Scotland Film Event Highlights – June 2015

Cinephiles needn’t wait 'til EIFF to get their flick kicks, as Martin Scorsese leads a veritable Polish invasion to our shores, the Filmhouse introduces a brand-spanking new monthly queer cinematic showcase and Glasgow Comic Con takes over Glasgow's CCA

Feature by Rachel Bowles | 01 Jun 2015

This June, legendary auteur Martin Scorsese presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, a unique collection of Polish film at Glasgow’s GFT and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse. The touring season showcases the post-war rise of the world-renowned Łódź Film School, its prolific and prodigious students and their revolutionary films which rebelled against the pro-Soviet government’s mandated 'social realist' aesthetic. Highlights include Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds (GFT, 10 Jun) charting the dilemma of a generation of Poles caught between the devastation of Nazi occupation and Soviet rule; Krzysztof Kieslowski’s unflinching masterpiece A Short Film about Killing (Filmhouse, 4 Jun), introduced by the University of Edinburgh’s Dr Pasquale Iannone; and Kieslowski’s previously banned tale of personal, political introspection Blind Chance (Filmhouse, 3 & 16 Jun), newly restored with scenes never before shown in public.

June also sees the continuation of an exciting new monthly strand for Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, Over the Rainbow, which will showcase new releases and classics of LGBTQIA cinema. This month’s film, the Swedish Something Must Break (13 – 14 Jun), named after a Joy Division B-side, is a tale of queer love and fluid gender identities within the constraining confines of heteronormative Stockholm society by trans* director Ester Martin Bergsmark.

GFT sees the much anticipated return of what it boasts as “one of the most diabolical film creations of all time,” Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (19 Jun), to its late night cult classics strand. Bring your own plastic spoons and expect a lot of audience participation (“Oh, hi Mark”). Next in the strand is James Cameron’s Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day double bill (28 Jun), and you can test your knowledge on Arnie and his cyborg pals with an interim quiz; with special prizes for those with infallible, robotic recall.

At Glasgow’s CCA, Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (30 Jun), an optimistic adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ classic graphic novel of the same name, featuring Scarlett Johansson’s breakout performance, kicks off the cinematic strand of Glasgow Comic Con. Also at the CCA, Refugee Festival Scotland presents Scottish Refugee Council: Ten Years On (14 Jun). The free, ticketed event will screen two documentaries following five remarkable teenagers who took on the Home Office to stop the forced detention and deportation of integrated juvenile asylum seekers and their families. Following the films will be a panel discussion with the documentary’s stars and songs from Cora Bissett’s The Glasgow Girls, the musical based on their story, performed by The National Theatre of Scotland.