Scottish & Irish film update (6 Nov)

Time for another little update on my beloved Scottish and Irish film interests. First of all, a couple of things relating to both countries.

There's a strand of Scottish related documentaries at this year's Sheffield Doc Fest, which has just kicked off. They include a whole bunch of short films and the compilation film THE NEW 10 COMMANDMENTS, which premiered at Edinburgh this year.

There are also a couple of Irish documentaries showing as well, specifically SEAVIEW and GABRIEL BYRNE: STORIES FROM HOME. I've written nice things about both of them here before, so go and see them if you're there.

(You might wonder, given my love of documentaries and festivals and the fact that it's a relatively short distance away, why I'm not there. It's because I can't afford it. Maybe next year.)

Incidentally, while reading about the Scottish docs, I discovered the BBC's Film Network which offers loads of short films for watching online, including award-winning Scottish documentary BREADMAKERS and MA BOY, which I saw at a festival. It's lovely and I've no idea why it's taken until now to discover it.

Also relating to both Scotland and Ireland is the documentary film AR DOVER FEIN. It's from 2001 and has popped up on the digital station BBC Alba (under a slightly different title, which I presume is due to going from Irish to Scottish gaelic). It tells the tragic story of a group of Irish immigrants killed in a bothy fire in Scotland in 1937 and raises questions about what actually happened. Fascinating and tragic, it's of Scottish interest and obviously popping up on the gaelic BBC channel, but it was originally a co-production of the Irish Film Board and Irish-language channel TG4.

More Irish stuff further down the page; first it's the Scottish stuff.

Scottish nationalist caper movie STONE OF DESTINY goes on release elsewhere in the UK from 21 November following its earlier release in Scotland.

Presumably timed to coincide with Homecoming, Scottish Screen reports that the BBC are kick-starting a new initiative about Scottish history. This includes a new TV documentary series THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND which premieres on BBC1 Scotland this Sunday.

The Filmhouse in Edinburgh will be showing the Grampian TV documentary JOURNEY TO A KINGDOM on Tuesday 11th November.

Two days after that (that'll be Thursday 13th then), just up the road from there, the legendary Cameo cinema will have a special whisky-tasting event followed by a screening of WHISKY GALORE.

Then on St Andrews Day (30th November if you didn't know), the Glasgow Film Theatre will have a special screening of a trio of vintage Scottish films including THE ST KILDA TAPES.

Finally (in my Scottish coverage at least), the BAFTA Scotland awards take place this Sunday and as usual what should be an opportunity to celebrate Scottish film ends up reminding us what a terrible state it's in.

The feature film award is between STONE OF DESTINY, SUMMER and OUTPOST. I didn't see SUMMER or OUTPOST, though the latter didn't exactly win much of a distribution. SUMMER will win it anyway.

In the acting stakes, newcomer Alia Alzougbi (TROUBLE SLEEPING) is up against Robert Carlyle (SUMMER again) and Brian Cox (for THE ESCAPIST but should be for RED), although I notice that Peter Mullen gets a TV nomination for BOY A which I saw at Cork last year.
I've seen none of the animation nominees but in the short category, THE ISLAND was quite good.

Now on to a couple of Irish bits and pieces...

After managing to get MISE EIRE added to the IMDb I am now proud to report that I've managed to get its sequel SAOIRSE? added as well. The George Morrison campaign continues.

The Irish Film and Television Network reports that the incredible film EDEN gets a limited opening in the US this month. If only UK cinemagoers were as lucky.

IFTN also reports prize wins for the excellent THE MORSE COLLECTORS by David Cooke and the even-more-excellent JANEY MARY by Paul Brady. As my previous coverage will attest, both films are thoroughly deserving of it, so well done to them.

Elsewhere on the IFTN site, there is a further prize for the documentary FAIRYTALE OF KATHMANDU and GET COLLINS picks up a nomination in the International Documentary Awards. Good stuff.

Filmbase reports the arrival of a new Irish shorts initiative at the IFI in Dublin. This sort of thing always deserves your support.

Finally, a reminder that Irish thriller ALARM goes on release in Ireland this month. I didn't like it much, but see it and make up your own mind.

Horrorthon'08: PLAGUE TOWN (2008)

This Irish-set horror was actually filmed in America but to be honest it actually does actually just about pass for the Emerald Isle, one out-of-place bus aside.

Like a number of other horror films of late, both at Horrorthon and elsewhere, the film doesn't really offer anything new but at least manages it in a mostly-entertaining way. Americans run into a town of inbred crazies, nasty things happen, etc. but there are some memorable moments and the ugly locals are presented via some reasonably effective make-up effects.

I should applaud the film for trying to develop the characters first - a dysfunctional American family tracing their roots in Ireland - since many other films fail miserably to do so, but in the end this is also a flaw of the film. It's not that it slows the film down, but rather that it does almost too good a job of introducing them. The opening parts of the movie, with all the family members (plus one guest) getting at each others' throats is frequently hilarious and actually far more enjoyable than the by-the-numbers horror that follows it.

I don't see it getting a cinema release but its worth giving it a spin when it hits DVD.