The Wicker Tree is a film adaptation of Robin Hardy’s 2006 novel, Cowboys for Christ, and contains similar elements to his 1973 film The Wicker Man, but it is neither a sequel nor a remake of that film.

The film focuses on Texas pop star turned gospel singer, Beth (Brittania Nicol) and her boyfriend, Steve (Henry Garrett), both devout evangelical Christians sent on a mission to spread the word of God to the people of Scotland.  Beth and Steve decide to begin their preaching at the May Day celebrations in the village. In an attempt to impress the locals, they agree to becoming the local Queen of the May and the Laddie for the festival, not realising the consequences of their decision and what awaits them.

Robin Hardy began his directorial career in Canada and the US, where he was mainly involved in making television drama. In the 1960’s he returned to London and became involved in making commercials and informational films for the company Hardy Shaffer Ferguson Avery, which Hardy formed with writer Anthony Shaffer.

As a result of this partnership, the two men were involved in the creation and production of Hardy’s feature debut, the pagan horror masterpiece The Wicker Man. Although now considered a classic (at the time, its star Christopher Lee regarded it as his finest work), the film suffered after its producers made extensive cuts. Thanks partly to the subsequent disappearance of the original negative, it took nearly thirty years for the full-length version to be released in Britain.

Lisa Ward, Marketing Officer at Shetland Arts, said: “This is a unique opportunity to see a new film by celebrated director and writer Robin Hardy. I expect there will be a lot of interest in the screening.”

The screening is free of charge but Shetland Arts strongly recommends booking tickets to ensure a seat. Tickets can be booked through Shetland Box Office online at http://www.shetlandboxoffice.org or by calling 01595 745 555.

For up to date film information see our Films @ The Garrison Theatre page
(http://www.shetlandarts.org/whats-on/garrison-film)

Or, buy tickets online now at http://www.shetlandboxoffice.org/

All the films will be introduced by festival director Lizzie Bisschoff, who will also give an introductory talk on the Friday evening. In addition, Lizzie Bisschoff will conduct a Q and A session at the end of Bamako on Saturday evening.

Films to be screened in Lerwick include the documentary Like A Man on Earth, made by a young man who fled Ethiopia to escape violent political repression, showing the tremendous struggles and suffering borne by refugees; Tilai (The Law) made by the acclaimed African director Idrissa Ouedraogo, which is the story of an illicit love affair and its consequences for a small village in Burkina Faso, and Bamako, an offbeat, satirical comedy written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, in which the director imagines how it would be if Western powers were forced to answer for the damage they have done in the Third World; in the courtyard of a shared house in a village in Mali, African civil society spokesmen decide to take proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF, whilst all around them, village life goes on.

There will also be a free programme of short, animated films for children and young people on Saturday, to which adults are also welcome!

Stuart Hubbard from Shetland Film Club said that the club was delighted to be able to assist in bringing African film to a wider audience. “As part of our outreach partnership work with Shetland Arts, we feel this is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the film makers of Africa, who rarely make it to the screen in the UK.” This leg of the festival has also been supported by Unison (Health Branch) and Shetland Amnesty International Group. The Film Club outreach work is funded by Shetland Arts, the Shetland Charitable Trust’s Arts Fund and by the Co-op Community Fund.

Tickets will be on sale from the Shetland Box office at Islesburgh from Monday 2nd November onwards, tel. 01595 745555. For those over 15 years old there is a festival ticket costing £10 (£7 concessions) which will get you in to all screenings and talks. Otherwise, individual tickets cost £4 (£3 concessions) and the young people’s animation session is free.

For further information contact Kathy Hubbard at Shetland Arts on 01595 743843 or e-mail kathy.hubbard@shetlandarts.org or Stuart Hubbard at Shetland Film Club on 01950 477235, e-mail skhubbard@btinternet.com.

Mark Kermode heads for the UK’s most northerly bus shelter before welcoming Terence Davies to the Shetland Film Festival

Shetland young filmmakers group Maddrim Media will welcome film critic Mark Kermode (and his mum) to be guests of honour to the UK’s smallest film festival screening in the UK’s most northerly bus Shelter this Thursday. Complete with tickets, ushers, popcorn and ice-cream. Maddrim will be showing Mark some of the films they have made for Screenplay ’09, Shetland’s third annual film festival. The venue, Bobby’s Bus Shelter, virtually at the UK’s most northerly point, is something of a Shetland institution. Some ten years ago a wicker sofa and table appeared in the shelter, with no-one claiming responsibility. Soon afterwards a small TV was added, followed by a ‘hot snacks’ counter; since then, the tiny bus shelter has had curtains, a computer, hamsters, fairy lights, paintings, reading materials and much more installed, all secretly, and much to the delight of anyone who has to wait for the school bus there on a wet morning – http://tinyurl.com/m5cf32

Shetland Arts’ third film festival, Screenplay 09, got off to a flying start on Fair Isle last weekend (29/30 Aug) with enthusiastic audiences enjoying a varied programme of films. The festival moves on to Whalsay, Aith, Yell and Unst during the week, including a very special screening at Bobby’s Bus Shelter in Baltasound.

This year Screenplay 09 has two strands – the first being on a theme of ‘Compass Points’, where the films have a connection with north, south, east or west either in their titles, their content or the countries in which they were made. So, the audience will be going north to Iceland with Heima, with a free screening of Sigur Ros’ impromptu series of concerts across Iceland in 2006; south with Sir Edward Shackleton and the crew of the ‘Endurance’, with Frank Hurley’s original 1916 documentary footage; east with Howl’s Moving Castle and the extraordinary Waltz With Bashir; and west to Skye with Seachd and The Inheritance, to name but a few.

The north of England features largely in the festival’s second strand, the works of acclaimed director Terence Davies. Arts Development Manager Kathy Hubbard said “We are honoured to have one of Britain’s greatest living film-makers, Terence Davies, visiting the festival this year to talk about his films. Of Time and the City, his most recent film, has gathered enormous critical acclaim worldwide, and will close the festival on the Sunday evening”.

Other film professionals coming to Screenplay include Simon Miller and Joanne Cockwell (the director and screenplay writer of Seachd, the first Gaelic film to achieve national release), TV producers Foz Allan and Matthew Read, writer/producer Tim Barrow and Anne Mensah, who is responsible for commissioning drama UK wide for the BBC.

Screenplay will promote all sorts of moving image: archive material, movie classics such as East of Eden with James Dean, late night features, works by independent filmmakers, animation for all age groups (including some excellent short films from the National Film Board of Canada), music video and feature film, plus the regular audience favourite – an evening of new short films made in Shetland. There will also be a television strand, with a screening of an episode of the BBC’s Robin Hood directed by Douglas Mackinnon, followed by a panel discussion including Mark Greig (writer of Ashes to Ashes, The Bill, Life on Mars and Taggart) on adapting work for TV, which should be of great interest to anyone considering writing or working in television.

The second strand is a ‘Compass Points’ theme running through the rest of the programme, going north to Iceland with a free late night screening of Sigur Ros’ Heima, south with South (the 1919 actual documentary footage of Shackleton’s expedition to the South Atlantic, east with a James Dean classic East of Eden, and west to Skye for Seachd: the Inaccessible Pinnacle, the first Gaelic film to achieve international release. As an added treat, the film’s director (Simon Miller) and screenplay writer (Jo Cockwell) will be visiting the festival to talk about their work.

Further forays into the east are represented by the fabulous Japanese animation, Howl’s Moving Castle, and the extraordinary animated story of one Israeli’s memories of a massacre in the Lebanon, Waltz with Bashir.

There will be screenings at various ‘compass points’ around Shetland – Fair Isle, Baltasound, Whalsay and Aith – but I’ll tell you about those (and about our plans for promoting Shetland’s own home made product) in another posting.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to welcoming back our curators Mark Kermode and Linda Ruth Williams. Apart from being utterly passionate about cinema (and extremely knowledgable), they are generous with their time and great fun to be with.

Come and see all of it, film lovers - and discover what a mole feels like when it emerges, blinking into the sunlight after a prolonged spell in the dark. And they don’t even get to see the movies.

On a cold, grey, windy night an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the North Ness, Lerwick to see the first turf dug out on the site of Mareel, Shetland Arts’ long awaited Cinema, Music and Education Venue which will be up and running early in 2011.

At 6.30 pm, on Wednesday 25 May, to the strains of Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’, Sandy Cluness, Shetland Islands Council Convener, donned a hard hat and climbed aboard a bright yellow digger to break the first ground.  The building phase of the £12 million venue was under way.  Mr. Cluness who has always been a staunch supporter of Mareel said it is‘one of the most exciting projects we’ve seen in Shetland for a very long time.’

Local construction firm DITT Construction Ltd has been awarded the contract and representatives of the company were on site to join in the celebrations.  The building has been designed by Gareth Hoskins Architects and funding has come from Shetland Islands Council, European Regional Development Fund, The Scottish Arts Council Capital Lottery Fund, Shetland Development Trust, Highland Islands Enterprise and the Gannochy Trust.

The crowd then moved along the waterfront to the Shetland Museum and Archives where Shetland Arts Director, Gwilym Gibbons, thanked everyone for their support in getting Mareel to this stage.  In particular he mentioned his colleague, Kathy Hubbard, Arts Development Manager with Shetland Arts, who was instrumental in raising funding.  Indeed, Kathy told of the very first meeting when the possibility of such a venue was only a dream.  A party atmosphere took over, refreshments were served, and music was provided by young local band, Brack da Brod, well known performers Sheila Henderson and Brian Nicholson

Thus begins the next stage of Mareel.  A webcam is sited so that you can watch the progress of the building on www.shetlandarts.org

For more information call:
Gwilym Gibbons, Director of Shetland Arts on 01595 743843
Peter Tait, Director DITT Construction Ltd on 01595 692733

Note to editors:

The funding package secured by Shetland Arts Development Agency to design and build Mareel consists of contributions from the following partners:
Shetland Islands Council   £5.19m
European Regional Development Fund  £2.82m
Scottish Arts Council Capital Lottery Fund £2.12m
Shetland Development Trust   £0.965m
Highland Islands Enterprise   £0.965m
Gannochy Trust     £0.050m

The Board of Shetland Arts Development Agency has today announced that construction on Shetland’s new Music, Cinema and Education venue will start in a matter of weeks.

The announcement follows the conclusion of a range of minor land acquisition issues and the signing of the contract with DITT Construction Ltd to build Mareel.

Shetland Arts is also pleased to announce the appointment of Ewan Balfour of H James Nisbet, Lerwick as the new Project Manager acting on behalf of Shetland Arts to see the project through this final crucial stage.

Gwilym Gibbons, Director of Shetland Arts said: “I and the Mareel Project Board are delighted that building can now begin on Mareel. It has been a long journey with many twists, turns and hurdles. There will be more, but it feels like we are now very much on the home straight. I believe that our local team in form of Ewan Balfour, DITT Construction Ltd, Peter Johnson Partnership through their collaboration with Gareth Hoskins Architects and David Adamson and Partners are all ideally placed to ensure this next and final phase runs as smoothly as possible”.

Shetland Arts plans to hold a small celebration on Mareel site in May to mark the beginning of this final phase of the project. Further details will follow in coming weeks.