Scottish Film Events: April 2022

April's film highlights include a Nicole Holofcener season in Glasgow, a Sidney Poitier retrospective at Filmhouse, and the in-person return of Alchemy Film Festival

Article by Jamie Dunn | 30 Mar 2022
  • Enough Said

Nicole Holofcener has long been one of American indie cinema’s most vital but underappreciated filmmakers. Since her shimmering debut Walking and Talking in 1996, she’s directed only six features, but the richness of the output makes up for its paucity. Her work is characterised by screwball-sharp conversations and a soft spot for self-sabotaging characters. 

Glasgow Film Festival crowns Holofcener a CineMaster this month with a season featuring a trio of her best features: Friends with Money (2 & 6 Apr), Please Give (9 & 12 Apr, on 35mm!) and Enough Said (17 & 20 Apr), a tender romance that proved all the more moving for featuring the final lead performance by James Gandolfini. Also in the mix is Ridley Scott's sorely underrated The Last Duel (23 & 27 Apr), a prickly, layered and surprisingly wry historical drama penned by Holofcener.

Filmhouse in Edinburgh have their own retrospective this month, which pays tribute to the late, very great Sidney Poitier, who died in January. Seven films featuring this wonderful actor who tore down racial barriers in Hollywood are included. Among them are classics In The Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Lilies of the Field – with the latter, Poitier became the first black performer to win the Best Actor Oscar. For full details of the retrospective, see filmhousecinema.com

Taiwanese Film Festival Edinburgh kicks off an ongoing series of screenings this month with a mini-season in partnership with the Hong Kong Film Festival UK focused on social uprisings. Screening at Summerhall Cinema, the programme includes three films: two from Hong Kong that are banned in their home country for their criticism of the Extradition Law and support of the Anti-Extradition Bill movement – Revolution of Our Times (1 Apr) and May You Stay Forever Young (1 Apr); and Taiwanese film The Price of Democracy (2 Apr), which looks back upon the 40-year-history of democratisation in Taiwan through the life experiences of two grassroots rebels.

April also sees the in-person return of one of our absolute favourite film events: Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (28 Apr-1 May). Expect a new venue in the form of 'Moving Images', a solar-powered cinema in a converted 1980s caravan that’ll showcase a programme of experimental film made in the Scottish Borders and South of Scotland; retrospectives of work by Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu and Julia Parks, an artist in residence on Alchemy’s Culture Collective programme The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil; and special screenings of Emily Beaney’s Deviant and Sonya Dyer’s Andromeda. Look out for more details when the full programme is announced on 1 April at alchemyfilmandarts.org.uk