Montrose have announced their first-ever film festival, to be hosted in the new £3.5m community-run cinema this week.
The Montrose Playhouse opened its doors in last October and has already boasted a variety of critically acclaimed films.
Now the state-of-the-art three-screen cinema complex and community arts space will hold Montrose’s first-ever film festival: Costing the Earth.
Kicking off the festival on Friday will be multi-award-winning documentary You’ve Been Trumped, as they celebrate their tenth anniversary of screening.
Aberdeenshire residents who stood up to Donald Trump’s bullying over his luxury golf resort plans will join director Anthony Baxter for audience questions after the film.
Joining the showing will also be Aberdeenshire Councillor Martin Ford, the politician whose casting vote derailed the former US president’s golf resort the first time around.
Artist David McCue, whose paintings of key characters caught up in the drama, will also be attending, after winning praise for his work around the world.
Tickets gain a drink with the director and other guests in the cinema’s new community room from 6.45pm with the film starting at 7.30pm.
Saturday will feature a special screening of BAFTA winning Bill Forsyth’s iconic Local Hero in Montrose as part of Scotland’s climate festival.
The film, which starts the legendary actor Burt Lancaster, is about an American oil company representative sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for this company.
The showing will be followed with a Q&A with other special guests.
Rounding up the festival on Sunday is the 2014 follow up to You’ve Been Trumped – A Dangerous Game – where Aberdeenshire residents will again join for a Q&A following the screening.
Films bringing ‘new dimension to issues’
The manager of The Montrose Playhouse, Matt Buchanan, said: “After an overwhelming first 6 months of being open and seeing how well supported the Playhouse has been by the community we’re delighted to be working with our Patron Anthony Baxter to host this Festival.
“All 3 films are brilliant in their own right but showing them together and bringing in the fantastic guests to talk about them brings a new dimension to issues that are just as pressing today as they were when Local Hero was released in 1983.”
Filmmaker and Montrose Playhouse Patron Anthony Baxter added: “It’s wonderful for Montrose to be hosting our first-ever film festival.
“And it’s an honour to be welcoming residents of the Menie Estate who stood up to Trump to our town – 10 years after the release of You’ve Been Trumped.
“All of these films, in their own way, highlight the cost to the planet, if we allow money and power to override environmental concerns.”
