THIS weekend, Glasgow will host the 2016 Radical Film Network festival and unconference. The weekend’s activities will bring together activists and academics, filmmakers and cultural workers, to explore a range of social issues in a space beyond the multiplex. Of the festival events, only one occurs in a conventional cinema. Instead we’ll be in the headquarters of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Glasgow Women’s Library in Bridgeton, and community spaces such as GalGael in Govan.
Initially, we hoped to have around a dozen screenings and events across Glasgow; however, reflecting the vibrant and blossoming state of alternative film culture in the city, the number has grown to around 40.
Alongside the festival, the University of Glasgow hosts an unconference – a radical reworking of the traditional academic conference – which will bring festival participants into dialogue with film scholars from Scotland, the UK, and beyond.
This is the largest radical film event ever organised in Scotland. The overwhelming majority of the events are free. Indeed, in a few of them you’ll even get fed. We have no idea if there will be another one. Don’t miss it.
Festival Selection
Moving Parts and Revolutions: Cycling Through Cinema
Cinema has long had an interest in cycling, inspiring classic films from Bicycle Thieves to The Kid with a Bike. Moving Parts and Revolutions celebrates the history of cinema, cycling and activism, beginning with a talk at Finnieston Bike Station on the history of the Clarion Cycling Club by Jennifer McCarey. This is followed by a group cycle to the historic surroundings of Alexander “Greek” Thompson’s Caledonia Road Free Church where Dr Lars Kristensen (University of Skövde) will present a lecture. Using a collage of archive footage and film clips, he will trace the role of the bike through cinema, exploring its status as an enduring symbol of protest and collective solidarity.
Friday, 7.30pm @ Finnieston Bike Station and 9pm @ Caledonia Church
Video Activism
As workers’ rights have steadily been eroded, and the power of trade unions undermined, workers have utilised the power of video and social media to expose dangerous working conditions and highlight employers who flout low-pay legislation. Construction workers have been at the forefront of employing social media to highlight the illegal blacklisting practices they have encountered when raising health and safety concerns. You can see the film and discuss the campaign with a panel which includes Phil Chamberlain, journalist and co-author of Blacklisted.
Saturday 4pm @ STUC, Woodlands Rd
Social Events
The Radical Film Network has lined up a programme of alternative social events. On the Friday and Saturday nights, the STUC are hosting the Fail Better cabaret and disco, with some of Glasgow and Scotland’s best young bands, poets, musicians and performers. Expect the likes of The Declan Welsh Band, Randolph’s Leap, Harry Giles, The Creative Martyrs, and MacGillivray to bring a mix of radical performance, weirdness, and tunes you can dance to. May Day will be celebrated with a Love Music Hate Racism gig at the Queen Margaret Union, with an eclectic line up including Glasgow ska stalwarts Capone and the Bullets, rising stars of electronica Machines in Heaven showcasing their new album, and an Errors DJ set.
STUC Friday and Saturday, 10pm–1am. QMU, Sunday, 7pm-2am
Glasgow filmmakers: From the Gallowgate to the Gaza Strip
Basharat Khan is a Glasgow-based filmmaker who will be presenting Theories of Community, a programme of two films and a work-in-progress, which explores the representation of community and the significance of boundaries, place and social networks in Pakistan, Gaza and the Basque Country. Chris Leslie is another local filmmaker who will explore social issues in Disappearing Glasgow, a programme of films which document the city’s constantly shifting architectural landscape.
Basharat Khan: Gorbals Arches Saturday, 4pm.
Chris Leslie, Market Gallery, Duke St, Sunday, 6pm
Flourish House
Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival and Flourish House are teaming up to present two days of free films, food, coffee and conversation. The programme includes Everybody’s Child, Garry Fraser’s autobiographical account of heroin addiction in Edinburgh. Garry, who was recently appointed second director on Trainspotting 2, will be talking about his work. Other films include Rana Plaza, by Glasgow-based Mexican artist and filmmaker Carla Novi which deals with the 2013 Bangladeshi textile factory disaster and a retrospective of work from the celebrated Leeds Animation Workshop.
Flourish House, 23-25 Ashley St, Woodlands, Saturday and Sunday, 11am-6pm
Raising Films
Why are women still underrepresented in filmmaking? One reason may be the demands of parenting, an issue investigated by Raising Films. They screen Come Worry With Us, a film about Thee Silver Mt Zion Orchestra as they go on the road with a child on board. The film is followed by a panel discussion with Tam Dean Burn (actor, self-professed agitator and parent), Tracey Fearnehough (filmmaker, educator and parent), Jennifer Armitage (Creative Scotland Screen Officer and parent), and Raising Film’s Sophie Mayer (author of Political Animals).
Monday 10am @ Glasgow Media Access Centre
Radical Home Cinema
Who lives in a house like this? Go through the keyhole at Radical Home Cinema as local film lovers and personalities invite you to watch great films in their homes and studios. You can explore racism with radio presenter John Cavanagh, refugee football teams with activist Fuad Alakbarov, and Basque identity and tradition with local artist Nerea Sagarzazu, who will screen the documentary Sons and Daughters of the Alarde with the film’s director Jone Karres in attendance. One of the more unusual screenings comes courtesy of Mr Glasgow, aka Gary Barton, who presents the world premiere of The Artful Dodger, a satire on the gentrification of the Barras Market.
Saturday and Sunday various times and venues: see rfnscotland.org/ for details
Crossing the Line: Pain is …
Stephen Dwoskin was a central figure in both the American and British underground cinema of the 1960s and 70s, and one of the co-founders of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op, but he has become a marginalised figure. This may be for two reasons; his frank, unsettling depictions of voyeurism and sexuality, and his disability – he suffered from polio, a condition which would eventually confine him to a wheelchair. Lux Scotland screen one of his late films, Pain Is…, an exploration of the significance of pain in society, from illness to sado-masochism.
Sunday 8pm @ GFT
Spanish Civil War at the STUC
The Spanish civil war inspired thousands of ordinary men and women to travel to Spain to fight fascism. Many never returned. One of the Scots was Ethel McDonald, a young working-class woman from Motherwell who, in the wake of the social revolution which swept Catalonia in 1936, became the revolution’s English-language radio voice. An Anarchist’s Story explores her extraordinary life with writer Chris Dolan presenting the film. The often-overlooked African-American contribution to the civil war is examined in Invisible Heroes.
An Anarchist’s Story @ STUC, Friday, 8pm; Invisible Heroes, @ STUC, Saturday, 1pm
Psycho/s
Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of the most iconic films in cinema history; it’s easy to forget how radical this film, which broke every rule in Hollywood, was on its release. Hans Lucas will explore Psycho through a shot-by-shot supercut of the Hitchcock original and Gus Van Sant’s remake, creating a new film in the process, which throws up questions on authorship and copyright in the process.
Sunday 4pm @ The Old Hairdressers
Programme subject to change. Details at: rfnscotland.org
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