Scotland Film Event Highlights – July 2014

With the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this month, the University of Glasgow is hosting the Commonwealth Film & Theatre Festival. This ten day festival (17-27 Jul) includes performances and screenings that aim to celebrate cultural diversity, with all events free. Collaborating with Africa in Motion, there's a special preview screening (10 Jul) at the Andrew Stewart Cinema, Gilmorehill, where Bahamian film Rain and short film Beach Boy are showing. Check the website for details of the full programme.

Africa in Motion has several other events across Scotland this month. Food lovers should head to House for an Art Lover in Glasgow on 9 Jul for a special Film and Food Marathon. Accompanying the three course meal are three short films, each from a different region of Africa, each designed to perfectly complement the entertainment – awaken your senses and experience the tastes and sights of Africa while surrounded by the quintessentially Glaswegian art-deco architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Fans of good ol' fashioned VHS and home movies should head to the Grosvenor in Glasgow (22 Jul) or the Filmhouse in Edinburgh (23 Jul) for the Found Footage Festival (Volume 7). Curated by Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher, the festival champions actual found footage – videos found in car boot sales, rubbish bins, and elsewhere. Volume 7 includes a Christmas-themed workout video and a tape entitled Butt Camp – following the festival's previous success in Scotland, this promises to be a nostalgic, bizarre, and very fun night.

The Filmhouse is hosting a season of Charlie Chaplin (5 Jul-6 Aug), bringing some of his best known films – and some lesser known ones – back to the big screen. As well as his silent outings as the iconic Tramp in The Kid (5-6 Jul), The Gold Rush (12-13 Jul) and City Lights (19-20 Jul), Chaplin's mastery of comedy is never more visible than in his dual roles in The Great Dictator (26-27 Jul), a scathing and hilarious war satire with a heartfelt plea for tolerance at its core. See the Filmhouse website for the full schedule.

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' heist/horror classic From Dusk till Dawn is showing at the DCA in Dundee (19 Jul). Starring George Clooney, Tarantino, Juliette Lewis and Salma Hayek in that bikini, doing that dance, with that snake, it's a modern exploitation classic that has spawned two sequels and a television series – the original is still the best, so don't miss the chance to revisit the Titty Twister on the big screen.