The third edition of the Scottish environmental LandxSea Film Festival (12–14 September) will open with the Scottish premiere of Hannah Papacek Harper’s Lost For Words, a poetic journey across Britain’s landscapes and seasons and inspired by the book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, and close with the Scottish premiere of Yanuni, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, which follows Brazilian Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia as she fights to protect the Amazon and the future of her unborn child.
Organisers write that LandxSea Film Festival is “Scotland’s leading platform for films and discussions that spark green ideas and actions.”
Curated by award-winning producer and Festival Director Rachel Caplan, with support from You’ve Been Trumped director and festival co-founder Anthony Baxter—the 3-day festival include 22 new feature and short films from Scotland and around the globe, in-depth discussions, a family-friendly live film soundtrack workshop, live music, creative workshops, and the return of the bracing Montrose Beach Dook (aka a sea swim!).
Other highlights across the three-day festival include:
- The Scottish premiere of Future Council, following eight school kids from across the world on a biofuelled bus trip like no other, to challenge powerful corporate leaders across Europe about climate change solutions. The film’s young Scottish star Clemence ‘CC’ Currie will attend the premiere, with director Damon Gameau appearing online from Sydney.
- The Scottish premiere of Lowland Kids, set on Louisiana’s sinking Isle de Jean Charles, where two Indigenous teens and their uncle become America’s first climate refugees, forced to choose between home and higher ground. The Scottish premiere of North Sea, Nature Untamed, plunging beneath the waves through the eyes of diver and underwater cameraman Peter van Rodijnen in a thrilling cinematic adventure that showcases the North Sea in all its glory.
- The Scottish premiere of Tracing Light, which journeys from Hebridean shores to German photon labs, pairing artists and physicists in a luminous exploration of light’s power to shape nature and fuel discovery. The film’s Scotland-based producer Sonja Henrici and executive producer Leslie Hills will attend the premiere.
- Special screenings of two “wildly innovative” climate-focused films from Scottish creatives: Itu Ninu, an indigenous sci-fi film produced in Leith and directed by Edinburgh-based Mexican filmmaker Itandehui Jansen and When Fish Begin To Crawl, a single-screen triptych with cinematic visions of cosmic dawns, Devonian shores, and the carbon-rich peat bogs of Scotland’s Flow Country, co-directed by BAFTA winner Morag Mckinnon and renowned Fife-based composer Jim Sutherland, who also created the original soundtrack performed by the RSNO.
- From Havana With Hope: Climate Shorts From Cuba – a new partnership with the Havana-Glasgow Film Festival to mark their 10th anniversary, showcasing short films from Cuba and by Cubans in the diaspora that follow grassroots innovators, demonstrating how local ingenuity can inspire global change.
- Short films from around the world screening throughout the festival, including director Mark Jenkins introducing The World We Make Is Shaped By The Stories We Tell, an archive journey of energy through time, from sun to water via peat, coal, nuclear and wind, and the World premiere of Virginia Heath’s In The Flame We Reveal Ourselves, a wordless hymn to our burning, beautiful world with original music played live by Rick Anthony (Afterlands).
Alongside the film screenings, festival goers can enjoy conversations between leading creative lights in Scotland, including TV writer and poet David Macpherson giving an insider’s look at class, climate, and screenwriting in Scotland’s oil industry, through the lens of his hit Amazon Prime drama The Rig, and artist and nature writer Amanda Thomson (Belonging, A Scots Dictionary of Nature) leading a reflective meditation on language, place, and environmental change. Montrose’s embedded Culture for Climate Scotland artist Eve Mosher will lead a creative workshop where art, place, and community meet in response to coastal erosion and climate change; experience a family movie trip like no other with the joyous The Enchanted Cinema, where children and families are invited to create their very own live sound effects and music for animated favourites Where The Wild Things Are and My Neighbour Totoro, and brave the North Sea with an invigorating, all-ages dip at LandxSea’s signature Montrose Beach Dook.
Following its inaugural year at LandxSea 2024, the North Light Award “will shine a light on bold Scottish filmmaking that reimagines our relationship with the natural world.” Chosen by an International Jury that includes Daniesky Acosta, filmmaker, Katherine Bruce, Executive Director, Planet in Focus, Canada, and Karen Ridgewell, Climate Emergency & Sustainability Lead, Creative Scotland, the winning Scottish film from the festival will receive a £500 cash prize and be announced before the closing night Scottish premiere of Yanuni.
“This year’s theme, Creative Ground, celebrates the vital role artists play in helping us navigate a changing climate. From Indigenous sci-fi to luminous orchestral film, the programme reflects our belief that imagination is essential for transformation.” says Rachel Caplan, Festival Director.
“It’s incredible to see LandxSea grow into a national platform for environmental cinema, based right here in Montrose. We’re proud to bring stories that inspire change to audiences of all ages.” says Anthony Baxter, Festival Co-Founder and BAFTA Scotland-winning filmmaker.
