The festival runs from 24 August to 2 September with a packed programme of films and events curated by Mark Kermode, Linda Ruth Williams and Kathy Hubbard. Special guests this year include the man behind Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park, award-winning actor Timothy Spall, and talented British actor/writer/directors Alice Lowe and Steve Oram!
Returning to Shetland after thirty years is Rosie Gibson with the drama documentary she made for Channel 4 in 1985 about women’s work in Shetland, The Work They Say Is Mine. Featuring a host of Shetlanders including Rosemary Inkster, Maureen Burke, Kitty Bairnson, Laura Malcolmson and Jeannie Hardie, this is a true ‘blast from the past’ and a rare opportunity to see it on the big screen.
Festival director Kathy Hubbard said “Screenplay is an opportunity to immerse yourself in cinema – we have so many feature films, documentaries, family films and our usual ‘Look North’ strand of films from Scandinavia and Canada that folk will truly be spoilt for choice. And of course, our usual screenings of short films made by Shetlanders, which are always popular.”
The programme includes titles like hilarious comedy Swimming With Men (starring Rob Brydon and a stellar British cast), Lucky (Harry Dean Stanton’s final cinema appearance) and what Kathy describes as “the quintessential Screenplay Look North film”, Tongue Cutters, a documentary about the children who help process the cod catch in North Norway. There are premiere and preview screenings of films not yet available in UK cinemas, including The Etruscan Smile which stars Brian Cox and the utterly moving documentary Nae Pasaran about the East Kilbride Rolls Royce workers’ refusal to work on Chilean Airforce jet engines in the 1970s.
Programmes are available at Mareel and in various outlets around Shetland, and it can also be accessed online.
