Take One Action announces 2018 programme

We need Take One Action (TOA), the UK’s leading social change film festival, more than ever. In a world where politicians lie daily while branding any form of criticism “fake news”, where the far right is on the rise across Europe, and where governments around the world continue to turn a blind eye to climate change and environmental catastrophe, the opportunity to join together at a festival that pushes back at such social and environmental injustices is welcome.

From its very beginning, this has been a festival celebrating our shared humanity. "Take One Action was set up in 2008 to bring people together, nurture conversations and empower audiences to be the change they want to see in the world – starting from Scotland," says Tamara Van Strijthem, TOA's executive director. "By providing access to crucial, moving stories from all over the globe as well as the information and tools to push for positive social change within their community and beyond, this festival harnesses the transformative power of film to foster a strong sense of connection. We are honoured to be sharing the stories of individuals and communities whose very resilience, tenacity and hope are radical acts of defiance."

TOA returns next month to celebrate its 11th edition with 45 events taking place across Scotland, including two European and three UK premieres. In the festival’s continued commitment to championing women, there's a distinct focus on female empowerment this year with strand Sisters, which features a series of rousing portraits of female trailblazers, and in general well over half the films in the programme (60%) are directed by female filmmakers.

One of the most eye-catching of these female-focused, female made films, is Silvana (20 Sep, Filmhouse; 21 Sep, GFT), a documentary following the Swedish punk hip-hop star of the same name, whose queer, feminist, anti-racist lyrics expose the many prejudices bubbling under the surface of Sweden’s progressive image. What makes TOA's pair of Silvana screenings even more tantalising is that they’ll be followed by live performances from Scotland-based music and spoken word artists whose work explores women’s empowerment, marginalised experiences and notions of belonging. The final line-ups are to be announced, but confirmed so far are hip-hop artist Erin Friel and poets Tawona Sithole, Nadine Aisha Jassat and Katie Ailes.

This theme of female empowerment is there too in Time for Ilhan (13 Sep, Filmhouse; 14 Sep, CCA, Glasgow), Norah Shapiro's stirring documentary chronicling Ilhan Omar's political campaign that began in 2015 and eventually saw her become the first Somali refugee to be elected to the US House of Representatives. Festival closing film Naila and the Uprising (22 Sep, GFT; 23 Sep, Filmhouse), also concerns a kickass political figure: Palestinian resistance leader Naila Ayesh, with Julia Bacha’s documentary showing the central role Palestinian women played in the First Intifada of the late 1980s. Ayesh will be in attendance at the screening and will present a keynote address at a special event exploring women activism, held at Glasgow Women’s Library.

Another key theme of this year’s TOA is social movements and the struggle for true democracy. You’ll find these themes explored in films like Dieudo Hamadi’s Kinshasa Makambo (22 Sep, Filmhouse), which exposes the political crisis in the Congo through the stories of three young political activists, and Strike a Rock (20 Sep, Gilmorehill, Glasgow; 21 Sep, Filmhouse), which pays tribute to two grandmothers’ unwavering determination to improve living standards in their South African community, five years after the brutal repression of a mineworkers’ strike that resulted in dozens of deaths.

There’s also Astra Taylor’s eye-opening Canadian essay film What is Democracy? (15 Sep, Filmhouse). Screening on International Day of Democracy, the film follows Taylor – a philosopher and activist as well as a filmmaker – as she meets various political thinkers and activists who are troubled by the way democracy operates in their societies. The Guardian called the film a “searing analysis of who's really in control”. Europe's fragile democracies are specifically under the spotlight in two TOA films: Golden Dawn Girls (15 Sep, Filmhouse; 16 Sep, CCA, Glasgow), a disturbing but necessary look at the women behind Greece’s far right party, and The Silence of Others (16 Sep, Filmhouse; 17 Sep, GFT), which chronicles a growing campaign by Spanish citizens demanding their country confront the brutal crimes of Franco’s dictatorship.

The biggest crisis facing our planet, climate change and its growing effects across the world, is also represented in the TOA programme. It’s there in the festival’s opening film Anote’s Ark (12 Sep, Filmhouse; 13 Sep, GFT; 14 Sep, Filmhouse), Matthieu Rytz's award-winning documentary about the crisis confronting the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, an isolated archipelago that has begun to be inundated by rising seawater. There’s also Silas (20 Sep, Filmhouse; 21 Sep, GFT), which pays tribute to Liberian activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Silas Siakor, and his commitment to exposing and preventing illegal logging and land rights violations in his nation. We’re also intrigued by the sound of The Green Lie (15 Sep, CCA; 16 Sep, Filmhouse), which is described as “both a tongue-in-cheek and deadly serious exploration of corporate 'greenwashing'” – essentially the green PR spin by huge corporations to make their practices and products seem environmentally friendly when they’re anything but.

The above is just a taste of this year’s programme. In all, TOA features 17 feature documentaries – including two European and three UK premieres alongside all the Scottish premieres – and two dozen short fiction, animation and documentary films. Some of the latter can be seen in TOA's new collaboration with the most boutique venue in Edinburgh: a two-seater cinema set-up in the Leith Walk Police Box, which will be screening two short film programmes (2-5pm, Saturdays and Sundays during the festival). TOA also returns to more conventional cinema venues like Filmhouse, the GFT and CCA, as well as new venues this year like Kinning Park Complex, Maryhill Integration Network and Glasgow Women’s Library. And as ever, TOA is more than just an opportunity to watch politically engaging films. Each TOA screening will be followed by a conversation enabling audiences to explore their own connection to the issues at the heart of the films with journalists, campaigners, politicians or the protagonists and filmmakers. The programme also includes additional workshops, masterclasses and events.

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For details of the full programme, head to takeoneaction.org.uk/events. Tickets for Edinburgh and Glasgow screenings will be available from Tue 14 August via takeoneaction.org.uk/events or through the cinema venues. Pick up the September issue of The Skinny for more details on Take One Action