land by sea Montrose film fest

Climate focused film festival

I booked up Scotland’s first climate focused film festival at Montrose as soon as I heard about it, the announcements of what films were going to be on etc. took a long time to become available to book, so; I was a bit disorganized as the weekend approached, in the end I booked a £25 all day Saturday and Sunday ticket this turned out to be a fantastic bargain,

Montrose is situated on the main East Coast Line to Aberdeen - it’s well served by trains I got the train at midday and arrived with plenty time on the Friday afternoon before any of the films started, I had opted not to buy a ticket for the opening night film not because I didn’t like the sound of the film – (it was called the Golden thread) it was a launch night reception with canapes stuff that I can’t really be bothered (I’m not a posh type) with, this wasn’t cheap which is fine if you like canapes, I went for a run when I arrived, running out towards the old fire training ground that I used to attend firefighting training at, I was shocked to see it totally flattened - it used to be a fantastic facility there was old oil rigs with fake helicopter landing pads and fake metal helicopters, various buildings of all description for search and rescue training also - confined space rescue, along with the ability of setting fires inside confined space, for realistic fire training with breathing apparatus blackened out, we also got chemical spill and loss of containment training, I wonder where all this training takes place now? from there - I ran down past the air Museum, Montrose was once an RAF air base, then down past the football grounds towards the beach - along the beachfront and back into town, a pleasant run with lots of good memories, a quick internet check showed that; the best place to eat for a plant based diet was - an Indian restaurant a very short walk from my hotel, this turned out to be perfect, I’ve never seen such a vegan friendly menu in a non-vegan restaurant before, ( it even had a write up calling vegans their friends! I’m; used to being ashamed to call myself that, it gets you hated sometimes) the staff were very friendly and knowledgeable about what had dairy in it,

I cannot deny I now regret not buying a ticket for the opening film, as; I would like to watch it - it’s in relation to the jute industry which; is more what people these days would likely call – Hessian, Dundee was once the world capital of the production of this material and its industry, before the industry moved to India, the Film was all about the link of this industry between Scotland and India - working conditions, commercial supply chains and international markets, I did go up to the cinema, whilst the film was on. there was nobody around so; I had the opportunity to chat with some of the staff in the excellent Montrose Community Asset Funded Cinema Complex, this is a former swimming pool! I had swum in that pool with my son and nephews on a few occasions long before the council shut it down, the transformation from a swimming pool into a community owned film theater is a fantastic story – but one for another blog; as it ties in with me educating myself about community asset transfers, I am going through this process in my own community with our community center. when the Film was over Rachel one of the festival directors that knows me, introduced me to Anthony a filmmaker, one of the cinema patrons and the other festival director, he was a very interesting person we ended up having a lot of good conversations over the weekend, I am sure we will have more in the future, we had a few beers in the cinema bar then I caught last orders in the market arms on my way back to the hotel. Saturday Having breakfast booked at the hotel is a great thing - if you’re the sort of person who is good at getting themselves out of bed early? I hate dragging myself out of bed but; when sitting down for a decent breakfast it became worthwhile, deciding to go for a walk instead of a run around town, I noticed a shop filled with tat that I obviously didn’t need was closing down, it was selling bargains to my shame I couldn’t resist, some Christmas gifts were purchased at a bargain price - then I bought some oatmilk and headed of to the festival, there was an antique shop with some glorious items I couldn’t resist a daunder around, I nearly purchased a big bass drum but time was off the essence, it would be a mad dash to get to the first film of the day if I bought it, there was an eco fair outside of the cinema for the whole day, unfortunately; I did not get time to have a look round, a shame that AS; I really wanted to go into the solar powered cinema caravan, however you cannot do everything.

all of the films over the weekend started with a short film, the very first one was called change direction, this was made by an 18 year old wheelchair bound Edinburgh girl, attending school in her wheelchair pointing out how all of society needs to change direction -a quietly impassioned call-to-action in the face of climate change apathy to a more user friendly sustainable slower way of life not designed for fast cars and fast food but for pedestrians, the longer film was called - into the ice, an absolutely fantastic film superb cinematography, adventure, drama, scientific education, I learned a lot about the Greenland ice shelf, All the films had A Q &A session after the film, the two members of the panel after that showing were not my favorites! in fact one of them I was slightly annoyed with - Dr Nevin works at the University of Stirling as a climate scientist, I do not know his field of expertise? but he seemed to just say it will be fine for our lifetime! this level of selfishness! I find unbearable, my question to him about the Greenland ice shelf was - its effect on the jet stream and the worsening of storms on the east coast, as always I had questions for both the people on the panel - the other person represented the Scottish electricity company SSE, I asked her if we should not be renationalizing our energy grid and renationalize the energy suppliers, she basically said that was not her department, lovely woman but what my brain thought was - fair enough let’s carry on with the green washing then the next short film was called beavers about town, this was a truly heartwarming, hope giving - short film, it would be impossible to watch this, then not to have you loving beavers, the finishing picture is the cutest thing I’ve seen in years, the next big film was – Riverwood ( I loved it), it was made by a Scottish rewilding group that I was a former member of, it showed the decline of Scottish wild salmon and advocated the return of trees, Beavers, lynx etc., a dream of a more biodiverse Scotland as it once was, it showed the work being done in trying to achieve this and areas of the world where this approach had become a success, fascinating it was, there was just the one person on the Q&A afterwards - Peter Cairns executive director of Scotland the big picture, he was a fantastic spokesperson a true advocate of a natural countryside, a champion for native species and biodiversity, I prodded him with a loaded question on – why? if the mainstream media were being honest that King Charles had an environmental conscience, was he not rewilding, banning grouse shooting, ending stag shooting as a sport? Or even cutting back on the industrial scale slaughter animal industry, why is he not introducing land reform, he basically chuckled it that question then said - what his majesty says in public is not reflected on how he manages his land, he is not a fan of Beavers or any other rewilding biodiverse method of farming, he could; do so much! but he does nothing

the next short film was called, the last ski maker in Scotland, it’s an ok film -I had seen it previously at KMFF, I liked it the first time I seen it, BUT; for me personal thoughts of the loss of Scottish winters makes me sad, the long film was called, The North Drift its an investigative journey through European waters to unravel the mysterious paths of plastic waste. Intrigued by the inexplicable appearance! of a German beer bottle on the remote Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Ocean, (he took it back to Germany for a refund) filmmaker Steffen Krones teams up with engineers and notable scientists to track the waste's voyage. They create GPS-equipped buoys, launching them into the river Elbe and monitoring their drift into the North Sea. Throughout this journey, Krones' friend Kris Jensen provides a unique perspective on human impact in this remote region, I loved this film so many humorous moments and sad moments! so much to learn moments of hope and moments of it’s all too late, the film director Stephen Krones did the Q&A himself and: done a really good job, I have found with many German people that I know, they have excellent English and yet still apologized for not knowing all the correct words! he was wrong in this - he made himself understood much better than many people I know that live in the UK could have done, one of the things he said that will stick with me was that - the one thing about plastic and petrochemical products is that nobody can turn around and say they are not man-made! This is helpful to remember when in company of pro pollution people that are saying too often these days, that biodiversity loss, polar and glacial ice loss, climate change, adverse weather – flooding, wildfires, storms, desertification, far too many people say -These things are not the fault of humans, they are being told that it’s all part of earth’s natural climate change, which it is but not at the speed its happening, plastic and petrochemical pollution cannot be denied, to be made from hydrocarbons turned into toxic pollutants by humans, and this has gone out of control everywhere.

Next up was called shorts - this was a series of short films relating to swimming, these films were called - the ice mile, chilly dippers, the water holds me and the water binds us with Becca Harvey the hero of the film the ice mail and acclaimed ice swimmer, doing the Q&A, I am a big fan of outdoor adventure films such as these, it wasn’t overly climate focused if I am to be critical, BUT; I did ask at the Q&A if swimming groups worldwide are monitoring water temperatures for climate change stats, Becca said thatshe didn’t know if this was being officially monitored, but everybody not only notices the rapid change in loch, sea and lake temperatures. but that it was also getting harder to source ice in the wild for events such as these, I also asked if perhaps the films should point out the risk of riptides? as I know some of the beaches I have swam on you have to be extremely careful, These were the last films of the evening we had time for beer and chats at the bar, but I had to leave as I had spent the full day at the cinema, which didn’t really have anything for me to eat, luckily there was within walking distance A Tesco’s, which was open until 12 a bag of food was bought, then I had beers in the old picture house until closing time - a good day was had

Sunday morning was as usual A struggle to get out of bed but; I was determined to make the Looney Dook swim by running down after breakfast, that big breakfast sat heavy as I ran, but I managed it, I had overdone breakfast because I had bought oatmilk for my cereal and coffee, (I ate far too much) the local swimming group call themselves the Montrose Polar Bears, they had their flag out on the beach, becca from the ice mile film was joining the local swim groups and us festival attendees for - a looney dook, down Montrose beach, I got a chance for a good chat with Becca’s partner Michael who is an ultra-runner, I will be following him now as I think he is going to achieve a lot.

I have three nephews and 4 great nephews, that live in the area around Montrose, after the sea dip I was running back from the beach, one of my nephews phoned me he remembered from months ago. I would be in town and wanted to meet up, I was very pleased about this as - I had wrongly thought they perhaps didn’t want to be involved with climate activists, it was just my sister hadn’t told her boys I was there,(she’s in Bulgaria) himself and my other nephew plus one of my great nephews were at the hotel when I got back, we arranged to meet at the cinema with some of the others family members - before I went into the first film of the day, it was a shame I didn’t organise a much better family get together, we don’t see much of each other especially the little ones (I’m almost a stranger to them some would say they don’t come much stranger than uncle Kenny!) and; there was me abandoning them again, after a very short chat and beer, I went into the first film of the day, which; I had been greatly looking forward to -father Earth, made by Graham Fellows, who also goes by the name of John Shuttleworth, his alter ego, I am not a good singer - whenever forced into taking a shot on the karaoke! I only ever sing one song; it’s called Jilted John by Jilted John, This is another of Graham Fellows alter egos (from 45yr ago) the film was great, it’s centred on him firstly becoming climate aware, his desire to build an eco-friendly recording studio on Orkney, while still trying to juggle family and personal loss, it was entertaining and interesting, I totally loved the Q&A afterwards where; I got an opportunity to ask him what’s happened to jilted John is he dead? Or; is he going to be resurrected, the answer was John will rise again - I look forward to the tour.

The Q&A had went on too long as - the next films I had booked into, had already started by the time I got in to screen three, sadly; I had missed the beginning of what would have been perhaps ( I loved the short film called haulout) the best film in that series of shorts, a film called Seabird Directed by Conor Ferris in the words of Adam Nicholson, who; has been visiting a remote Scottish Island once filled with seabirds since his childhood, the parts of this film that I did catch were fascinating and sad, (especially in light of what happened to me as regards sea birds on Monday)

next up was - the oil machine, a film I have taken part in the Q&A for on a few occasions now, I was one of the panel for this film Q&A at its premiere in Stirling and also it’s 100th screening, plus a few others and here I was again! this time joining me on the Q&A panel was Jake Malloy an RMT Union representative and former offshore workers rep, We were given a good opportunity to talk about society’s oil addiction, there was some very excellent questioning from Rachel, the audience also gave us some good questions, which I answered from an environmental activist’s point of view, and Jake answered from a socialist/trade unionist point of view, both of us trying to explain what a just transition away from oil could look like, a subject made intentionally complex by mainstream media, due - to the oil industry intentionally keeping the people in our society addicted to the oil industry products, Later on I was congratulated by 4 or 5 people on my responses to the questions, I can’t ask for better than that. Last but definitely not least was - Patrick And the whale, a fantastic film with superb cinematography, it was a great education into sperm whales, The director of the film along with Patrick - gave a fantastic Q&A after this films UK Premier screening of this film Patrick’s answers to some very good questions was extremely insightful. Afterwards I had some good chats with some nice people endless in the cinema bar, there was 22 films over the weekend i missed three 1 long two short, that was it - the end or wrap up of Scotland’s first climate focused film festival, I spoke with two or three of the festival organisers and offered my help for next year! When; I shall hopefully be able to organise a trail run with the green runners, perhaps even submit a short film about the green runners - a community I am proud to be part of, I managed to catch last orders in the market arms again,

the Monday morning checkout was 11:00 AM – but; my train was not until after 2:00 P m so one final run around the town was done, firstly - running out to the large lighthouse at Ferryden then back into Montrose along to the beach, where I was going to enjoy a good barefoot run along the sand again, which I did! to begin with; before discovering a whole bunch of dead sea birds these were all razor bills a type of auk, this was strange to me more than ten dead birds in the space of a mile, I reported it to the authorities and re listened to the narration I had done off - SR crockets glistering beaches a conservation tale of the Great auk from 1895!! https://youtu.be/SobeJS3gqj4?si=4OSUoldRCelvJHAn also, to further ruin my last morning’s run, I came across a bunch of balloons on the beach! many years ago I had given up picking up other people’s rubbish - deciding that I was wasting my time! but looking at these balloons on the beach, and now knowing where they would end up - due to watching the film called - the North Drift I decided, I had best pick them up, this balloon then ran with his bunch o balloons, a mile or so along a beach path to find a Bin - Goodbye Montrose see you next year