Take One: Action! Film Festival 2009
Fiona Williams previews Scotland's social action cinema project.
The World Development Organisation and Scottish Screen have come together to produce a cinematic green tea of a festival this September in the form of Take One: Action! Film Festival. Offering plenty to help ease those with a guilt-ridden festival hangover, Take One will be showcasing the best documentary and narrative films, all of which encourage the idea of advocacy and giving anyone who overindulged without a consumer conscious this summer the chance to atone for their sins.
The organisers have done their utmost to make sure the festival programme goes beyond shouting scary statistics, emphasising how the audience can get involved to combat the issues raised. Although, don’t worry fact fans, there are still plenty of troubling statistics throughout, for example according to Kofi Annan 300,000 people - equivalent to the population of Edinburgh - are dying every year because of climate change.
As well as showing films such as The Yes Men Fix The World and Madonna’s I Am Because We Are, a variety of activities to promote discussion and debate have also been organised. There are Q&A sessions with directors and campaigners at the end of each film, including a workshop from John Christenson of the European Tax Justice Network following the film Let's Make Money for those who want to find out more about the G20.
Other highlights include, Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Surprisingly, it's only the second time the film has been shown in the UK, although the director's pictures will be familiar to many from his Earth From Above book series, compiled from aerial photographs that highlight both natural beauty and the impact of human consumption. Reporter moves away from more familiar ecological territory and successfully debunks the holier-than-thou stereotype which can sometimes creep into such films. Director Eric Daniel Metzgar follows the Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof as he reports from the Congo, in an engaging and professionally risky exploration of news journalism in the developing world. This is edge-of-your-seat documentary-making not to be missed.
Festival Co-ordinator Simone Bateson also recommends Nauru: An Island Adrift on Wednesday 23 Sep. “It's a really powerful, haunting film about the breakdown of the relationship between mankind and the earth, followed by a discussion with live Pacific island storytelling and music, as well as an audience discussion led by Alistair McIntosh, the acclaimed author of Soil and Soul.”
Take One offers a chance to not only see some excellent films (as well as those already mentioned there's a rare showing of Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin on the 22/23 Sep) but also encourages an engagement with the most pressing social and political issues affecting society today.
Click here for full details of the festival programme.