Tag: cinema

Film screening to support WaterAid charity

A recently-established Edinburgh group is to hold a special one-off screening of ‘Even the Rain’ (Tambien la Iluvia) to raise money for the international development charity WaterAid – and the film’s award-winning screenwriter Paul Laverty will host a question and answer session following the screening.

The screening will take place on Thursday 27 September at 7.30pm at SYHA Edinburgh Central, on Haddington Place, Leith Walk, and is the group’s first fundraising event for WaterAid, the charity which enables some of the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Even the Rain is a 2010 Spanish drama about Mexican director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest. Sebastián and Costa unexpectedly land themselves in a moral crisis when they and their crew arrive at Cochabamba, Bolivia, during the intensifying 2000 Cochabamba protests, which their key native actor Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) persistently leads. The film was directed by Icíar Bollaín, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty.

The film’s central  theme of the fundamental right to access safe and clean water, is also one of the principal aims of WaterAid.  Angela Lafferty, a member of WaterAid’s Edinburgh local group and one of the event organisers, said: “For me, this event is not only about raising money but about reminding us all that we need water to live. We all use so much of it in our daily lives but many of us never think about where it comes from, who controls and manages it and how much it costs. One in eight of the world’s population are not as lucky as we are in Scotland, but we can change that!”

In the developing world, diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor sanitation and unclean water kill 4000 children every day – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.  Just £15 can enable one person to access a lasting supply safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Funds raised at this special screening will enable WaterAid to transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest people throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region. Tickets are £10 (including a glass of wine) and should be booked online at: www.eventelephant.com/eventherain

Telford Graduate films hit the heights

‘Curtain up! Dim the lights! We got nothing to hit but the heights!’ That was the blurb in the Edinburgh Filmhouse programme and Wednesday’s showing certainly lived up to it’s billing. Telford’s HND Creative Industries Television course graduation show will be the last ever – Edinburgh colleges merge this autumn – but this years’ students ensured that the final programme would be just as memorable as those that have gone before.

With drama, documentaries, animations and adverts the films covered a broad spectrum and provided a perfect showcase of the students’ talents. From the atmospheric opening drama ‘Hungover’ to final action film ‘The Street Fighter’ the theme was quality throughout.

There were some amazing ideas and imagination on show. A special mention to Emma Murray’s animation ‘Big Gus’, an everyday tale of a pair of pants! and Lewis Kyle, whose ‘You’re Dead’ provided the ‘shock horror’ gross moment of the evening! Michael Dobb’s ‘The Sound of Scent’ was a beautifully constructed documentary while Eve Jarron provided some light relief with ‘At Home With Dr. Devious’.

Winner of the Crtics Award, however, was Jack Kyle’s experimental movie ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ (pictured above). Gloomy urban landscapes in Granton and Seafield shot from a moving vehicle, superb soundtrack … dark, desolate but very effective and a worthy winner.

Congratulation to all this year’s contributors – who knows what next year will bring, but it’s clear that the class of 2012 may now be gone, but certainly won’t be forgotten. Well done, everyone.