Cute coots

coots nesting on Inverleith Pond, Inverleith Park

***

And a final reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here. The giveaway closes tonight at midnight and the winner will be drawn by the 7 July.

Turning the Film Industry Green

Last Wednesday I attended an event at Edinburgh International Film Festival on Turning the Film Industry Green. Chaired by Harry Giles, Environmental Officer of Edinburgh Festivals, the discussions covered a lot of ground on the environmental challenges facing the film industry.

Clare Kerr, a freelance producer talked about waste being her main concern when she is on a shoot and how difficult it can be to get crew and actors to take even simple steps to reduce waste. She talked about finding it difficult to recycle sets after they've been used, though she has herself been able to recycle a set from an advert in one of her own films. She talked about how she used an old school for a shoot and the gym halls were full of old furniture that the local council was storing there because no-one wanted it. A South African in the audience took up the topic or recycling sets and talked about how the South African film industry sells as many of their sets as possible and many of them end up in the townships to be used as housing there, or in one case, a school. he also talked about the authorities in Cape Town are looking to make a commitment to recycling one of the requirements before a company can shoot a film in the city.

Tiernan Kelly, Director of Film City Studio in Glasgow talked about the programme for sustainability he is overseeing in the studios, which are base for 25 tenant organisations. There are recycling facilities and sustainability posters throughout the building and quarterly meetings on envinronmental sustainability which all tenants are required to attend. The Victorian building that the studios are based in has been well insulated and many other energy efficiency measures are taken, which not only help the environment but also save money which is then invested in the creative work of the studios.

Allison Gardner, from Glasgow Film Theatre and Glasgow Film Festival talked about how much easier it is to green the Film Theatre building than it is to green the festival which takes place in several locations across the city, some of which have no commitment to the environment. She also talked about how difficult it can be to work with external people, whether that is the contractors working on a new cinema screen or actors. Most actors like to fly for example, though Lars von Trier only travels by campervan and ferry.

So that's the end of Edinburgh International Film festival for this year! You can read my reviews of the films i saw during the festival by following the links below:

Two Films Featuring Dogs - Greyhawk and The Nut Job. 

Garnet's Gold.

The Japanese Dog.

Beloved Sisters.

Virunga. (and you can read about the Q & A with the Virunga team here)

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd attended free press screenings of these films. 

***
A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Bannan - a film review

Bannan gets its world premier at the Edinburgh International Film Festival later today. Strictly speaking it's not a film but the first three pilot episodes of a new Gaelic language television soap opera set on the Isle of Skye. The show will hopefully air on BBC Alba.

The story follows Mairi a young woman who is returning to Skye to attend a funeral and finds herself unable to easily leave to return to her life on the mainland. She finds it difficult to leave her grandmother and finds herself becoming interested in local issues of land ownership. Will she ultimately decide to stay and make a life for herself on the island?

The characters are engaging and there are enough hooks to promise plenty of interest if the series does go ahead, while at the same time the conclusion at the end of the three episodes is satisfying enough in the case that the series doesn't go ahead.

Skye looks stunning in this programme and it's great to have a drama that focuses on people returning to the Scottish Islands and seeking to make their lives there, given the fact that so often it seems that people are leaving the islands in droves.

Bannan is showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival at 2040, 28 June at Filmhouse.

You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:

Two Films Featuring Dogs - Greyhawk and The Nut Job. 




Garnet's Gold.

The Japanese Dog.

Beloved Sisters.

Virunga. (and you can read about the Q & A with the Virunga team here)

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Two films featuring dogs

Two more films at Edinburgh International Film festival today and both featured dogs.

In Greyhawk, reclusive army veteran Mal loses Quincy his guide dog and believes the dog has been stolen by one of the gangs from the notorious Greyhawk estate. Negotiating the estate's multi storey housing for the first time, alone and feeling his way with a white stick, Mal sets out to find his dog. Along the way he encounters in turn ridicule, aggression, misunderstanding, kindness, generosity and humour from various of the estate's residents.

The film often moves at Mal's pace, the uncertain tapping of a white cane at the edge of a pavement, the wide sweeping of the cane around an unknown open space, feeling for the boundary markers.

Mal is difficult and rude around other people, but his nicer side comes out with Quincy. However, as  he searches for the dog, Mal starts to realise he needs to become part of the community around him, and that there is good and bad in everyone where-ever they are.

The dog in animated feature The Nut Job is a rescue pug called Precious who has been pressed into service as a guard dog for a mafia gang that are using a nut shop as a cover while they carry out a plan to rob a bank. At the same time the animals in the local park have run out of food for the winter and are planning to rob the nut shop.

Both the animals and the humans are prone to internal squabbles and power struggles. Grayson the squirrel who thinks he is a superstar doesn't want anything to do with Surly the maverick outsider squirrel but neither of them seem to realise that the real power lies with the raccoon who has a cardinal sidekick that rarely leaves his wrist.


Can the animals work together to secure themselves enough food for the winter? Watch this highly entertaining and beautifully animated film and find out!

Greyhawk was showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and should be released into UK cinemas on the near future.

The Nut Job is showing at 1300, 29 June at Festival Theatre and will be released into UK cinemas soon. A Nut Job 2 is planned....

You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:

Garnet's Gold.

The Japanese Dog.

Beloved Sisters.

Virunga. (and you can read about the Q & A with the Virunga team here)

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Garnet's Gold - a film review

Twenty years ago Garnet Frost left London and headed into the Scottish Highlands without a map.  Garnet found himself trapped on the mountainous shores of Loch Arkaig, where he found a mysterious wooden staff and was rescued from death by a passing fisherman.

Since then Garnet has been obsessed by the possibility that the staff that he found was a marker left by Bonnie Prince Charlie's men to mark the location of a cache of gold coins.

This documentary film follows Garnet's expedition back to Loch Arkaig to try to find the gold. Garnet is a fascinating character, full of a restless creativity that seems to make him unable to settle down into a way of life that would be valued by society. He's a talented painter and musician, full of off-beat ideas, who spends much of his time caring for his frail mother.

The film shows the beauty of the Scottish Highlands in all weathers, the mountains alternately shrouded in mist, covered in snow and occasionally glowing in the sunshine, as Garnet and his friends travel to Loch Arkaig and explore the area to try and find the gold.

The journey, ultimately, is as much about Garnet finding meaning for himself as it about finding the gold. 

Garnet's Gold is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival at 1330, 28 June at the Odeon.

Edinburgh International Film Festival has just announced its Best of the Fest line up, the most popular films of the festival which will be showing again on Sunday!


You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:



The Japanese Dog.

Beloved Sisters.

Virunga. (and you can read about the Q & A with the Virunga team here)

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

The Japanese Dog - film review

In rural southern Romania, 80-year-old Costache stoically tries to rebuild his life after his wife died in a flood that also swept away their home. The old man keeps himself to himself, living simply and stoically trying to move forward. The simple rhythm of his life is disrupted when his estranged son, Ticu, unexpectedly visits bringing his Japanese wife and their seven year old son, Initially the tensions between the family memebers are palpable but they slowly grow used to each other and are genuinely sad to say goodbye when the visit is over. Costache finds himself left with only an all singing, all dancing robotic dog (the Japanese Dog of the title) to remind him of the visit. This dog acts as a powerful symbol of the huge cultural gap between rural Rumania and urban Japan, a gap that Ticu has learnt to negotiate with ease, but one that is daunting to the other members of the family.

a robotic dog
dances on the table top -
candlelight flickers. 

This is a beautifully minimalist meditation on family, loss and recovery and a beautifully made film too, with wonderful panoramic views of the landscape in between the intimate scenes inside the broken down house where Costache is remaking his life.

***


The Japanese Dog is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2040, 28 June and 1300, 29 June both in Cineworld

You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:

Beloved Sisters.

Virunga. (and you can read about the Q & A with the Virunga team here)

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

More about Virunga

Today at the Edinburgh International Film Festival I attended a Q and A session with the makers of Virunga the movie (you can read my review of this must-see film here.) .

Orlando von Einsiedel, the director of the film talked about how he had read in a newspaper about the bravery and dedication of the rangers in Virunga National Park , a World Heritage Site and that gave him the idea to make the film, which originally was intended to be a fairly straight forward 'good news' film about the Congo.

After about four weeks there was a new army rebellion in Congo (breaking the relative peace of the years 2008 - 2012) and at about the same time von Einsiedel found about the British oil company SOCO prospecting for oil in the park. So suddenly the film became much more complicated....

Originally employees of the national park were trained to do undercover filming to find out about what was happening inside SOCO. (Rodrigue the ranger who featured in the film is currently studying elsewhere in Africa, having left Congo for his own safety. He intends to return to Virunga after his studies to be an even more effective ranger). Six months into filming, con Einsiedel met Melanie Gonby a french jouirnalist, who had just finished a contract teaching radio skills to Congolese women and who agreed to come on board with his project.

The result is a powerful and beautiful film that underlines the importance of the World Heritage Site system as protecting the most special places on earth so that they remain for future generations.

More information on SOCO

In 2010 SOCO was sold its concession to prospect for oil in an area of Congo that included Virunga National Park. 54% of the concession lies outside the National Park, but despite it being illegal (both in Congolese and international law) to prospect for oil in the national park, SOCO put all their energies into exploring inside the park boundaries. Given that it's illegal to explore for oil in the park, it begs the question of why Virunga wasn't expressly removed from the concession.....

SOCO recently stated they would pull out of the national park and not explore for oil in World Heritage Sites. However, this isn't the victory it might seem as SOCO have in fact asked Congo to redefine the boundaries of the national park. They need to be pushed into guaranteeing that they will never explore for oil in the area that is currently defined as the World Heritage Site.

The film makers hope that the film will, as part of a larger campaign, persuade SOCO to pull out of Virunga entirely.

SOCO could of course sell their concession to another oil company, but Melanie said in discussion that there seems to be no evidence that any other oil company would be interested in buying it, given the current controversy and the civil unrest in Congo.

Von Einseidel pointed out that whereas oil exploration can fuel civil conflict, Virunga National Park could bring money and harmony into the region through sustainable tourism. Gorilla tourism in neighbouring Rwanda for example brings $1.5billion dollars into the economy every year.

How you can help

If you have investments or a pension, you might want to check out whether any of your funds are invested in SOCO and if so, then you could pressure your fund managers to disinvest from the company.

You can find out more about how to help by visiting the Virunga movie website.

Virunga is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2030, 26 June in Cineworld.

It is expected to be released into cinemas across the UK in late September.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other websites where you can learn more.

Save Cammo Fields for Birds

Below is the information on the birdlife seen in Cammo Fields, which I have sent to local politicians, Edinburgh City Council Planning department, Cammo Residents Association (who strongly oppose any development of the fields) and the development company that has put in the proposal for 600 houses to be built on these fields. 

The proposal to develop these fields is part of the Edinburgh Local Development Plan. Edinburgh City Council have pointed out that 74% of the proposed development will be on brownfield sites. That still leaves however 26% planned for greenbelt areas, potentially destroying wildlofe habitats and green spaces enjoyed by walkers and birdwatchers. I happen to know the Cammo Fields quite well and to know that they are special as a haven for birds that are found in very few other places round Edinburgh.

City of Edinburgh Planning application 14/01777/PPP – Cammo Fields

Information on the Birdlife on Cammo Field

Breeding Birds of Conservation Concern

Five bird species found at this site are specifically listed in the seed eating bird section (pp55 – 58) of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) as needing specific protection in Edinburgh:

treesparrow, linnet, reed bunting, skylark and yellowhammer

All of these species are red listed as being of priority conservation concern (due to their declining numbers) in the UK, except for reed bunting, which is amber listed as being of moderate conservation concern.

Wintering Birds of Conservation Concern

The field is sometimes used by grazing greylag geese with the occasional pink footed goose. Pink footed geese and wild greylag geese are amber listed as being of moderate conservation concern. (Greylag geese also occur as feral / semi-domesticated birds but these spend all their time in parks and by rivers and would be unlikely to flock on these fields).

Fieldfare also winter in these fields. These are red listed as being of priority conservation concern.

Other Birds

Many other species of birds can be seen in the field including robins, blue tits, buzzards, chaffinches and goldfinches.

Mammals

Stoats have been seen in the field.

Note:

The Seed Eating Bird Section of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity ActionPlan has as its objectives:

1. To evaluate the size and distribution of Edinburgh's breeding and wintering populations of seed eating birds;
2. To reduce activities detrimental to the species
3. To extend existing and introduce new conservation neasures to benefit seed eating birds
4. To identify and conserve, by habitat management practices, principal seed eating bird breeding sites in and around Edinburgh, and to encourage, through habitat improvements, the establishment of new breeding and wintering sites.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages, where you can find out more.

Beloved Sisters - a film review

In 1788 Wiemar, the aristocratic von Lengefeld sisters make friends with the penniless writer and philosopher, Friedrich Schiller, soon becoming involved in a complex love triangle.

As tenagers the sisters had sworn, by the side of a raging river, to always share everything, but when they become involved with Schiller, they realise just how difficult this is.

The film follows the oscillating relationship between the three. In the beginning it is clear the sisters love each other more than they love any man. Later though, when Caroline, the older, married sister has persuaded Charlotte the younger sister to marry Schiller, the marriage comes between the two women, Caroline hating to see her sister enjoying spending her life with the man she, Caroline, wants for herself. At the same time Schiller is helping Caroline with her own literary ambitions (she's writing a novel and after Schiller's early death, she is the one to write his biography).

The film focuses on writing, but despite the fame of Schiller as a writer, it's the letters that the three write to each other, using a secret code, that are more central.

It's a very long film, but is totally engaging for the whole of it's length. Not only are the characters and their relationships absorbing to watch, but there is the historical background (part of the story taking place as the French Revolution is happening, an event which had a profound influence on Schiller's thinking). It is also a beautifully made film with stunning scenery, sumptuous interiors and beautiful costumes.


Beloved Sisters is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

18.30, 25 June at Odeon and  15.00, 28 June at Cineworld.

 You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:



Virunga.

A Dangerous Game.

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Virunga - the movie

Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of  Congo is a World Heritage Site, one of the most biodiverse places on earth and home to one half of the last remaining mountain gorillas in the world.

The park was established in 1925 specifically to protect the mountain gorilla population and has since been extended. In the past twenty years it has seen huge challenges including an influx of refugees from the genocide in Rwanda (1994), the murder of a family of gorillas (2007) and since then two civil wars in which twenty of the park's rangers have been killed in their work of protecting the park and the gorillas.

Now there is the new threat of oil exploration. The British oil company SOCO are currently prospecting for oil in Virunga and this forms the centre of Virunga, the movie.

The documentary focuses on the work of several people involved in the park. The rangers are armed and ready to shoot poachers or rebels. Andre, the gorilla keeper, looks after the four orphaned gorillas who are kept in captivity in the park and preparing them for eventual release into the wild. Andre has a wonderfully close relationship with the gorillas and describes them as his second family. Emanuel the park manager oversees operations and has to keep everyone motivated, even in the face of suspected bribes from SOCO to get rangers to turn traitor to the park.

Using undercover cameras the film attempts to spy on Soco employees to find out what their plans are for the park and on local rebel forces who are planning to move into the area.

Things get very tense and it is clear that for SOCO the park is only valuable as a pontential oil field "who cares about a couple of monkeys?" says one of their employees. Meanwhile although the rebels don't trust SOCO, they themselves potentially pose a risk to the wildlife and rangers in the park.

Since the film was made, SOCO has made an agreement to leave the park after completing their seismic studies, but it isn't clear what this commitment really means. UNESCO has made a statement reaffirming the value of World Heritage sites and making it clear that oil exploration isn't allowed in these sites.

But the future remains uncertain for Virunga, this beautiful wild place caught between human conflict and oil reserves. The rangers who protect the park make it very clear in this film that they are prepared to lay down their lives to protect the park and anyone who cares about the world's wild places should stand with them.

Virunga is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is showing:

18.30, 24 June and 2030, 26 June both in Cineworld.

 You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:


A Dangerous Game.



My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

A Dangerous Game - film review

A Dangerous Game is the much anticipated follow up to You've Been Trumped, the documentary about Donald Trump's plans to build a golf course on a sensitive and rare sand dune system in Aberdeenshire (you can read my review of that film here).

A Dangerous Game continues from where You've Been Trumped left off and also takes in the wider story of how exclusive private golf courses across the world cause huge environmental and social issues.

The film isn't anti-golf, one of the film-maker's uncles is interviewed about the public golf courses he has always played on. Rather the film attacks large scale, exclusive clubs that destroy local environments and charge huge amounts of money for outsiders to come and play golf.

As well as the Trump course in Aberdeenshire, the film centres on the plans to build a golf course on an arid hill overlooking the beautiful Croatian town of Dubrovnik. Local residents called for a referendum on the golf course and 85% of them voted against the golf course. This was dismissed by the local mayor, because he claimed that not enough people had voted, despite the fact that more Dubrovnik residents had voted in the referendum than in the European Elections. Construction is going ahead despite local oppositition and despite the fact that the arid mountain will need huge amounts of water to irrigate the golf course, pontentially depriving local people of water for domestic and agricultural uses. The golfer Greg Norman, who designed the course was not available for interview for the film.

What is happening in Dubrovnik reflects what is happening across the world. Many golf courses are being built in arid areas. A statistic was quoted in the film stating that golf courses use as much water for irrigation and to maintain their water features as is used as drinking water by 80% of the world's population (I find this so mind blogging that I really want to double check that). Often the courses are using drinking water, one Las Vegas course shown in the documentary ships drinking water in from across the USA.Many of these golf courses fail, for example the Tiger Woods golf course in Dubai is being reclaimed by the surrounding desert.

The political corruption surrounding the Dubrovnik course is replicated elsewhere. The Scottish Government overturned local political opposition to Trump's proposals for the course in Aberdeenshire and forced the development through. When the local residents most affected by the development (and effects include local rights of way being closed off, landbanks being built round people's homes to hide them from the golfers, water supplies being cut off for three years, police treating locals and the film-maker aggressively) complained to their local MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) he didn't even visit them and barely responded to their complaints. Their local MSP is Alex Salmond, the first minister of the Scottish Parliament (and the leader of the campaign for Scottish Independence), who declined to be interviewed for this film.

Michael Forbes, the man who spearheaded the Aberdeenshire campaign against Trump was awarded the Scot of the Year award at the Spirit of Scotland awards 2012.

Donald Trump campaigned against the siting of a wind farm off the coast of Aberdeenshire in sight of the Trump golf course. The windfarm is going ahead and Trump has given up on building the second golf course he had planned for that stretch of Aberdeenshire coast, which means that that stretch of the fragile dune system is saved (at least for now). Instead he is turning his energy and money to a golf investment in Ireland, though it seems that his expansion plans there may be held back by a rare snail, which lives in the area round the course.

A Dangerous Game is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2035, 24 June and 1530, 28 June both in Cineworld.

You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:

My Name is Salt.

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

 ***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Union Canal - a festival and lots of ducklings

After seeing My Name is Salt (a beautiful film, which I review here) this morning at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend to go to the Edinburgh Canal Festival. There were plenty of stalls from local crafters and charities, various rafts made from a variety of materials all lined up for the annual raft race and several barges offering free boat trips. The queue for the free trips was very long, so instead of waiting we walked along the towpath, keeping our eyes and ears open for passing cyclists and wildlife.

Lots of mallards on the water. Three families in fact as well as several adult males hanging out by themselves. This family were enjoying a communal bathing session:

This family can be considered very lucky as six ducklings have almost reached adulthood. Further along the canal we saw a mallard mother with three small ducklings (so she must have lost a couple at least) and then we saw a mallard mother with ten tiny ducklings, which must have just hatched yesterday at the earliest. We stopped to watch them, smiling as some of the youngsters got left behind a little bit then speeded along the water to catch up with the rest of the family. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a herring gull swooped down and there were then only nine little tiny ducklings. It's all part of nature of course, but it's upsetting when you see it.

Elsewhere in amongst a hedge, there was a family of greenfinches, with three noisy youngsters hopping round after the parent, begging for food. Lots of house sparrows too (which for all they're declining rapidly in the UK as a whole, seem to thrive along the canal) and a fmily of magpies, with two or three very noisy youngsters. 

The banks of the canal are lined with flowers at the moment, including the beautiful tufted vetch:

***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

My name is Salt - a film review

Every year, when the monsoon season finishes, thousands of families travel to the Little Raan of Kutch, 5000 square miles of saline desert in Gujerat, India. Over the next eight months they extract salt from the land, using manual techniques that have been used for generations. My Name is Salt is the result of director Farida Pacha and cinematographer Lutz Konermann spending a season with one of these families.

The desert is sepia and ochre in tone, the limited palette only livened by the bright colours of the womens' clothes, shimmering in the heat haze. The land is utterly desolate in the dry season, the women need to travel far across the desert to get firewood, drinking water has to be brought in by truck, while the water to flood the salt fields is pumped from underground wells. (However, despite this I was intrigued to see some birds and insects seemingly thriving here. Not just the house sparrows and pigeons that one would expect to find around human habitations, living off discarded food, but also mayflies and a dragonfly that would need a constant source of freshwater, bees that would need flowers, birds that sounded like larks and a distant view of what looked like bee-eaters (which of course would be eating the bees). I began to wonder about the nearest oasis, but we never saw this in the film.....).

The film is a meditative, revealing exploration of how humans can survive in extreme conditions by manipulating the natural environment and how what is essentially an ancient way of life is gradually changing - the oil powered water pump, the oil powered electricity generator, the small school set up by a charity, the radios and mobile phones.

It is clear that this is not an easy way of life, people are working constantly, from the moment they arrive back after the monsoon, to dig their equipment back out from under the soil and to set up their tents to the time when they shovel the mountains of sparkling white salt onto the trucks in return for less money than they really need.

My Name is Salt is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is showing:

1820, 23 June and 1810, 24 June both at Cineworld.

You can read my previous reviews of the film festival so far by following the links below:

Snowpiercer. 

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival amd am attending free press screenings of these films. 

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Snowpiercer - a film review

Most of the films I review at Edinburgh International Film Festival tend to be art-house films, documentaries and experimental films. Once in a while though a mainstream film on an environmental topic turns up at the festival and I feel the need to review it. Snowpiercer, a tense, violent and sometimes very funny dystopic eco-drama.has more famous faces and far more violence in it than my average festival film!

In the not too distant future, the world has been catapulted into permanent winter after an attempt to combat global warming is too successful. The earth has become uninhabitable to most life and the only humans left are those that exist in a long, climate controlled train that is circling the earth, passing through beautifully imagined icy moutain landscapes and abandoned cities.

The long train is segregated, with the poor people living in cramped conditions at the tail of the train, existing on a diet of disgusting looking protein bars. None of them look as though they know what a bath is and many of them have missing limbs.

Rebellion is brewing in the tail of the train and erupts into mayhem that sees several of the tail inhabitants (lead by Curtis) breaking through into forward compartments with the aim of reaching the engine at the front and taking control. Along the way they take on Namgoong Minsu, a criminal with skills in picking locks and opening gates, who can help them achieve their goal. But will the rebels reach the front of the train, what will they find when they get there and will they really be able to take control?

The film convincingly creates a believable world, the details of which are revealed bit by bit, as the tail inhabitants work their way forward into the elite compartments, the train structure very effectively mirroring the class structure found in most parts of the world. Add in several plot twists and this is a very gripping and entertaining film.

Snowpiercer is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2020, 22 June and 2015, 28 June both at Cineworld.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 

You can read my other reviews from the Edinburgh International Film festival so far by following the links below:

The Owners.

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula. 

***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

The Owners - a film review

In some places, rural life is not the idyll some of us might romantically imagine it to be.

In The Owners, three siblings come from the city to live in a house they've inherited from their mother, situated in a village in a rural area of Kazakhstan. The brothers think it will be a better place to look after their young sister, who has epilepsy. They couldn't be more wrong.

It soon turns out that the stunning landscape is the backdrop to a community plagued by violence and corruption. The family soon finds themselves at the receiving end of violence from a former tenant and his gang. Things escalate quickly with the police being obstructions to justice.

The local residents are indifferent to everything that goes on around them and during the film become more and more likely to break out into inappropriately upbeat dancing. This sometimes feels jarring, but is certainly a very effective way to underline their indifference.

It's a beautifully made film, full of rich colour, stunning landscapes. The absurd scenes and characters amuse but also obliquely comment on the state of society in post Soviet Kazakhstan. In the end, it all feels deeply pessimistic. The sunflowers that the siblings placed on the windowsill of the house when they first moved in, turn out finally to be as misleading a symbol of hope as the locals' dancing.

The Owners is showing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

2040, 22 June at Odeon and 2045, 26 June at Cineworld. 

Disclaimer: I've got a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival

You can read my other reviews from the Film Festival by following the links below:

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula. 

***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Beaded necklace

No films at Edinburgh International Film Festival for me today(but don't worry there will be more reviews over the next few days!).

I lost a favourite necklace recently. So when I was sorting out my bead supplies, the other day,  I played around and made myself this necklace just by threading beads from my stash onto a length of fake leather. I can always change the beads if I get tired of the design, but I like it like this for now.

And you can catch up with reviews so far from Edinburgh Interantional Film Festival by following the links below:

Legacy, Mistory and Language - a review of N: The Madness of Reason; A House in Berlin and Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making - a review of Manakamana and La ultima pelicula. 

***
 A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

***
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Legacy, History and Language

N: The Madness of Reason is a beautifully poetic exporation of the life and work of the French entomologist Raymond Borremans, from when he moved to the Ivory Coast in 1929 to his death, and in fact beyond, as his presence is felt as a restless spirit haunting the years since his death.

Borremans career in Ivory Coast started as a street musician, then he set up a mobile cinema then collected and studied butterflies and wrote the first half of the Encyclopedia of the Ivory Coast, the later volumes if which remained unwritten at his death.

The poetic text of the film was written by Ben Okri which is perfectly complemented by the music composed by Walter Hus and sung by Fatoumata Diowara.

The early parts of the film concentrate on the lush natural beauty of Ivory Coast, the clear seas and the extensive forests and a stunning sequence showing egrets in a flooded woodland. A tortoise is shown tied up in a yard but then breaks free and symbolically appears throughout the film, connected with some Ivory Coast sayings about the intelligence of tortoises.

Part way through the tone becomes darker as the film concentrates on the destruction of nature and culture in the name of development and the tragedy of ethnic conflicts, where people are killed purely for belonging to the wrong group.

Throughout the film meditates on the benefits and drawbacks of classifications and definitions. By eing obsessed with a need to define everything are we failing to see life as it truly is? Is the pursuit of scientific classifications causing needless death to scores of beautiful butterflies? How does it help us to classify humans in terms of race, ethnicity, tribal identity or religion if that only leads us to kill each other?

The film also considers the nature of legacy, Borremans died thinking his legacy amounted to nothing because his encyclopedia was incomplete. The institute built in his name in the Ivory Coast now lies empty and in ruins, colonised by palm trees.

Legacy is very much part of A House in Berlin, a fictional documentary about Stella, a woman from Glasgow who inherits a house in Berlin (thoue house in question being what we in Scotland would call a tenement building, made up of several flats, rented out to different households). She travels to Berlin to look at the house, and starts investigating the building's history and getting to know some of it's residents. Her investigations uncover details of  the history of the building going back to the Nazi period when it was confiscated from its Jewish owner (Stella's great uncle) and then take her into the complicated area of German restitution law and then into land rights in Palestine. The story in the film is fictional but all the information about German property law and the history of buildings in Berlin is true. The mock documentary style of the film distanced the viewer from the characters, particularly when conversations were reported in the voice-over rather than actually been shown. For this reason I didn't find it at all engaging, though it was very interesting.

On the other hand, director Michel Gondry states he chose animation for the next film up for review, partly because he felt it would distance the viewer from the topic and help them to see things objectively. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is a hand-drawn animation set to a series of conversations between the Director Michel Gondry and philosopher/linguist Noam Chomsky. The wide ranging film looks at the history of science (linguistically locating the emergence of modern science with the time when scientists began to be puzzled by the seemingly obvious aspects of life (such as gravity); linguistics and language development, human rights and Chomsky's own life. Gondry's first language isn't English and in the film he admits to sometimes being confused by some of the concepts being discussed, animation being away of clarifying this confusion perhaps.


These three films are showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival

N: The Madness of Reason is showing 1805, 20 June and 1750, 27 June both in Cineworld.

A House in Berlin is showing at 2000, 20 June and 1545, 22 June both at Filmhouse.

Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? is  showing 1810, 20 June, Filmhouse and 2030, 2030, 27 June at Odeon.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

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A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

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As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Ancient Temples, Vertigo and Film-making

Two films in the Edinburgh International Film Festival today.

Manakamana is a documentary film that all takes place in cable cars going to and from the Manakamana Temple in Nepal. It is at once claustrophobic (given the fixed frame that is used throughout) and vertiginous (given the deep valleys and steep mountains the cable cars travel over). Both these elements though force the viewer to pay full attention to what is going on in the cable car.

The film is divided into eleven sections, each following one group of passengers as they go up to or return from the temple. Some passengers barely interact, while others play music, take photos, eat ice cream or discuss how the area has changed. One scene follows one of the cargo cars, full of goats being hoisted up to be sacrificed at the temple.

I couldn't help wondering how the passengers would have behaved if there hadn't been a camera in the car with them - would the married couple for example have chatted away merrily or would they have argued rather than engaging in a stilted conversation?

The scenes with the minimal dialogue were intriguing, I imagined them as ideal writing prompts: what is the relationship between these people? what is their background? why are they going up to the temple?

As the cable car goes up and down the hills, I was struck by how much of a feat of engineering this transport system is and wondered how it had affected the way people looked at their pilgrimage to the temple. How did the old musician who talked about long ago walking for days from his home to this and another temple feel about now being able to get to the temple just by sitting in a cable car? Would the American tourist even have considered visiting the temple if she'd had to trek for days to get there (perhaps she would as she said to her friend that she enjoyed hiking).

I would have liked the passengers to talk more about what the temple meant to them, but other than that, it's a beautiful, engaging and insightful film. And I didn't even feel too vertiginous!

La ultima pelicula also centres on ancient temples, Mayan in this case. An egomaniacal (and very annoying) American film-maker travels to Mexico to make the last ever film to co-incide with the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar. This film is by turn irritating and beautiful, some have described it as hilarious, but I don't recall laughing at all.

It's very disjointed, at one point an interesting scene discussing creating a meal fit for the end of the world by looking at how Mayan culture used to cook is randomly interrupted to cut to a dancing horse and we never get to learn more about Mayan cooking or the meal itself, which is a shame.

All the takes of some scenes are shown, often the same scene shot using a different type of camera, while other scenes aren't shown at all but the words 'Scene Missing' appear on the screen. Odd little experimental visual techniques are used throughout - sometimes these work and sometimes they don't.

There are some beautiful sequences, for example at one point a person stands at the sea shore while superimposed onto the sky are images of meteor showers and astronomic catastrophe.

The film makes some insightful comments on culture in general and the tourism that has grown up around the Mayan temples. Are we a society that doesn't care about either the past or the present and is just using everything to its own ends? A society in terminal decay?


It's very definitely a film-makers' film, the numerous alternative takes and the experimenting with visual effects and different cameras I'm sure could be endlessly analysed to good result by film students and film-makers. While watching it, I didn't think that these elements were adding to the overarching theme of the end of cinema / end of the world, but thinking about it now, maybe it's all about how we look at the world and that there's no definitive interpretation of anything, and maybe cinema starts to end as the processes and secrets of its making are laid open to the viewer in this way.

So this film wasn't the easiest to watch but certainly gave me a lot to think about which has to be a good thing.

Manakamana is showing 17.50, Thursday 19 June at Filmhouse 2 and 2020, Friday 20 June at Cineworld 13.

La ultima pelicula is showing 2030, Thursday 19 June and 1800, Friday 20 June both in Filmhouse 2.

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Tree Following

Wonderfully sunny weather out there today!

I visited the larch tree which I'm studying for Tree Following. Things are moving slowly for the larch at this time of year. The young cone hasn't changed much from last week though it looks very pretty with the shadows of the needles falling across it.

Nice shadows on the tree trunk too, and it's a lovely rich colour in today's bright sunshine.

I wanted to explore the undergrowth round the tree, but there are so many nettles that I decided not to. Nettles always sting and I react badly to them sometimes.

In another part of Colinton Dell, I was attracted to the lovely patterns of the ash leaves in the bright sunshine

and there are buttercups everywhere

I visit Colinton Dell every week as a volunteer with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust who do a great job looking after the river. This week is Small Charity Week, a great opportunity to showcase the work of those vital little charities like the Water of Leith Conservation Trust.

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A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

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Edinburgh International Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film Festival starts on Wednesday! I've got a press pass as I've had for the last couple of years and hope to review several of the films. The most interesting films from an environmental perspective include:

Virunga - Virunga National Park in Congo is one of the most bio-diverse places in the world and home to the last of the mountain gorillas. But oil has been discovered beneath the park.... (Documentary)

Dangerous Game - This follow-up to the award-winning You've Been Trumped (which I reviewed here) continues the saga of American billionaire property developer Donald Trump's incursion into Scotland. (Documentary)

Green Inferno - what happens when politically correct students from the USA meet the Amazon tribe they're trying to save? (Crafty Green Boyfriend tells me this will be more horror than environmental insight, and I'll probably see something else instead, though it might be interesting to see if horror can deliver an environmental message, but I just don't have the stomach for horror).

Snowpiercer - In the near future, attempts to find a technological fix for global warming have backfired disastrously. Life is extinct, except for the people and the ecosystem aboard a train that endlessly circles the ice-shrouded globe....

Island of Lemurs - Madagascar -  the true story of nature's greatest explorers: lemurs. (Documentary)

Wolfy - the Incredible Secret - a wolf has an adventure with hs best friend (a rabbit)..... (Animation)

Lots of other interesting films too, I'll review them here or, in a couple of instances, over on my Shapeshifting Green blog.

Blackford Pond and the Hermitage

We wandered round Blackford Pond and into the Hermitage of Braid today.

It was lovely to see a family of coots with their four ducklings, here are two of them

we were also delighted to see a pair of dabchicks (little grebes) building a nest, difficult birds to photograph but Crafty Green Boyfirend got this photo

Lovely also to see a mute swan family

Lots of mallards around too, I love the fact that the males' green heads are also purple in some lights

Lots of yellow flag irises around the pond at the moment, beautiful flowers which offer nice cover for the birds to hide in

Then we walked alongside Blackford Hill and into the Hermitage. Lots of snails around

and this wonderful group of newly hatched spiderlings, ready to launch themselves into the world on their strings of silk

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A reminder that I'm running a blog giveaway to win a pdf of my book Bougainvillea Dancing, poetry, prose and photos inspired by Malawi. Find out more and enter here.

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As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.