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FILM FESTIVAL 2008 @ RBCFT |
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| Tel: 01387 264808 | May Festival Quick View - click on film for full film details: |
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Everything's Cool – Daniel B Gold, Judith Helfand
USA 2007, 1h34m Against a distinctly American backdrop of denial, deception, and delay, a group of global-warming messengers/ prophets fervently searches for the right language and strategy to propel a reluctant, disaster-fatigued citizenry and its elected officials into action.
Intercut throughout this strikingly shot journey are the trials and tribulations of a snow groomer turned biodiesel entrepreneur working on a solution, and the story of an Inuit Alaskan community that must decide whether to stay and risk getting washed into the sea or move their entire village. Hurricane Katrina blitzes the Gulf, U.S. consciousness on climate makes a seismic shift, and America finally “gets” global warming. Or do they? The way they’re acting, one would think everything’s cool. www.everythingscool.org Followed by discussion with the Crichton Carbon Centre Documentary - top of page
Running Fence –David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
USA 1978, 1h The art project consisted of: forty-two months of collaborative efforts, the ranchers’ participation, eighteen public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a four-hundred and fifty page Environmental Impact Report and the temporary use of hills, the sky and the Ocean. The artists’ struggle with local ranchers, environmentalists and state bureaucrats ends when the fence is unfurled, reuniting the community in a celebration of beauty. Followed by a discussion about how art can make us perceive the environment we are used to in a new way. With Steve Messam co-founder of fold, an artist-led organisation that promotes access to contemporary art in the rural environment and director of FRED - an annual art invasion across Cumbria. Documentary - top of page
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation –Nigel Wattis
UK 2005, 1h
Together with his late wife, landscape architect Maggie Keswick, Charles Jencks worked with leading physicists, cosmologists and biologists to create landscape metaphors for some of the greatest mysteries of modern science such as the Big Bang that are thought to have created the universe. Charles Jencks will introduce the film and take questions afterwards. Documentary - top of page
Animation
Workshop
9.30am -12.00pm, and 1.30pm - 4.00pm @ MMV Art Studios Following on from the successful animation workshops run at the Dumfries Film Festival last year we have expanded the programme this year due to popular demand. In just a few hours you will be able to create your own animation clip and discover the magic of bringing inanimate objects to life! This hands-on workshop will show you the basic techniques of stop frame animation, then you can let your imagination run wild. There are 6 workshops available each lasting 2 ½ hours and will be run by Morag and Dougie Muego of MMV Art based at the MMV Art Studios, 179a/b Heathhall Business Centre, Dumfries, DG1 3PH. The cost per child is £10. Previous experience is not necessary but early booking is advised as places are limited. Please fill in and return the application form [PDF download, 117kb] If you have any questions regarding the animation workshops, please do not hesitate to contact Morag or Dougie on 01387 279 888. Workshop - top of page
Screenwriting Workshop
10.30am - 12.30pm Screenwriting Workshop with James Mavor. A professional screenwriter since 1990, James has written for TV, Film, Theatre, Radio and Opera. Television credits include: ‘The Reichenbach Falls’ based on a short story by Ian Rankin, ‘Split Second’ starring Clive Owen; ‘Redcap’; ‘Monarch Of The Glen’; ‘High Road’; ‘The Bill’; and ‘Dr Finlay’. James is a graduate of the Moonstone Screenwriters Lab and PAL Screenwriters Lab and is currently Programme Leader MA Screenwriting at Screen Academy Scotland. Free but booking required. Please contact the box office on 01387 263094 or email Alice.Stilgoe@dumgal.gov.uk to reserve your place. The People’s Palace Cinema
11.00am – 4.30pm The People’s Palace is a mobile outdoor cinema which will be stationed at the Deer Park adjacent to the RBC showing FREE screenings of short films all afternoon. Hot water bottles and pop corn served! Filmmakers' Event (Free Event)
- 1.00pm, Screening of short films made in the region
The screening will be followed by a networking buffet lunch and then a round table discussion with the filmmakers and funders giving an insight on the process of short filmmaking: from the development of your initial idea to sourcing collaborators, the shoot and distribution. Free but booking required. Please contact the box office on 01387 263094 or email Alice.Stilgoe@dumgal.gov.uk to reserve your place. Local Hero (PG) – Bill Forsyth
UK 1983, 1h47m Silver Anniversary Screening: It is twenty-five years since the release of one of the most beloved Scottish films ever made. The recent Donald Trump stushie confirms that ‘Local Hero’ has lost none of its relevance. A Texas oilman goes to a Scottish fishing village with plans to build a refinery there, but becomes enraptured by the locals’ low-key way of life and the area’s natural beauty. Without question, the most charming British film of the 1980s. Cast: Peter Capaldi, Denis Lawson, Burt Lancaster
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Outpost (18) - Steve Barker
UK 2008, 1h30m
However, after he leads them to a long forgotten, underground bunker, they unwittingly reawaken a lurking terror that soon changes their mission from one of safe-guarding, to one of survival, as they desperately battle an enemy even they’ve never faced before. Laced with a suffocating, claustrophobic chill that infuses every one of its terrifying set-pieces, ‘Outpost’ is a gut-wrenching, adrenaline-fuelled horror film that makes for gruesome, thrilling viewing and an experience so horrifying that you’ll never ignore your history again. Producers Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker will be in attendance for a Q&A session after the film.
Cast: Ray Stevenson, Richard Blake - top of page
Tales of the Riverbank – John Henderson
UK 2008, 1h16m ‘Tales of the Riverbank’ tells the story of three furry friends - Hammy Hamster, Roderick Rat and GP the Guinea Pig - who, having swept down the river in a violent storm, embark on an epic journey in search of their lost homes. Their journey, full of comic incident and dramatic danger, becomes even more precarious when they discover that the whole riverbank is threatened by a waffle, Marmalade and Doughnut (WMD) factory which, owned by the evil Fat Cats, is polluting the countryside with increasingly dangerous emissions...the Big Dirt! Voices: Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent,
Stephen Fry, Ardal O’Hanlon - top of page
Still Life (San Xia Hao Ren) (PG) – Jia Zhangke
China 2006, 1h48m, In Mandarin with English subtitles "I originally wanted to make films that would change the world .. now I just wish to make films that make people sigh". Jia Zhangke (director)
Middle-aged miner Han Sanming and nurse Shen Hong travel separately to the Fengjie to look for missing family members. A visually beautiful film, ‘Still Life’ is the vivid and absorbing tale of two individuals struggling to keep up with the dizzying pace of change in 21st century China. Cast: Zhao Tao, Han Sanming
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Silent Running (U) – Douglas Trumbull
USA 1972, 1h29m
When Lowell is ordered to destroy his cargo and return home, he mutinies, kills his more obedient shipmates, and sets out for the far reaches of space with his modest robot and companions Huey and Dewey in tow. Cast: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin - top of page
It's Nice Up North (U) –Graham Fellows
UK 2006, 1h28m
Filmed by internationally renowned photographer, Martin Parr, ‘It’s Nice Up North’ is a hilarious spoof documentary; a glorious mix of spurious actuality (caught by Parr’s ever-roving camera), and complete nonsense from the mouth of John Shuttleworth, “Sheffield’s funniest man” Independent. John Shuttleworth is the creation of actor/comedian Graham Fellows and the star of the hit TV series 500 Bus Stops (BBC 2) and four series of the award winning radio series The Shuttleworths (BBC Radio 4). Graham Fellows will introduce the screening and take part in a Q&A afterwards. Earth Pilgrim –Andrew Graham-Brown
UK 2008, 50m “Walking in nature is my prayer, my mediation and my solitude. I don’t look to the sky to find heaven. My heaven is here on Earth.” Satish Kumar (narrator)
Satish Kumar guides viewers on a richly spiritual journey across a seasonally changing landscape - a place where wildlife, rivers and woods inspire meditations on the natural world that are lyrical, uplifting and timely. Followed by discussion on ecospirituality. Documentary - top of page
Our Daily Bread – Nicolaus Geyrhalter
Austria 2006, 1h32m
The central figures are the machines, which handle vegetables and grains, meat and fish, with an astonishing combination of otherworldly grace and efficiency. This film achieves what all great documentaries do: it forces us to face the reality of our human practices. If you want to eat, this is what it takes to get the food on the table. Documentary - top of page
King Corn (PG) – Aaron Woolf
USA 2007, 1h28m
If you are interested in food and how it makes its way onto your plate, this is for you. Three college buddies decide to plant one acre of corn in a farmer’s property in small-town Iowa. Their aim is to follow the crop to harvest and beyond. The reality is a crash course in what ails America from genetic modification to government subsidies. You’ll never see corn in the same way again. Followed by panel discussion with the Carbon Centre and Mike Berners-Lee. Documentary - top of page
The Planet (Planeten) – Johan Söderberg, Linus Torell, Michael Stenberg
Sweden 2006, 1h24m Hot on the heels of films like ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and ‘The 11th Hour’ comes The Planet, a startling new documentary about the many interconnected environmental issues facing the world today, from climate change, through environmental degradation and mass extinction, to exploding human populations and metastasizing industrial growth. All of which means we may soon outstrip the earth’s ability to sustain life. Featuring some of the world’s most impassioned activists, environmentalists and writers including Jared Diamond and George Monbiot. Followed by panel discussion with the Carbon Centre. Documentary - top of page |
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| top of page ^ | ROBERT BURNS CENTRE FILM THEATRE, MILL ROAD, DUMFRIES DG2 7BE - 01387 264808 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dumfries Film Festival :: 1 to 8 May 2008 
In their signature upbeat comedic style, filmmakers Daniel Gold and
Judith Helfand weave an entertaining, character-driven, behind-the
scenes tale about the mother of all problems: global warming.
Among this cast of characters are a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who repeatedly
tries to retire but can’t, the Weather Channel’s first climatologist with
a “global-warming beat” who must pack her Ph.D. into 30-second
sound bites, two “bad boys” who aim a radical critique at the
environmental movement, and a public servant who blows the lid off
the White House’s manipulation of key climate-change research. 
An engrossing document of environmental artists
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s efforts to build a twenty
four and a half miles long, eighteen foot high fence
of white fabric across the hills of northern California.
Melvyn Bragg accompanies architecture critic and
designer Charles Jencks on a series of walks around the
Garden of Cosmic Speculation at Portrack House just
outside Dumfries. 
Come along and enjoy this unique cinema experience!
An exciting mix of short films and trailers shot in Dumfries & Galloway over
the past year. Films include the trailer for the feature film ‘Me and Ma Gal’ by
BAFTA award winning director, Adrian McDowall, which shot on location in
Wigtownshire; rock / doc / mockumentary filmed at last year’s Wickerman Festival ‘The Good, The Bad and The Wicker Man’; ‘Holywood Sweets’ by Dumfries
born director John Jencks; and ‘Gralloch’ a piece commissioned by the Venice
Biennale and directed by artist Henry Coombes.
Filmed on location in Castle Douglas last year, ‘Outpost’ follows a crack team of battle-hardened mercenaries on
a routine mission to protect a mysterious businessman
through the no-man’s land of war-torn Eastern Europe.
Fengjie is one of the ancient towns along China’s
Yangtze River about to be submerged by the massive Three Gorges Dam. The largest hydroelectric project in
the world, the dam has resulted in the relocation of 1.2
million people.
Planet-loving botanist Freeman Lowell happily carries
out his duties on the spaceship Valley Forge, a giant
orbiting greenhouse which contains the last remaining
samples of flora from a now barren Earth. 
Versatile singer/organist, John Shuttleworth decides to
test the popular theory - that the further north you travel,
the friendlier people will be - by venturing to Britain’s
most northerly spot, the Shetland Isles. Foiled by failing
light, let down by a flat car battery, and buffeted by the
constant wind, John doggedly pursues his quest; asking
everyone he meets the all-important question; “Is it nice
up North?”
Ecologist, writer and Gandhi disciple
Satish Kumar walks Dartmoor in all
its seasons, sharing the distinctively
Indian perspective he brings to one
of Britain’s best known landscapes.
Precisely how the food we eat
is harvested, slaughtered and
packaged is the subject of this
brilliant poetic documentary.
King Corn is a damning indictment
of modern farming practices and
the food we eat. It is also funny,
informative, jaw-dropping and
completely engaging.