Take One Action Film Festival, Edinburgh & Glasgow
For people who want to make a difference but aren’t sure where to start, it’s hard to think of a better destination than Take One Action festival. The bulk of it is up-to-date documentaries on hot-button issues, followed by panel discussions, Q&As and pointers on what to do next. Topics covered include global inequality (The Price We Pay, The Divide), climate change (This Changes Everything), creative and sexual freedom (Shield & Spear, Stories Of Our Lives), fair pay (Food Chains) and much more.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh & Glasgow Film Theatre, Wed to 27 Sep
Onwards And Outwards, Nationwide
We all know women are under-represented in film-making, but this touring programme at least celebrates what we’ve got in the UK, as well as addressing the problems female film-makers continue to face. Core titles playing include Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar and Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, along with influential shorts by the likes of Maya Deren and Margaret Tait. But there are also local variations. This Sunday, for example, Manchester’s arts centre, Home, has Carine Adler’s 1997 drama Under The Skin, starring a young Samantha Morton, plus a Q&A with producer Kate Ogborn (who might be able to explain why Adler never made another film). On Tuesday, Carol Morley talks about her life and work after a screening of her autobiographical documentary The Alcohol Years.
Home, Manchester, Sun to 19 Sep; Watershed, Bristol, Sun to 27 Sep; various venues to December
Encounters Festival, Bristol
This festival used to be called Brief Encounters, but they dropped the brief when it evolved from a one-off to six days of events, guests and over 300 short films. The variety is overwhelming – live-action drama, animation, documentary, family, comedy and music video – but the selection is helpfully broken down according to themed feature-length programmes, with evocative titles such as Mysterious Ways, Sensual Delights or Close To The Edge. There are hordes of film-makers in attendance too, plus special guests including Terry Jones (introducing his new multimedia economics documentary Boom Bust Boom), Swiss director Ursula Meier, and fun-lovin’ DJ Huey Morgan talking about music in film.
Watershed, Bristol, Tue to 20 Sep
Abandon Normal Devices, nr Kendal
Here’s a film festival so far removed from the norm that it takes place in a forest in the middle of the Lake District. So there’s no comfy seating, no cafe, not even a Wi-Fi signal. Instead you get a refreshing, challenging array of screenings, installations and digital artworks verging on the unclassifiable – all for free. Explore the forest as an animal via immersive virtual reality, practise your flying at drone school, or stroll on treks and trails dotted with specially commissioned works, most of them juxtaposing nature and technology. There are also conventional, albeit foliage-heavy, movie screenings, such as Predator, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady, and Moonrise Kingdom.
Grizedale Forest, Fri to 20 Sep
