Shetland Arts’ 10th annual Screenplay Film Festival will get off to a grand start on Saturday morning, with a Brass Band Walk from the Market Cross to Mareel. Supporters, staff and volunteers will be accompanied by the Lerwick Brass Band and the Junior Jarl Squad, and on arrival at Mareel they will enjoy some birthday cake before the first film begins. Also present will be Murray Shearer, born during the first ever festival in 2007, and his family, who will be presented with a little present on behalf of the festival.
The first weekend is packed with exciting and inspiring films, many of them aimed at children and families (Wickie and the Treasure of the Gods, Operation Arctic, Labyrinthus and Long Way North for example) and some made by local film-makers such as Roseanne Watt, and Stephen Mercer of the Shetland Film Collective.
Special guests over the weekend include acclaimed British documentary film maker Kim Longinotto, who will be undertaking a Q and A session alongside Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen after her screening of Dreamcatcher, and Stephen Howarth, who will be introducing the 1957 Norwegian film Nine Lives (Ni Liv), the story of a betrayed Shetland Bus mission and the man (Jan Baalsrud) who survived it against all odds.
Co-curators Mark Kermode and Linda Ruth Williams will be here as usual and during the week Shetland Arts looks forward to welcoming songwriter Richard Hawley, who provided the soundtrack for the film Love Is All and who will be doing a gig at Mareel on Tuesday evening. The producers and writers of Moon Dogs will be visiting, whose road story drama that begins in Shetland made a big impression at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this summer.
Screenings for schools will be happening every morning and along with our partner Shetland Film Club, films will be showing at three care centres (Havera by JJ Jamieson) and three community halls - Scalloway (Ni Liv), Vidlin (For Children, By Children) and Baltasound, (Drifters and Havera). Shetland Arts would like to thank Scott Murray of Virtuo Wealth Management for his support of its outreach programme.
Festival Director Kathy Hubbard said “We want to wave the flag for Shetland film makers on this our tenth birthday so there are plenty of screenings of locally made films long and short. Along with other unique events such as screenings of the Shetland dialect opera Hirda, a lecture on Sami culture by Dr Andrew Jennings, and a very special screening of John Grierson’s 1929 classic short film Drifters about the North Sea herring fishing, which will be accompanied live by sound artist Jason Singh, this promises to be a week of celebration of screen culture for all ages and interests.”
Screenplay runs from Friday 26th August to Sunday 4th September, and tickets are available from Shetland Box Office.
About Virtuo Wealth
Virtuo Wealth Management Ltd offers a wide range of financial serves to individuals and business, specialising in socially responsible or ethical investment, including the innovative Scottish Charities ISA. The Scottish Charities ISA is a part of a ‘You give we give’ scheme which allows for savers to donate an agreed percentage of their annual net profits to a charity of their choice. This is a unique way for individuals to give something back simply. It is not coming out of their disposable income, it is coming out of the growth. Then the investment house and Virtuo agree to donate the same percentage of their fees to the same charity. Scott Murray of Virtuo Wealth will be in Shetland during screenplay to talk to individuals and businesses who are interested in supporting charities in Shetland through their savings.
