and vampire clans, this truly epic conclusion to one of the most successful film series of our time is among the most anticipated films of the year.

Films at Mareel are generally shown a few weeks after their official UK release dates because this is when distributors are willing to be flexible about how many times a film shows each day, allowing five or six films to be shown in a week. With big blockbusters like Twilight the distributors insist that the films are shown virtually exclusively on Screen 1 for one, and sometimes two, full weeks in order to get them on the release date, so there has to be a high audience demand in order to secure them.

Head of Development at Shetland Arts, Kathy Hubbard, said: “We know Shetland Twilight fans are very excited about the final film and we’ve had lots of requests to get it on release date. We negotiated with distributors and are happy to say we managed to secure it for 16 November. We expect it will be very popular!”

The cinema programming process is a collaboration between Shetland Arts and City Screen, owners of the Picturehouse chain of cinemas. Mareel Cinema is programmed weekly from Friday to Thursday. On Monday mornings the Programming Team negotiates with film distributors on which films to continue showing from the previous week, according to audience demand and box office figures. This means that films for any given Friday to Thursday generally go on sale on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays you can pick up a copy of the weekly film listings flyer from Mareel and Islesburgh, check the Mareel and/or Shetland Box Office website for listings, call Shetland Box Office on 01595 745 555, or check advertising in the local media.

Tickets go on sale Tuesday 6 November late afternoon via Shetland Box Office.

Source: Shetland Arts

ALTHOUGH it had its detractors at the time, the first national Year of Homecoming in 2009 was deemed such a success by the Scottish Government that they’ll be repeating the exercise in 2014, handily timing it to coincide with the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

AGAIN, the format will be broad enough that it can accommodate populist events and unashamed exercises in drumming up tourism trade, while also finding room for artistic explorations of what it means to be Scottish, or of Scottish descent and dispersed around the world.

Jim Sutherland (photo Kerstin Gruenling)

One such event officially launches this month, and it will focus its attention specifically on the “Gaelic diaspora”, a distinct culture of travellers and settlers who often find their own rich history lost amidst the wider story of Scots migration. Conceived and artistically directed by composer Jim Sutherland, who was raised in Thurso and lives in Edinburgh, Struileag / Shore to Shore is currently beginning a long process of gathering testimony and artistic contributions from Gaels around the world ahead of a final performance incorporating poetry, music and film at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness in 2014.

“Struileag is quite an obscure word,” explains Sutherland, himself a Gaelic learner, “I’ve been asked what it means by quite a few native speakers. It refers to an imaginary boat which was used in storytelling sessions, a bit like pass the parcel. When somebody had taken their turn at a storytelling ceilidh they would pass on the struileag, the boat, to the next storyteller.”

Struileag logo

Pointing out that his initial discussions with bodies ranging from the Scottish Government to Creative Scotland have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive, Sutherland suggests that Struileag / Shore to Shore is so much more than just an arts event. “It’s a massive outreach project which will last for two years,” he says. “It will have community engagement in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, and internationally, culminating in a week of events and finally the show at Eden Court.” The show, he says, will be streamed live around the world, and will live on as a book, a recording and a DVD after the fact.

The way Sutherland describes the process of uncovering stories and testimony for the event makes it sound almost like a huge piece of genealogy research, with his investigations leading him to people in Argentina, Australia, Nova Scotia and most recently to Mairi Og Koroleva, a lecturer in Gaelic at Moscow State University.

“You wouldn’t imagine Moscow State University having a lecturer in Gaelic, would you?’ he laughs. “It’s been a surprising project, but it’s a strange old business these days when you’re working internationally. If you’re on Facebook and things like Twitter and Blipfoto, you find all these connections in an almost social way, research becomes a totally different thing.”

It’s the same way, he says, that he drew his pan-continental orchestra La Banda Europa together in 2006, and already it’s led him to a pipe band in Buenos Aires, the man in Seville who translated Sorley MacLean into Spanish and a Canadian rapper who speaks Irish Gaelic and is learning Scots.

Sutherland is quick to point out that the work produced will be a contemporary exploration of the Gaelic diaspora, not an opportunity to dwell once more upon traditional culture. “We’re looking at people’s lives, at what’s going on now,” he says. “We’re looking at language and the speakers of it, whether they’re first or second generation. The diaspora is an ongoing thing, it’s not about the clearances.” He recalls people coming around the doors in the 1960s, trying to headhunt Scottish workers for emigration to Australia or South America, and he’s privately glad that his father turned down the chance.

Kevin MacNeil

Although the show will eventually incorporate elements of music, performance and film (which will be co-ordinated respectively by Sutherland, theatre director Dan Ayling on behalf of Cryptic and film and television director Douglas Mackinnon of The Flying Scotsman and Doctor Who fame), its origins will be in poetry.

“These poems will then become songs, speeches, dramatic monologues,” says Kevin MacNeil, the celebrated Outer Hebridean author and poetry director of Struileag / Shore to Shore, who is currently commissioning a number of pieces to set things in motion. “I see my role as being to catalyse new pieces of art. It’s not to tell the world that contemporary Gaelic culture has elements that are of world class quality, it’s to demonstrate it.”

“There will be, for example, a piece written by a Scottish poet and performed by a rapper from Vancouver,” he continues. “Another poet is writing a secular psalm to the sea, because Gaelic psalms invoke the sea in their inherent acoustic qualities, although it’s unusual to have a secular psalm. Religion will be represented, though, because it’s a large part of the culture that this arises from – we’ve commissioned a prayer too. There will be a haibun (a Japanese blend of prose and haiku), which is rare in the Gaelic literary tradition, but that’s important because we want to build upon the cultural heritage rather than simply rely upon it. We want to do something that’s dynamic and not merely passive.”

Sutherland echoes this point, flagging up the fact that the project will be an ongoing conversation over the next two years, both with Gaelic-speaking communities around the world (he’s keen to hear leads and suggestions via the project’s Facebook site) and via an escalating programme of homegrown talks, discussions and workshops in the build-up period.

“We’re keen to engage with young people in the Highlands and talk to them about diaspora,” he says. “We want to know whether they feel the need to leave home to work, to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow or London or New York or wherever to survive. We’d really like to get people of all ages talking, whether that’s primary school kids talking to their parents or grandparents in Gaelic, and we want to hear ourselves how and where the language has gone out into the world.

“We want to be a part of creating confidence in the language and culture, to do something that we can be proud of. It’s not about nationalism, it’s not about the hills. It’s about people.”

The full Struileag / Shore to Shore website will go live later in November.

© David Pollock, 2012

Links

• Struileag Facebook Site
• Jim Sutherland

The Mareel business plan has an annual target of 39,834 cinema sales. Gwilym announced to the conference audience in Mareel and live webcast online that, with the venue having been open for 7 weeks tomorrow, there has already been 14,619 cinema sales. Targets for the initial 7 weeks in the business plan are 5,362, meaning that the venue has exceeded its cinema sales targets for this period by an impressive 9,257.

Shetland Arts would like to say thank you all to have visited during this time, and we look forward to seeing you, and others who haven’t been yet, in Mareel soon!

Source: Shetland Arts

A total of twenty-one Torc Awards will be presented at next year’s event, including three awards which are brand new for 2013. The festival will honour the important role of digital technology in the promotion of Celtic languages and cultures with the introduction of a Best App award, and for the first time ever podcasts will be accepted as entries in the Radio category. Two new awards have also been added to the Radio/Podcast category – Music Programme and Radio Sports, and other award categories include Documentary/Factual and Drama. The festival will also present a Gold Torc to the winner of the Spirit of the Festival Award – a film or television programme wholly or substantially in a Celtic language that encapsulates the spirit of Celtic Media Festival. The full list of awards is available at www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Dhomhnall Caimbeul, Chairman of the Celtic Media Festival said:

“We are very pleased to be able to announce two new radio categories as part of the Festival’s increased commitment to radio. I would like to thank the sector for feedback received during our consultation process – it was invaluable and will ensure that the Festival in Swansea will be a much richer place for radio as a result.

“The new category for Apps is an exciting development. We have focused it on apps in, or for learning, one of the Celtic languages. I am sure it will stimulate a lot of interest and foster co-operation across the Celtic nations and regions beyond broadcast media.

“Overall we feel incredibly proud to be bringing such a strong Celtic Media Festival to Swansea next year. There is a lot of talent to celebrate and we expect strong interest in these prestigious awards.”

The Celtic Media Festival 2013 takes place in The Swansea Marriott Hotel as well as various arts venues around the city from 24th – 26th April, and will showcase the best work from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. The festival is expected to attract some of the biggest names in the broadcasting and film world to the city. Previous high profile guests include actors Tilda Swinton, Rhys Ifans, Peter Mullan, Ken Loach and Doctor Who and Torchwood producer Russell T Davies. Although the festival is primarily for industry delegates, there will be a wider programme of local screenings, exhibitions, evening entertainment and celebrity interviews open to the public, including a series of master-classes and seminars for local students – full details of the festival programme, delegate registration and how to purchase tickets will be announced early next year.

Entries must be submitted by 5pm on Tuesday 30th October. Full information on the Call for Entries and award categories are available online at www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

Source: Celtic Media Festival

29 Sep 8 pm Dr. Feelgood: touring pretty much continuously since 1973, Dr. Feelgood always give 100% of the finest British rhythm and blues to make you feel good. Performing such hits as “Milk & Alcohol”, “Down At The Doctors” and “Roxette”, the Doctors will see you now! Tickets £15 (conc. £14, school pupils £6) online from WeGotTickets and TicketWeb. They’re also on sale via TicketWeb 24-hr hotline 08444 771000, June’s Card Shop Dingwall and the Pavilion office 01997 420124 (9 to 6 Monday to Friday). Support by local duo Emma Shearer and Matt Sillars

http://drfeelgood.org

30 Sep 11 am to 4 pm Autumn Wedding Fair – another chance for couples planning their special day to be inspired by the Pavilion and meet many top local suppliers of wedding-related services. Free entry for visitors on the day. Anyone else who wishes to exhibit at the event should ring Andrew or Mary Dawn on 01997 420124 – but hurry!

www.strathpefferpavilion.org/weddings.asp

3 Oct 8 pm “The Man Who Had All the Luck” by Arthur Miller. While those around him suffer everyday failures from redundancy to infertility, David Beeves is blessed with good fortune and continues to prosper. Yet, the more success David achieves, the more guilty, depressed and paranoid he feels about the plight of those around him. Soon he begins to wonder what will happen when his luck runs out… Nationally renowned Sell A Door Theatre Company, in association with the acclaimed Mull Theatre, tour Miller’s rarely-performed gem across the UK for the first time. Tickets £12 / £11 / £6 are now online from WeGotTickets.com and TicketWeb.co.uk, including TicketWeb 24-hr hotline 08444 771000, also in person from June’s Card Shop Dingwall and Pavilion office in person or by ringing 01997 420124 (Mon to Fri 9 to 6).

http://mulltheatre.com

www.selladoor.com

4 Oct 8 pm Scottish Opera returns to the Pavilion, this time with Verdi’s great opera “La Traviata”. A fresh look at Verdi’s deeply moving and ever-popular tale of a love denied, this new production also celebrates the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. Director Annilese Miskimmon (newly appointed Artistic Director of Danish National Opera) gets right to the heart of the story in a production that centres on the turbulent relationships at its core. The opera will be sung in English, with piano accompaniment. Tickets from WeGotTickets.com, TicketWeb.co.uk, June’s Card Shop Dingwall and Pavilion office: £14 full price, £5 for under 26s, no other concessions.

www.scottishopera.org.uk

7 Oct The Friends of the Pavilion have reluctantly decided to postpone the Antiques & Collectables Fair due to be held on this date, because not enough dealers had booked stalls.

12 Oct 8 pm Nosferatu, the German expressionist silent classic with live musical accompaniment by guitarist David Allison. This innovative version premiered to a sell-out audience at the Glasgow Film Festival in February 2009. It has also been presented at the Inverness Film Festival and the Barbican Cinema in London. “A stunning presentation” (Edinburgh Evening News). “I’d urge all fans of silent films and great music to buy a ticket” (Jonathan Melville).

Tickets £12 / £11 / £6 are now online from WeGotTickets.com and TicketWeb.co.uk, including TicketWeb 24-hr hotline 08444 771000, also in person from June’s Card Shop Dingwall and Pavilion office in person or by ringing 01997 420124 (Mon to Fri 9 to 6).

http://theislandtapes.com/nosferatu.html

19 Oct 12 noon to 7 pm and

20 Oct 10 am to 5 pm Food & Craft Fair organised by Friends of the Pavilion. Start your Christmas shopping here with a huge variety to choose from, including baking and confectionery, books, clothing, knitted goods, jewellery, prints, stationery and woodcarving. Free entry for the public. Anyone wishing to book a table should ring Frances on 01997 421344 – but only one space on Friday now left

26 Oct 7.30 pm Fashion Show organised by Friends of the Pavilion, in association with the Puffin Pool, Dingwall. Donated clothes will be modelled by both men and women and all clothes will be for sale at the event.  Tickets £5 for adults and £3 for children are now on sale at the Puffin Pool Dingwall and at the Pavilion 01997 420124.  All proceeds go to the two charities.

www.puffinpool.co.uk

27 Oct 8 pm Dancing Queen – The Show! Widely recognised as the UK’s most spectacular ABBA tribute theatre show, featuring dancers and vocalists, Dancing Queen is packed with all of ABBA’s greatest hits, performed with dazzling showmanship that only a true live band can accomplish.  So dust down your platforms, put on your flares and sing along with all of your favourites including: ‘Waterloo’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Thank You For The Music’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Winner Takes It All’, ‘Gimme, Gimme, Gimme’ and many more. Tickets £12 (£6 for school pupils) online from WeGotTickets.com and TicketWeb.co.uk, including TicketWeb 24-hr hotline 08444 771000, also in person from June’s Card Shop Dingwall and Pavilion office in person or by ringing 01997 420124 (Mon to Fri 9 to 6).

www.abba-cadabra.co.uk

28 Oct 7.30 pm Duetti d’Amore. The greatest love duets found in baroque and classical opera have been selected for this recital, sung by renowned countertenor, Reno Troilus together with his wife, soprano Gail Troilus. The programme contains the various aspects of love; with languishing and longing, hope and despair, and joy and tribulation. Works such as Handel’s “Saul” & “Tamerlano”, Mozart’s “Mitridate”, Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and other operas by Puccini, Rossini and Donizetti will feature in an evening of emotional music that dares to pull all the strings of the heart. Accompanied by one of the Highlands’ best known pianists, Sheila Bruce. Tickets £12/£10 on sale very soon.

2 Nov 8 pm Skerryvore – originally from the Isle of Tiree and now based in Glasgow, Skerryvore are favourites on the music festival circuit, feature in VisitScotland’s current TV ad and have thrilled audiences from Chicago to Shanghai. Lead singer Alec Dalglish won the Frankie Miller Songwriter of the Year award last year. Their sound has evolved in recent years but still maintains a strong ceilidh element. Tickets £15 are now online from WeGotTickets.com and TicketWeb.co.uk, including TicketWeb 24-hr hotline 08444 771000, also in person from June’s Card Shop Dingwall and Pavilion office in person or by ringing 01997 420124 (Mon to Fri 9 to 6).

www.skerryvore.com

3 & 4 10 am to 4 pm Exclusively Highlands Christmas Fair

Nov www.exclusivelyhighlands.co.uk

10 Nov Strathpeffer Shinty Club annual dinner dance – further information and tickets from Val MacGregor 01997

22-25 Nov – Art Fair

The Pavilion’s spectacular annual Art Fair, organized by Friends of the Pavilion and typically showing nearly 400 original works by well over 100 artists working in the Highlands & Islands. All work for sale. NB: participation in this event is by invitation only – the Friends Art Fair committee now has over 350 artists on its list and cannot possibly include all of them every year!

28 Nov 8 pm The Animals & Friends. Featuring from THE ANIMALS, John Steel and Mickey Gallagher (The Blockheads, Paul McCartney, The Clash, Eurythmics), plus Danny Handley (performed alongside Spencer Davies, Bobby Elliott and Rick Lee), and Pete Barton (The Mindbenders, Boomtown Rats).

The Animals & Friends remain a seminal rhythm & blues band who still command great respect internationally amongst their peers as well as from fans of all ages who instinctively respond so enthusiastically to such pivotal songs from The Animals’ catalogue such as ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’, ‘Boom Boom’, ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’, ‘Baby, Let Me Take You Home’, ‘I Put A Spell On You’ and the band’s multi-million selling anthem and no. 1 hit across the world – ‘House of The Rising Sun’.

“The band that shook the world back in 1964 have re-invented themselves …. quality and distinct sound that was, and still is, The Animals ….” (Barry Kirk, Romford Recorder). Tickets £15 already available from Pavilion 01997 420124 – on sale elsewhere very soon.

Plus conferences, weddings, functions and other private events not included on this list

Strathpeffer Pavilion 01997 420124

www.StrathpefferPavilion.org

enquiries@StrathpefferPavilion.org

TicketWeb 24/7 ticket hotline: 08444 771000

Source: Strathpeffer Pavilion

Scottish Shorts will work with up to 10 talent teams with short film proposals before commissioning four high-quality live action or animated films in early 2013.

Jointly managed by Hopscotch Films and DigiCult, the initiative draws on the experience of producers John Archer, Carolynne Sinclair Kidd and Paul Welsh – producer of Lore which is receiving its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Paul Welsh, DigiCult & Edge City Films said:

“I’m delighted to be working with Creative Scotland and Hopscotch Films on Scottish Shorts 2012. The mix of talent and experience heading-up this programme should be great for emerging filmmakers in Scotland. This should be a stimulating, challenging experience, one aimed squarely at lifting the work to the highest standard and helping position the talent nationally and internationally for future opportunities and success.”

Caroline Parkinson, Director, Creative Development, Creative Scotland added:

“The Scottish Shorts initiative offers an intense period of development for producers, directors and writers ready to take the next step in their career. We are delighted that three acclaimed producers have committed to developing the stories and voices that will strengthen Scottish film making.’

Talent teams will be drawn from producers, directors and writers with experience but who now wish to develop projects with unique stories and fresh voices in films of up to 15 minutes. This can include new adaptations of rights-cleared short stories. The budget range for commissions will be between £5,000 and £20,000.”

Scottish Shorts guidelines and applications can be found here:

http://www.digicult.co.uk/opportunities/scottishshorts

Applications close Friday 12 October 2012.

Source: Creative Scotland