Scotland on Screen: In Praise of Far-Flung Film Festivals
Love films? Like to travel? Adore the scenic beauty of Scotland? Dig wild swimming? If so, we recommend you consider a trip to a far-flung film festival like Sea Change in Tiree or LandxSea in Montrose
If you live in Scotland’s Central Belt, you’re spoiled for choice in terms of film festivals. Coming up in the next couple of months alone you have a celebration of LGBTQ+ filmmaking (SQIFF, 8-12 Oct), a showcase of Japanese animation (Scotland Loves Anime, 1-10 Nov) and the UK’s biggest festival of Francophone cinema (French Film Festival UK, 6 Nov-10 Dec) to name only a few. And while you should definitely support these wonderful events on your doorstep, there’s something to be said for attending a film festival into a proper getaway where the only thing on your itinerary is to watch movies with like-minded people.
Luckily enough there are two far-flung film festivals happening this month that would be very much worth the effort to travel to. Both are relatively new on the scene, but already they seem to have fostered a vibrant community and a sense of place that make them stand out on the festival calendar. And coincidentally, they’re both really into wild swimming.
The first port of call is Montrose for the second edition of the LandxSea Film Festival (13-15 Sep). The brainchild of Montrose-based filmmaker Anthony Baxter (director of You’ve Been Trumped) and Edinburgh-based festival producer Rachel Caplan (previously of San Francisco Green Film Festival), LandxSea bills itself as Scotland’s premier environmental film festival. On the menu you’ll find documentaries like the adorable-sounding Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, a stunningly beautiful documentary about the bond that forms between a dour middle-aged man from Shetland and the orphaned sea otter that washes up on his jetty. There’s also the less-cuddly The Eagle with the Sunlit Eye, a gripping doc all about the reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle in Britain and the ensuing conflict it causes within Scotland’s rural community.
“When we began the festival last year, we knew we were starting something special,” says Baxter. “But the extraordinary audience response exceeded all our expectations, as visiting filmmakers shared their incredible films here in Montrose.” This year’s programme is 40% bigger than last year's event and even more ambitious. LandxSea will also launch their North Light Award this year, a new prize for the best in Scottish environmental filmmaking. “We hope the films in this year's programme will spark many conversations about the future of our planet,” says Baxter.
An audience in deckchairs at a Sea Change Film Festival screening. Photo: Sea Change / Screen Argyll
With direct trains from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, a day trip to Montrose is more than doable but we’d recommend you stay for the whole weekend to soak up the inspiring films and thought-provoking conversations designed to spark a deeper connection with our planet. A day trip isn’t that practical for our other far-flung festival taking place in September: Sea Change Film Festival (20-22 Sep), which takes place on the Hebridean island of Tiree.
This is the third edition of Sea Change, which was set up to create a nurturing space to celebrate female filmmaking. “We want to work together to bring change,” says Sea Change artistic director Jen Skinner. “We want to support women in the industry to find their voice, to give us the opportunity to see ourselves on screen and to widen the access to voices and experiences that are portrayed in cinema, opening up the world through film.”
The programme mixes homegrown and international female filmmaking talent. This year you’ll find documentaries, like Cara Holmes's Notes From Sheepland, a candid observational doc about foul-mouthed Irish artist and shepherd Orla Barry, and Esther Johnson’s evocative archive documentary Dust and Metal, telling stories from Vietnam through the lens of the country’s favourite mode of transport: the motorbike. In terms of narrative fiction films, look out for Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Senegalese romance Banel & Adama and Mika Gustafson’s Swedish family drama Paradise is Burning. There’s even a sing-along screening of ABBA romp Mamma Mia!
While both programmes look sharp and rewarding, these festivals' biggest draw is their locations and the community they’re trying to foster there, and this feeling of belonging and sense of place will filter back into the programme. Discussions of climate emergency and coastal erosion at LandxSea will surely feel even more urgent and tangible after a communal swim during the Montrose Beach Dook, for example. Similarly at Sea Change, the sense of solidarity with women filmmakers will only be enhanced by the community activities outside the cinema space around Tiree, from daily hikes to communal seaweed foraging.
So cinephiles, if that sounds like your cup of tea, pack a bag (and your swimming cossie). It’s time for a road trip!
LandxSea, Montrose Playhouse, 13-15 Sep; landxsea.org/programme2024 / @landxseafest on Instagram
Sea Change, Tiree, 20-22 Sep; screenargyll.co.uk/sea-change-2024 / @screenargyll on Instagram