Take One Action announces 2017 programme

Take One Action!, the UK’s leading social change film festival, has been going for ten years, and what a ten years it’s been. The festival has been here to reflect on the turbulent current affairs of the last decade, both global and local, from events like the Arab Spring, movements like #BlackLivesMatter and disasters like Brexit. Along the way, they’ve been engaging audiences in debates about the issues on screen.

Next month the festival returns for 2017. “Our tenth anniversary programme is brimming with urgent, impassioned films that celebrate the solidarity, resilience and commitment of people across the globe standing up for their communities and their planet,” says Tamara Van Strijthem, TOA’s executive director.

The festival kicks off with Thank you for the Rain, an urgent look at our ever-changing world thanks to rapid climate change – it's told from the perspective of Kenyan farmer and activist Kisilu Musya, who also co-directs. The closing film, Free Lunch Society, meanwhile, looks at the concept of a Universal Basic Income, an issue that will soon be hotly debated close to home when a basic income trial comes to Glasgow, Fife and North Ayrshire in the next three years.

In between these two bookends, a whole range of topics are covered. Documentary Bending the Arc, for example, tells the story of the global health revolution that’s bringing healthcare to the places in the world that need it most. Executive-produced by Hollywood heavyweights Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the Hollywood Reporter said the film “stretches and soars to the highest documentary dimension.”

With the events of Charlottesville fresh in everyone’s mind, Boiling Point offers a compelling snapshot of a similar rise of the far-right in Finland. While back in America, Whose Streets? shows the urgency at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement with a film that Take One Action describes as “a visceral account of the rising anger on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of yet another unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.”

We also like the sound of Adam Sobel’s The Workers’ Cup, a study of the lives of migrant workers who are constructing the infrastructure for the controversial 2020 World Cup in Qatar. The Guardian called Sobel’s film “brave and engrossing”.

Other must-see films look to be Stranger In Paradise, which TOA describe as “a provocative and unusual take on the EU's immigration policy”; An Insignificant Man, which chronicles the spectacular rise of Arvind Kejriwal, who’s described as “the Bernie Sanders of India”; and Girl Unbound, which profiles celebrated Pakistani squash player Maria Toorpakai, whose rejection of oppressive gender norms earned her death threats from the Taliban in her home region of Waziristan.

“Take One Action was set up in 2008 to bring people together, nurture conversations and encourage positive social action through fascinating films, inspiring events and stimulating workshops,” says Van Strijthem, and as ever, each TOA screening is followed by a post-show discussion delving into the issue on screen.

“Ten years on from our first festival, we still hold fast onto the belief that a kinder, fairer and more sustainable world is possible,” says Van Strijthem. “By championing voices and experiences that too often remain unheard, our screenings, conversations and events invite audiences to create this world right here, right now.”

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Take One Action takes place 13–24 Sep in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 17–19 Nov in Aberdeen, and 24–26 Nov in Inverness; for the full programme and screening details, head to www.takeoneaction.org.uk