In times of crisis, access to the arts is not a luxury — it is essential. It gives young people a voice, builds resilience and offers joy and connection when the future feels uncertain.
For over 18 years, Leith-based charity Strange Town has provided life-changing access to the arts for hundreds of young people across Edinburgh each year.
Through youth theatre groups, holiday programmes, film skills workshops, stage management experience, a Young Company and professional agency support, the organisation nurtures the next generation of Scotland’s creative talent — many of whom would not otherwise have access to these opportunities.
Strange Town is committed to creating meaningful professional pathways for early-career artists — opportunities that are increasingly rare in today’s funding landscape. All artists and practitioners are paid fairly and supported throughout.
The charity also extends its impact beyond Edinburgh, enabling local performers to progress to stages in London’s West End and onto the small screen and major streaming platforms.
This March, the charity shines a spotlight on its Young Company (18–25), returning to Summerhall following previous sell-out runs with a newly commissioned production:
Aphrodite Rogue
by Eleanor McMahon
Set in a near-future Edinburgh, Aphrodite Rogue follows four flatmates navigating heartbreak, climate dread and a flat that is quite literally falling apart. When one of them begins to suspect that something — or someone — is quietly sabotaging their lives, tensions rise in this sharp, timely comedy about love, uncertainty and the importance of trying again.
Summerhall Arts announce first seven shows of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026 programme – now on sale – including premieres from acclaimed company Wonder Fools, in collaboration with Theatre SAN, and award-winning company YESYESNONO
Clockwise from top left: PUTTANA (Credit: Stefano Pradel), LANDSFRAU (Credit: Cornelius Reitmayr), Tether 인연 (Credit: Kaugain Jang), SAND
Acclaimed Glasgow-based theatre company Wonder Fools (Òran; Alright Sunshine) premieres Tether 인연, a vibrant Scottish-Korean collaboration with Theatre SAN
Award-winning London company YESYESNONO (We Were Promised Honey!; Nation) returns to Summerhall to premiere new storytelling show by Sam Ward
Leading Danish queer art company HIMHERANDIT (Mass Effect; Champions) brings new physical theatre show, GOOD ENOUGH?
Keith Alessi’s much-loved show, Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life, returns for a fourth festival in a row after three sell-out runs
Acclaimed Devon-based company Kook Ensemble explores lives of people living with Dementia with non-verbal circus theatre show, SAND
Fringe debutant Beatrice Festi and TeatroE ETS premiere bold immersive solo performance with PUTTANA
Mariann Yar brings moving feminist perspective on Afghanistan and its diaspora with solo show, LANDSFRAU
Home of boundary-pushing performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, arts charity and year-round cultural hub, Summerhall Arts has announced the first seven shows of its 2026 festival programme on sale NOW.
Following a hugely acclaimed and multi-award-winning inaugural festival programme last year, the first batch of shows in Summerhall Arts 2026 programme spans theatre, dance, circus, music and storytelling from artists and companies hailing from Scotland, Afghanistan, Denmark, England, Italy, and the United States.
Part ceilidh, part storytelling, and an all-round good night out; acclaimed Glasgow-based theatre company Wonder Fools (Òran; Alright Sunshine; The Kelton Hill Fair) premieres Tether 인연 – a bold new collaboration with South Korea’s Theatre SAN. Spanning sixty years and three generations, Tether 인연 weaves together folk songs, love letters and war stories – tracing the invisible threads that bind two nations together in a shared experience of music and memory.
Award-winning company YESYESNONO (We Were Promised Honey!; Nation) returns to Summerhall with a brand new prophetic storytelling show. Written and performed by Sam Ward, the show is a hallucinogenic journey through a world of anomalies – about holes appearing in the ground and about prices that go up and up. Sam urges audiences to continue trying to understand what’s going wrong in a world that refuses to be understood.
Award-winning Danish queer art company HIMHERANDIT (Mass Effect; Champions) returns to Summerhall with a brand new performance celebrating imperfection, queer joy, and the courage to find your tribe. GOOD ENOUGH? is a queer, quirky and boisterous physical theatre performance about reclaiming your story and having the courage to be loud, awkward and unapologetically yourself.
Fringe legend Keith Alessi returns to Edinburgh with his much-loved comedy-musical-storytelling show, Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life, for a fourth festival in a row after back-to-back-to-back sell-out runs. Told with warmth, humour and banjo music, this highly awarded, internationally toured, and inspirational true story is about overcoming obstacles, pursuing passions and the healing power of the arts.
Through donations, including 100% of all artist fees, Keith has raised over $1.2m dollars as of December 2025 for various charities including cancer charities and arts organisations, and all proceeds from the 2026 run will contribute to Summerhall Arts.
Acclaimed Devon-based company Kook Ensemble brings SAND – a new non-verbal circus theatre show exploring the lives of people living with Dementia.
Set against Devon’s dramatic coast line, SAND combines exceptional acrobatics with meticulously crafted storytelling to create a profoundly moving and resonant theatrical experience.
Fringe debutant Beatrice Festi and TeatroE ETS bring a bold new immersive solo performance with PUTTANA. A work that questions the things society has normalised and the boundaries between body and commodity, PUTTANA sees a single actress give voice to five characters, through a uniquely delivered combination of music and words, to tell an uncomfortable and cruel story.
Afghan theatremaker Mariann Yar brings her solo show, LANDSFRAU, a story of a life shaped by war and distance.
Moving between 9/11 and 2021, Mariann dismantles images of Afghanistan and builds her own counter-archive through songs, dance and memories – exposing a feminist perspective on Afghanistan and its diaspora. LANDSFRAU is about attempting to let go of inherited guilt without taking on more, offering an intimate of diasporic life, marked by both deep fractures and undeniable privilege.
This is the first of three programme announcements ahead of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 7th – 31st August. The remainder of Summerhall Arts’ festival programme will be announced on 31st March and 6th May.
Exclusive and premiere screenings of visionary and unearthed masterpieces
Showcasing radical and incendiary works of cinema including The Hourglass Sanatorium, The Cremator, Intercepted, and The Devil’s Bride
Festival focuses on female filmmakers, unearthed surrealist and horror cinema, animation and short film gems
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival 2024 programme features unearthed masterpieces, contemporary features and documentaries, uncategorizable animated oddities and short film gems.
Running from 1 – 5 October, the Festival showcases radical works of cinema at its partner venues Glasgow Film Theatre, CCA Glasgow and Summerhall Edinburgh. Several screenings will also be available to view through the Festival’s online partner Klassiki.
The Festival kicks off on 1 October at the Glasgow Film Theatre with a new instalment of bizarre, eerie, and unique Animations of the late Eastern Bloc(1980-1997).
A surgery is performed on a bust of Joseph Stalin, a yeti living in the mountains of Kazakhstan listens to The B-52s, a school of vengeful fish attacks a seaside village, and a man pawns his face to buy a lottery ticket.
This collection is of some of the most dreamlike and thought-provoking shorts from a time and place where the animated image served as a stage for unprecedented artistic and political expression.
The animation screening will be followed by a free-entry Opening Night celebration at the CCA Glasgow’s Third Eye Bar, featuring Samizdat-themed cocktails and a DJ set by Kernius Linkevicius.
Also at the Glasgow Film Theatre on 4 October, as part of Night Terrors: A Samizdat Special Horror Event, there is a special screening of The Hourglass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod klepsydrą) (1973) with a recorded introduction by Prof. Ewa Mazierska.
This sublimely surreal Alice-in-Wonderland tale by renowned Polish director Wojciech Jerzy Has follows a young Jewish man named Joseph who visits his father in a sanatorium, only to find the place strangely abandoned. As he explores further through its labyrinthine rooms, he starts to lose all grip on time and reality.
As a follow-up to the main Festival, on 19 October, Samizdat will host a pop-up screening of Grigori Kromanov’s hypnotising sci-fi noir Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell) (1979), alongside a rerun of its programme of animations and shorts, at the Edinburgh Summerhall.
In the film, a police inspector arrives at a remote hotel in response to a call out: except there is nothing to investigate, yet. As he meets its strange guests, the hotel is cut off from civilization by an avalanche – and bizarre events start to unfold. The film screens with selected shorts and animations from across the Festival.
Also screening at the Festival between 1-5 October are:
Set in 1930s Prague, Juraj Herz’s masterwork of Czechoslovak New Wave, The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol) (1969) follows Karel Kopfrkingl, a seemingly mild-mannered crematorium worker who becomes increasingly obsessed with the notion of death as a means of purification. As Nazist beliefs begin to infiltrate his worldview, Kopfrkingl’s twisted sense of morality spirals into madness, leading him to see his work as a divine mission to ‘save’ humanity by sending souls to the afterlife.
Screening for the first time with original English subtitles, The Touch (Прикосновение) (1989) takes place in the Kazakh steppe of the long-gone past as a nomadic blind girl with prophetic abilities crosses paths with a fugitive slave. Shot in mixed colour/black-and-white cinematography, this mythical story of tragic love is a hidden gem of the Kazakh New Wave.
A hidden gem of found-footage horror, Adrian Țofei’s directorial debut Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015) centres around an aspiring Romanian filmmaker (Țofei) whose obsession with Anne Hathaway manifests itself as a twisted desire to convince her to move to Romania and star in his projects. As he documents his endeavour, his obsession escalates, leading to terrifying and violent consequences for those caught in his orbit.
Banned by the Soviet authorities, the first Caucasus feature directed by pioneer woman-filmmaker Nutsa Gogoberidze (mother of Lana Gogoberidze, whose film Some Interviews was screened at Samizdat 2023) documents a mystical world on the verge of extinction.
Cheerless (Uzhmuri) (1934) was commissioned to celebrate the Communists’ drive to drain the Mingrelian swamps inhabited by the treacherous spirits ‘Uzhmuri’, according to local beliefs. The magical realist style of the film and its equivocal storytelling undermine this message.
In A Picture to Remember (Фото на пам’ять) (2023), part of Samizdat’s annual Ukrainian film programme, the war is narrated through the voices of three generations of women: A grandmother in occupied Donbass, a mother studying parasites one floor above a morgue in Kyiv, and a daughter trying to make sense of reality through a camera lens. The film is prefaced by an experimental Ukrainian short film In The Noise Of A Downpour.
A Lithuanian musical rich with traditional folklore imagery and explosive visual style, The Devil’s Bride (Velnio Nuotaka) (1974) sees imp Pinčiukas expelled from heaven and landing in a lake by a windmill. He meets the miller, Baltaragis and makes a pact, but when the little devil tries to claim what was promised, Baltaragis attempts to trick him, and chaos ensues.
Tonya Noyabrova’s coming-of-age drama Do You Love Me? (Ти мене любиш?)(2023) shows a meticulously recreated Ukraine of the 1990s through the eyes of Kira, a teenager whose most tender years are spent amongst the artistic intelligentsia against the background of a collapsing Soviet empire.
Oksana Karpovych’s searing documentary Intercepted (Мирнi Люди) (2024) is a profound exploration of the very nature of war. The film is composed of long shots of landscapes and interiors devastated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, overlaid with a voiceover of telephone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families that were intercepted in 2022 by the Ukrainian Secret Service.
As part of a curatorial partnership with the Borscht Film Club (part of the Beetroots Collective), Samizdat will also host a screening of The Balcony Movie (Film Balkonowy) (2021), a unique Polish documentary comprised of director Paweł Łoziński’s conversations with random pedestrians passing by his Warsaw flat’s balcony.
Funny, pensive, touching, or troublesome, these momentary encounters paint a vivid and strange portrait of contemporary society, with all its hopes and issues. Director Paweł Łoziński will participate in an online Q&A with the audience after the screening.
With last festival’s Short Film Audience Award going to Comrade Policeman by Kazakh director Assel Aushakimova, the festival is continuing and expanding its Short Film Competition. This year, 17 titles — from Estonia to Kyrgyzstan — will compete for the main prize, awarded based on audience voting.
Real and unreal, presence and absence, human and inhuman blur together in Dusan Milić’s tense anti-war thriller-horror Darkling (Мрак). In rural Kosovo of the 1990s, eleven-year-old Milica lives in a dilapidated farmstead within the Serbian enclave with her mother Vuckiva and despotic grandfather Milutin.
Every night after dark, an unseen force seems to terrorise the family and slaughter their livestock, but the increasingly paranoid and dangerously erratic Milutin obstinately refuses to leave what’s left of his home.
In Lighthouse (Маяк) (2006), a young woman returns to her childhood village from Moscow in the hopes of persuading her grandparents to leave the war-town Caucasus. However, any escape proves elusive. The first feature filmed in Armenia to be directed by an Armenian woman, Lighthouse is a languorous rumination on local connections, memory and loss.
Samizdat Film Festival Horror Strand Curator and Festival Director Harriet Idle has said: “I think that this year’s programme is truly special and offers something for everyone — whether you’re a devout horror fan, have a love for animation, or want to discover some of the artistic richness produced from this part of the world.
“It’s such a joy for us to showcase some really absorbing, visually stunning films that don’t always receive the visibility they deserve in Scotland.”
Dylan Beck, Samizdat’s new Guest Curator, says: “I’ve previously enjoyed the festival as an audience member, and it’s been a pleasure to join Samizdat as a guest curator for its third iteration!
“I’m excited to be introducing a couple of Baltic cinema classics and look forward to watching other curators’ picks. It’s great to see the interest in films from the region growing — and with it the event, too!’
Festival Manager Ilia Ryzhenko adds: “Now that the festival has entered its third year, we are less restricted by the need to prove that there is a real demand for cinema from the ‘Wider Eastern Europe’, including other post-socialist spaces.
“This allows us to really play to our strengths, experimenting with different formats, events, genres, and bringing our screenings to venues outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh.”
Several virtual screenings of films from the in-person programme and recorded events are accessible on the website of Samizdat’s partner Klassiki, the world’s only curated streaming platform for films from Eastern/Central Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. All virtual screenings and events are accessible to attendees who join Klassiki’s membership.
Samizdat strives to ensure that its line-up can be seen by as many people as possible, so most film screenings are priced on a sliding scale, where the attendees are invited to pay based on their preference and ability. Special events are sometimes priced differently.
The 2024 edition of Samizdat is supported by Screen Scotland’s National Lottery Film Festival and Screening Fund and Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funds from Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI. Samizdat’s event co-organised with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain is jointly funded by Awards for All Scotland.
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival runs from 1 to 5 October and 19 October 2024.
If you are a fan of Alan Partridge – or, rather, if you are a fan of his long-suffering and put-upon assistant Lynn Benfield, do we have a job for you!
This weekend, on Sunday 4th of August, at 12pm, playwright Laura Horton is calling out for people to be part of a mass group photoshoot of Lynns on the Royal Mile.
At 12pm (lunchtime), join Laura Horton, author of new Fringe play ‘Lynn Faces’, and wear a mask of Lynn’s iconic “fed-up face”, for a photo op.
Up to 300 Lynns will smile (or rather grimace) for the camera, and the mass Lynn-army will then become a flashmob who will collectively stride the streets for a short lap chanting “Liberate Lynn.”
Anyone willing to don the face of the iconic Lynn Benfield is asked to meet Laura outside St Giles Cathedral at 12pm on Sunday 4th. On the right of the entrance to the Cathedral (as you face it from the Royal Mile). For the specific location, you can find it at this google maps link.
Lynn Faces will be performed at Summerhall, in the main hall from 1-26th August.
Summerhall celebrates stunning festival season visual arts programme with official Courtyard Launch
Including work from Helen Denerly, Pulitzer Prize-winner Lucian Perkins, and Summerhall’s own Robert McDowell
Summerhall is proud to bring a season of carefully curated, interrogative and thought-provoking exhibitions from local and international contemporary artists as part of the Summerhall 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Programme – celebrated last night during their official Courtyard Launch.
Running from 26 July – 20 September, Summerhall’s Visual Art Programme exhibitions include work from leading UK’s leading wildlife artist Helen Denerly (famed in Edinburgh for the beautiful giraffe sculptures that stand proudly outside the Omni Centre, in addition to a plethora of other UK and international work); Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lucian Perkins; internationally renowned for his distinctive style of ‘constructed photography’, Calum Colvin; Summerhall resident and skilled picture restorer, Jo Coates;bold paintings created during a Bipolar manic episode from Australian comedian turned artist, Sam Kissajukian; and Summerhall’s own Robert McDowell.
Last night (Thursday 25th July), drinks were served in the Summerhall courtyard and all the exhibitions opened for viewing – including this year’s Courtyard Commission winning artwork.
The festival season Visual Arts programme was curated by Samantha Chapman.
Scotland’s first Festival of Europe, co-hosted by the European Movement in Scotland, the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, the Citizen’s Rights Project and the New Europeans UK, will be taking place at Summerhall, Edinburgh, on 11th-12th May 2024.
The Festival will discuss the big issues at the heart of the UK’s current and future relations with the EU, and include speakers from the sponsoring organisations as well as the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews, the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Advisory Forum on Europe and the British Chamber of Commerce.
Here are the links to the events. Tickets are free with registration, just sign up to whichever ones interest you:
As part of the Festival, we are delighted to be able to announce Madeleina Kay’s Brexiles exhibition and the galleries of the Demarco European Foundation will be open to participants.
The European Movement is open to people of all political persuasions and it would be a pleasure to see you there.
Push the Boat Out(PTBO), Edinburgh’s International Poetry Festival, returns for its third year with a vibrant, exciting line-up featuring over 50 events and with over 80 performers, artists and speakers within the programme.
Tickets go on sale today, Thursday 5th October – International Poetry Day.
Running over the weekend of 24-26 November in Summerhall, Edinburgh, the third Push the Boat Out programme, supported by Creative Scotland, continues and expands the festival’s mission to change our perceptions of what poetry can be.
From poetry readings and discussions, to new commissions, singer-songwriter circles, music hybrid events, dance and hip hop, poetic cocktail-making classes, film screenings, beach walks, panels, workshops and development opportunities – this vibrant, multi-layered, polyphonic line-up is a true fiesta of the vernacular with something for everyone and anyone.
This year, we’re celebrating the poetry of songwriting. Join Hamish Hawk for a solo performance and an evening of lyrical enchantment with support from Iona Zajac. Hawk will also appear alongside Karine Polwart and Inua Ellams in a special Songwriting Circle event discussing what it means to create a song through poetry.
Continuing to wax lyrical, Bemz, Dave Hook and Queen of Harps will lift the lid on their songwriting process by sharing the backstory to their songs in a Song Exploder event, whilst multi-instrumentalist, Dizraeli will take an honest look at human creation and connection in their event, Animal Noises.
We’re also finding the drama in poetry, with a series of new commissions in association with the National Theatre of Scotland. We’re taking inspiration from our home, Summerhall, as Ever Dundas and Harry Josephine Giles celebrate the building’s history with a darkly gothic night of poetry and original music composed by David Paul Jones that promises to be ‘cinema for the ears’.
We’re interested in the politics of poetry, as Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey posit that poetry is for the many, with Yvonne Reddick’s urgent climate poetry, Kim Moore’s feminist poetic, and the pulsing poem-stories of William Letford and Dawn Watson.
Our online programme includes international poetry stars Meena Kandasamy and Tishani Doshi, beamed into your home. We’re enjoying the sheer pleasure of poetry, as Cat Prince Michael Pedersen hangs out with his feline subjects in Maison de Moggy, Joelle Taylor and Kate Fox will help shake up a poetic cocktail or two, Sean Wai Keung leads us through a dumpling and poetry workshop, Inua Ellams throws open the doors with his audience-led Search Party show, and John Hegley runs an anarchic, joyous, hands-on creative session.
Emma Collins, Director of Push the Boat Out, said: “In this third year, Push the Boat Out is definitely poetry placed firmly in a current tide. This year’s programme is a true showcasing of contemporary excellence. Modern, charged, alive, joyful and celebratory with events that are also vehicles for important and vital discussions.
“We’ve brought together over eighty of the most exciting poets from Scotland, the UK and beyond and we’ve continued to expand our notion of what poetry is, with eclectic events that celebrate words and language in their many glorious forms and in conversation with other artistic disciplines.
“Poetry is everywhere, it’s the lyrics in songs, our conversations and dialogues, the rhythm of spoken word, scripts and sonnets, proclamations and points of view, the stories we tell and the history around us.
“That’s what Push the Boat Out is primarily about … words, how we use them, a celebration of them and what they mean to us. We’ve endeavoured to capture that in this year’s programming.
“We also strive to make Push the Boat Out as accessible for audiences as possible. BSL interpreted events are indicated within the programme and once again, in addition to our in person and online programme, we will have a programme of events free to listen to at home via our partners EHFM Radio as well as a selected live stream event that showcases newly commissioned work.
“We’ve been overjoyed by the response from the incredible artists and poets who’ve agreed to come on board the boat this year and cannot wait to bring them all together for audiences this November.”
Harriet MacMillan, Literature Officer at Creative Scotland, said:“In its third year, the Push the Boat Out programme is brighter and more dynamic than ever, capturing the many dimensions of Scotland’s rich poetry scene.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, this unique and varied international suite of events is testament to the vital role poetry plays in all of our lives.
“Their increasing range of collaborations and activities continues to show us how words can connect us with each other and ourselves – the power of poetry will be felt by all who take part in this brilliant celebration.”
What does a 70-year-old man pulling dead rats out of gutters have to do with becoming a better human? Chris Singleton has the answer in his spoken word comedy show ‘How to be a Better Human’ at Summerhall this month.
“I lost my dad to bowel cancer in 2019,” says Chris. “And a few months later my wife left me. So I did what anyone would do, and wrote a comedy about it.”
‘How to Be a Better Human’is a spoken word comedy about grief, loss and self-acceptance. Set up as a Ted Talk, it features powerpoint comedy, animation and original music.
“I wanted to explore the lightness and humour in death and divorce,” continues Chris. “How we can lose everything and still find the strength to rebuild. How it helped me become better at empathising, connecting and understanding.”
His debut show has received glowing reviews on tour across the North, with many comments about how the show shifts between laughter and sadness.
“Death is something we’re all going to experience – that’s one thing we can be absolutely sure of. So why don’t we talk about it more? I’m hoping this show will spark conversation and understanding around the subjects of death and grief.”
To find out how growing a beard can be the best decision of your life, and why some hedgehogs are absolute dickheads, catch How to be a Better Human this month.
How to be a Better Human is on every day at 6pm until Saturday 28th August (excluding Monday 15th & Monday 22nd)
EIGHT Edinburgh Festival Fringe producing venues – Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbelly and ZOO – are coming together for the first time to launch an updated show ticketing and reviews platform, edfest.com – providing audiences with a central hub for easy booking, information and reviews of ‘the best curated shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’.
With tickets now on sale, edfest.com provides a centralised booking and reviews hub providing access to 1,159 shows across comedy, dance, theatre, and music at 140 venues, featuring performers from 32 different countries.
Some notable performers and shows in the 2022 edfest.com line up are:
Assembly: Choir of Man, Beats on Point, Friendsical, Love Loss & Chianti and Queenz
DanceBase: Ballet Ireland, Scottish Dance Theatre, Dan Daw Creative Projects
Gilded Balloon: Late’n Live, Maisie Adam, Leith Social, Henry Naylor, Jack Docherty
Just The Tonic: Jimeoin, Tom Stade, Aliya Kanani, Jack Gleadow, Anthony Deveto
Pleasance: Freedom Ballet of Ukraine, Sophie Duker, Ben Hart, Tim Vine, SK Shlomo
Summerhall: Learning to Fly, Life is Soft, Mama Love, Talisk, Efterkland
Underbelly: La Clique, Rhys Nicholson, Dragons & Mythical Beasts, Circa: Humans 2.0, Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch
ZOO: Night Dances, Runners, Rocky, Sad Book, Far Gone, Every word was once an animal
The new edfest.com website has been designed to give audiences a more bespoke experience, allowing them to search and find shows they will love.
Companies and venues will update information on a regular basis and the public will be encouraged to review shows and share with their friends. The new experience gives ticket buyers a more rounded view of what’s on offer, replacing what word of mouth and poster clippings have done in the past.
Speaking on behalf of the eight edfest.com venues, Jim Hollington, CEO of Dance Base, comments: “The last two years have been incredibly hard for everyone in the arts and entertainment sector. It’s therefore critical that this year’s Edinburgh Fringe is a success, to protect the future of our own organisations, of the performing artists who make the Fringe, and of our contribution to the city of Edinburgh overall.
“As producing venues, we invest a huge amount of time, energy and money curating and producing some of the best entertainment in the world and bringing that to Edinburgh. Whilst the pandemic created numerous challenges, it did allow us to stop and think about how we could collaborate and do things better.
“Across the eight edfest.com venues we share a similar vision and so it made sense for us to pool our sales and marketing resources to drive efficiencies across our own operations and ultimately make things easier for customers. Our box offices will also all be linked and audiences will be able to buy for multiple venues.
“Crucially this year we are going on sale earlier than usual to increase the sales window for bookings and generate much needed revenue.
“Putting the last two years behind us we would like to encourage everyone from Fringe loyalists who turn up every year, to Edinburgh locals and first timers to visit edfest.com, book some spectacular shows and once again enjoy the best possible Edinburgh Fringe experience this August. We can’t wait to get going!”
Taiwan Film Festival Edinburghreturns for its second edition between 25 and 31 October with a fantastic range of Taiwanese cinema gems, many of them UK premieres, dating from the 1930s up to 2020, presented through in-person screenings and digital talks at Glasgow Film Theatre and Summerhall in Edinburgh and a free digital programme of films.
With the theme of Disruptions and Transformations, inspired by the fast-changing and unsettling world in the past few years, the Festival explores both the monumental historic shifts the Taiwanese society experienced over the decades but also portrays the seemingly small disruptions of the everyday.
Featuring the work of legends such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang, and exploring topics such as war, urban life and the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community, the free programme of digital screenings is now available to pre-book on the Festival’s digital platform. Access is limited to a specific number of viewers per film so audiences are advised to book early.
For the first time, the Festival also presents a range of in-person screenings. As part of their special climate-focused strand in the run up to COP26, Glasgow Film Theatre will host a screening of two environmental documentaries showing how Taiwanese filmmakers address environmental transformations caused by economic and industrial progress – after all, the climate emergency is the ultimate change and interruption we all must respond to together.
On 25 October, Sacred Forest (2019) will delve deep into the majestic cypress forest in Taiwan and on 30 October, Whale Island (2020) will explore how the ocean might become our home one day. Tickets on sale soon.
Sounds in Silence is a double bill of silent cinema gems offering an extraordinary glimpse into the everyday lives of Taiwanese people in the early and mid-20th century, presented at Summerhall on 27 October and featuring new score from acclaimed composer and musician Lim Giong and live music by Glasgow-based experimental musician Rory Green. With contemporary film scoring featuring on the archive films from decades ago, the event is going to take audience on a trip through time to Taiwan in the 1930s and 1960s.
Liu Kuan-Ping, Chief Curator at the Festival, said: “I am really excited that for the first time, Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh is bringing three in-person screenings taking place at two fantastic arts institutions: Glasgow Film Theatre and Summerhall – all exploring Disruptions and Transformations on a macro and micro scale.
“I cannot wait to meet our audience face to face, with facial masks on of course. We are also pleased to be back with an inspired programme of free digital screenings this year available to nationwide audiences.
“We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan, our generous sponsor, as well as our partners Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute who have been instrumental in securing some of the cinematic gems we are now able to share with our UK audiences.”
Telling us the inspiration of the theme, one of theco-curators, Chiu Yi-Chieh said: “On 23 March 2020, all of our lives were interrupted in unimaginable ways by the global pandemic- it was precisely at that time that the Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh was born.
“It made us reflect on how changes and interruptions are always present in our daily lives. When we were making the selection, we wanted to encourage audiences to look beyond the canons and fall in love with films that are overdue the world’s applause.
“We welcome audiences’ own interpretative grouping by putting all films under the theme of Disruptions and Transformations without the conventional curatorial classification.”
Head of Taipei Representative Office UK Cultural Division, Dr Chen Pin-Chuan said: “It is great to see Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh continuing the great work. Through these wonderful films from Taiwan, we hope to establish connections with Scottish audiences, and will introduce more cultural and arts programs to Scotland in the near future.”
2021 TAIWAN FILM FESTIVAL EDINBURGH PROGRAMME
IN-PERSON SCREENINGS in Glasgow and Edinburgh
Sacred Forest 神殿| Ke Ching-Yuan| 2019 | 60 mins
In-person screening on 25 October at Glasgow Film Theatre; tickets on sale soon.
Sacred Forest takes an eco-philosophical approach to introduce the deeply unique nature of Taiwan’s cloud enveloped cypress forest ecosystems and to explore the nation’s oldest forests, tallest tree species, and priceless, multi-millennial stands of giant ‘sacred trees’. Sacred Forest follows six separate groups, each with different interests and field specialties, as they experience the raw majesty of the forest from multiple facets ranging from the analytically intellectual to the introspectively emotional and spiritually uplifting.
The screening will also feature a special introduction from the film director, Ke Ching-yuan.
Whale Island 男人與他的海 | Huang Jia Jun| 2020 | 108 mins | UK Premiere
In-person screening on 30 October at Glasgow Film Theatre; tickets on sale soon.
Taiwan is an island. Although it is surrounded by the sea, its people fear the sea since the history and the religious beliefs held on this island make people turn their backs to the sea. Oceanic literature author Liao Hung-chi and underwater photographer Ray Chin lead the audience out to the sea and into the water. They prompt us to understand the sea and to think about the possibility that the ocean might become our lives and the future of our living land.
The screening will also feature a special introduction from the film director, Huang Jia-jun
Sounds in Silence double bill at 6.30pm on 27 October in Summerhall, Edinburgh; also online 28-31 Oct on Festival website.
A Morning in Taipei 臺北之晨 | Pai Jing-jui | 1964 | 20 mins | UK Premiere
Director Pai Jing-jui’s 1964 short documentary depicts a modern, industrious Taipei full of diverse and determined individuals as they perform their morning routines. People begin their workday, actors prepare for a theatrical performance, and children play in the schoolyard; the day is full of wonder and possibility.
A pre-recorded conversation between Chen Chia-Huei (co-creator of the new score and sound for A Morning in Taipei and the art consultant and Head of Education at the Taiwan Sound Lab) and musician Rory Green will be screened after A Morning in Taipei.
Deng Nan-guang’s 8mm Movies 鄧南光8mm家庭電影| Deng Nan-guang| 1935-1941| 57 mins| UK Premiere
Deng Nan-Guang’s 57-minute collection of intimate home-style videos, filmed between 1935 and 1941, captures an overlooked side of Taiwanese life under Japanese occupation. The films serve as a well-preserved time portal to a bygone era, offering a glimpse of life in Taiwan under colonial rule in the lead up to the Second World War. Screened to a live music score from a Glasgow-based experimental musician Rory Green.
DIGITAL SCREENINGS on the Festival website between 25 and 31 October
The Best Secret Agent 天字第一號 | Chang Ying | 1964 | 102 mins
The first Taiwanese-language spy film produced in Taiwan; The Best Secret Agent is a remake of the 1945 movie of the same name that caused a sensation in Shanghai. During the Sino-Japanese War, Tsui-Ying flees with her father from the Japanese occupation. She meets a young man, Ling-Yun, and falls in love. In the meantime, Special Agent 001 leads the resistance against the Japanese.
Foolish Bride, Naive Bridegroom 三八新娘憨子婿| Hsin Chi | 1967 | 101 mins
The parents of two young lovers meet to discuss the possibility of their marriage, only to discover that they themselves were lovers 30 years ago.
Dangerous Youth 危險的青春 | Hsin Chi | 1969 | 95 mins
Khue-guan (Shi Ying), a penniless delivery boy for a cosmetics company, meets Tsing-bi (Zheng Xiao-fen), a young and charming waitress, in awkward circumstances just as his girlfriend leaves him for a wealthy suitor. Khue-guan is intrigued by Tsing-bi and tries to get her another job after meeting Giok-sian (Gao Xing-zhi), who runs a cabaret. Eventually, she finds out that her new job is as an escort to a lonely, elderly millionaire named Mr. Tshi.
The Homecoming Pilgrimage of Dajia Mazu 大甲媽祖回娘家| Huang Chun-ming | 1975 | 27 mins | UK Premiere
Viewers are transported back in time to 1974 to see the annual Taoist celebration of the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage. Thousands of participants accompany a statue of the goddess Mazu on a 9-day, 8-night procession, stopping at several prominent temples along the way.
Taipei Story 青梅竹馬 | Edward Yang | 1985 | 115 mins
A headstrong and financially-secure woman, Chin (played by Chin Tsai), is anxious to move forward in life and escape from the dissatisfaction and pain caused by family troubles, urban alienation, a lack of job security, tumultuous friendships, and a distant past of baseball glory to which her boyfriend, Lung (Hou Hsiao-hsien), so desperately clings. Chin thinks moving to America may be the solution, but as time goes by, it becomes increasingly clear that may not fix all her problems.
Dust in the Wind 戀戀風塵 | Hou Hsiao-Hsien | 1986 | 109 mins
Dust in the Wind is a coming-of-age love story about two young individuals, Wan and Huen, from the Taiwanese mining village of Jio-fen. Their hope is to make enough money to be able to get married one day, believing like everyone else that they are meant for each other. Despite what fate may seem to have in store for them, they cannot help but care deeply for one another.
Peony Birds 牡丹鳥 | Huang Yu-shan| 1990 | 107 mins | UK Premiere
A multi-generational story about the troubled relationship between a mother and a daughter: from when she was a young child to adulthood and her joining her mother in the busy Taipei of the 80s and 90s and pursuing a career of her own.
Also available on the Festival’s digital platform will be a Q&A session with director Huang Yu-shan.
Hill of no Return 無言的山丘 | Wang Tung | 1992 | 175 mins
This 1992 drama, set in 1927, tells the tale of two brothers, Chu and Wei, who leave home following the death of their parents to work at a Japanese-occupied gold mine in the remote, poverty-stricken town of Jiou-fen in the northeast of Taiwan. The brothers dream of one day becoming rich and owning their own land and, taken in by the gold rush, they endure back-breaking labour for little reward. They then both fall deeply in love with partners that risk to complicate their lives even further.
Also available on the Festival’s digital platform will be a Q&A session with director Wang Tung.
The Personals 徵婚啓事 | Chen Kuo-Fu | 1998 | 105 mins
Du Jia-zhen is a 29-year-old eye doctor at a hospital, who decides to quit her job and find a husband. She places a personal ad in the newspaper, searching for a potential match to distract herself from recent heartbreak. The film depicts the urban dating scene of Taipei in the 1990s in all of its absurdity and hideousness, conveying humour through humiliation and evoking sympathy for the strangest people.
Splendid Float 豔光四射歌舞團 | Zero Zhou | 2004 | 73 mins
An aesthetically stunning, lightly humorous, and dramatic film that confronts traditional gender roles and explores the themes of conformity, grief, acceptance, personal struggle, and identity. A Taoist priest named Xiao Qiang-wei (James Chen) doubles as a drag queen by the name of Rose that performs at various nightlife venues.
Closing Time 打烊時刻 | Nicole Vogele | 2018 | 116 mins
Swiss filmmaker Nicole Vogele’s documentary Closing Time captures the calm after the storm of midnight living. The film draws attention to the quiet, fatigued period that follows the hustle and bustle of Taipei’s vibrant city life and the night shift workers that keep the city awake well into the early hours of the next day.
