Forth Valley documentary film festival’s strong Scottish flavour in five-day programme

The Central Scotland Documentary Festival celebrates creative documentary and non-fiction filmmaking from Thursday, October 28 until Monday November 1 at Stirling’s MacRoberts Art Centre.

Over five days, it will showcase 21 films, comprising on world, three European, five UK and two Scottish Premieres along with some of the best documentaries from festivals seen throughout the year.

The 2021 festival will also see a new addition to the programme.

For the first time, it has invited documentary and non-fiction filmmakers to submit their work. Over 50 entries from 23 countries from all corners of the globe were received, with a selection committee narrowing the films down to 12 official selections.

They will now vie for two awards - the Jury Award, selected by an independent panel of industry and academic judges, and the Audience Award, to be voted for by attendees.

Grahame Reid, curator and programmer at Macrobert Arts Centre said: “After what has been a strange time for all of us, it has been an honour to curate and present our fourth Festival.

“As well as a wide range of documentaries from around the world, it has been great to announce our two awards this year - the Jury Award and the Audience Award. Watch this space”.

The Festival opens with Quant - an adventurous new feature documentary about Mary Quant, “the queen of the mini-skirt” - which also marks the directorial debut of UK actress and fashion designer, Sadie Frost.

And it closes with Alistair Cole’s Lorram, the first cinema documentary entirely in Scottish Gaelic.

Lorram (Boat Song) is a lyrical portrait of life in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, past and present.

Other highlights include the UK Premiere of Rico: The Richard Demarco Story - acclaimed actor Brian Cox meets the Scottish artist and iconic promoter, who across six decades has brought 1000s of artists to the Edinburgh Festival.

The multi award-winning Piano To Zanskar follows 65-year-old London piano maker Desmond O’Keeffe as he endeavours to deliver a piano from his piano repair shop in London’s Camden Town to the village school in Lingshed, a remote community high up in the Indian Himalayas.

The world premiere of Ian McDonald’s The First Year tells the inside story of Jamie Driscoll’s first 12 months as the new North of Tyne mayor.

And Alien On Stage follows a very amateur dramatics group led by Dorset Bus Drivers who spent a year creating a serious stage adaptation of the sci-fi, horror film, Alien which ended in them performing their homemade homage in a West End theatre for one night only!

Closer to home, Launch On The Sea With Scotland’s Lifeboats dives into archive film and video of RNLI crews.

In The Red is an action-packed feature-length documentary film about Speedway motorcycle racing in the UK, taken from the perspective of the Glasgow Tigers club during their 2019 season.

The Auld Game looks at how Scotland’s love of football is complicated. Both uniting and dividing us, it’s a whirlwind tour of our football history.

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