Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) announced July 6 the programme for its 2023 edition running 18 to 23 August. “The hand-picked programme celebrates the work of exceptional local and global filmmakers ensuring the flame of independent cinema burns bright for future generations of passionate film fans,” the festival underlines.
The event sees the world premiere of Ian Jefferies’ Choose Irvine Welsh, about the outspoken Scottish author of ‘Trainspotting’ (among other works). “In a documentary rich with personal archive material, iconoclast author Irvine Welsh relays his own story and philosophy with characteristic wit, while a roll call of admirers including Iggy Pop, Martin Compston, Danny Boyle, Bobbie Gillespie, Gail Porter, Rowetta, and Andrew Macdonald share their passion for his work,” the festival notes.
Edinburgh also hosts the launch of ‘The Lynda Myles Project’, including a discussion event on the living legacy of Myles’ contributions to film culture, and a special work-in-progress preview of Susan Kemp’s new documentary The Lynda Myles Project: A Manifesto.
Six new short docs from Scottish Documentary Institute’s Bridging the Gap talent development initiative will world premiere at Edinburgh. Together they are described as “a collection of freshly-commissioned non-fiction films showcasing those fearless outsiders whose journeys across borders, conflict and time offer inspiring and thought- provoking stories of acceptance, reconciliation and love.
The Bridging the Gap selections are:
- The Sound of the Wind by Maria Pankova. 18 mins. On 24 February 2022, chef Yulia loses her former life and becomes a refugee, along with her two adopted daughters, fleeing the war in Ukraine. She now works as a butcher in Scotland and her husband is in one of the most dangerous spots on the front lines. The fear and connection to war doesn’t leave her even when she is thousands of miles away. She is fighting for her children’s future, and she fears losing her husband.
- Friends on the Outside by Annabel Moodie. 10 mins. Friends on the Outside is an experimental short documentary that tells the story of Jamie, exploring how foraging for weeds and caring for birds has helped him recover from mental illness and the chronic stress of incarceration. It questions why the UK prison system is currently in its biggest expansion in more than a century, exposing the naturalising language used around this expansion.
- Big Moves by Sarah Grant. 14 mins. After a lifetime of being told that she, as a fat person, could not dance (and believing it), Glasgow filmmaker Sarah Grant was very surprised to learn when doing dance classes over zoom in the pandemic (with the camera off, of course), that this was a big fat lie. Big Moves is an exploration of the mythology surrounding dance and dancers’ bodies, and how its cultural depiction of perfection has unintentionally fed Sarah’s lifelong struggle with perfectionism.
- A Border Between Us by Riad Arfin. 14 mins. When a Bangladeshi man moves across the world to be with his partner in the UK, they discover the unforeseen costs of following your heart. In A Border Between Us Director Riad Arfin explores his personal experience of being in an interracial relationship and trying to settle in a culture very different from his own; between visa rules and cultural norms, is it possible to find a place to call home that works for them both? In a challenge to the idea that all you need is love to make you whole, when faced with the impact of loneliness and discrimination on his mental health, is love really enough? When the sacrifices feel one sided, what does it take to make it work?
- Never Mind Walnut Street by Marta Dyczkowska. 13 mins. Never Mind Walnut Street is Polish artist Marta Dyczkowka’s homage to her adopted city of Belfast. Set to the loud and wild soundtrack of Belfast’s own Runnin’ Riot, we meet lead singer Colin McQuillan in his kitchen turned make shift bar, where he and Marta become fast friends. After helping her make the move to Belfast, Marta experience the full extent of punk life in Belfast and Walnut Street becomes the home away from home that she had been searching for. Never Mind Walnut Street pays tribute to the punks and city that once shaped Marta’s life, with the very fabric of her landscape changing around her, mirroring her own emotional journey of loss and change.
- Fitting by Caitlin McMullan. 11 mins. Fitting explores the relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist, by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg. It asks what it means for to create an extension to someone else’s body, and the impact this has on both maker and amputee. The film demystifies this unfamiliar space and experience for the viewer, and questioning stereotyping and prejudice widely seen within our society’s consideration of body image.
- Pembe Ay (Pink Moon) by Meray Diner. 15 mins. As a family from a politically and physically divided island, Meray and her father developed extremely opposite views to each other. She travels from Scotland back to her childhood home – to the garden where she once had nightmares of the conflict. Now it’s blossoming with fruit trees that her father grows, acting as the conversational middle ground for the deeper problems of the relationship. As the debates about power dynamics in the house and on the island grow in parallel, she needs to understand her father’s experiences and find the courage to tell him that she always sought his validation. Meray felt oppressed by her father and the state in north Cyprus, and finally wants to express herself within her family, and the Cyprus that she once escaped.
Other docs in Edinburgh selection are Elle Glendining’s Is There Anybody Out There?; Paul B Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography, Huw Lemmey & Onyeka Igwe’s short doc Ungentle, which intertwines the histories of British espionage and male homosexuality, and Jeanie Finlay’s Sheffield DocFest Audience Award winner Your Fat Friend.
Kate Taylor, Programme Director, Edinburgh International Film Festival, comments: “With this year’s vivid film selection the EIFF programme team has favoured the bold, drawn to filmmakers with searching perspectives and style to burn. Designed for an eclectic spectrum of film fans, and defined by a love of independent cinema, this compact programme shines a light on new talent, and offers a smashing six-day journey for the EIFF’s passionate audiences.”
Francesca Hegyi, Chief Executive, Edinburgh International Festival, adds: “A festival is a gathering of perspectives in a moment in time that reflect the world around us. This year, the Edinburgh International Festival is proud to host the return of this forward-looking programme from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and support these moments of curiosity and connection that imbue our festival city each August.”
Culture Secretary Angus Robertson added: “I’m delighted to see so much Scottish and international film talent represented in this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival programme. The Scottish Government is proud to support the festival with £155,000 from the PLaCE Fund – run jointly with the City of Edinburgh Council – and £59,000 from our Expo Fund. They both support Scottish talent development particularly emerging film programmers and mid-career writers in the case of our Expo Fund.”
