In our annual Book Week Scotland event, poet JoAnne McKay will draw on her current reading to explore how museums, and archaeology, are going to be tools for dealing with the climate crisis, and how past strategies and technologies may be needed to assist with our future. Combining readings from Reinventing Sustainability (Guttman-Bond) and Museums and Societal Collapse (Robert Janes) along with her own poetry, JoAnne will offer a unique insight into this fascinating topic.

 JoAnne has selected the documentary Jane Goodall - Reasons for Hope (Dir David Lickle, 2023, 45 mins). Drawing on decades of work by the world’s most famous living ethologist and environmentalist, Reasons for Hope, is an uplifting journey around the globe to highlight good news stories that will inspire people to make a difference in the world around them.

This French spin on Mark Herman’s Brassed Off has a beating emotional pulse of its own. 

Thibaut is an internationally renowned conductor of the Lille Symphony Orchestra who travels the world. He discovers he was adopted - then also finds out he has a younger brother, Jimmy, who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a school marching band. While they seem to be worlds apart, their unwavering love of music unites them in difficult circumstances. What emerges is an immensely touching and melodious work, bringing relationships and music to the fore.

Screening as part of this year's French Film Festival 2024. 

This French spin on Mark Herman’s Brassed Off has a beating emotional pulse of its own. 

Thibaut is an internationally renowned conductor of the Lille Symphony Orchestra who travels the world. He discovers he was adopted - then also finds out he has a younger brother, Jimmy, who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a school marching band. While they seem to be worlds apart, their unwavering love of music unites them in difficult circumstances. What emerges is an immensely touching and melodious work, bringing relationships and music to the fore.

Screening as part of this year's French Film Festival 2024. 

This screening has been postponed to a later date (date tbc).

The story of the extraordinary friendship between Scottish film maker Bill Douglas and his lifelong companion and collaborator Peter Jewell. Peter’s memories and musings about the legacy Bill left behind are illustrated with never-before-seen short films.

As part of the Crafted Selves exhibition at Gracefield, Fife Contemporary present The Axe Forgets, But The Tree Remembers. Featuring stories of the Windrush generation and their descendants, Alberta Whittle’s film highlights the animosity experienced by those who first migrated from the Caribbean to the UK.

Curated by Glasgow based Cat Dunn, the exhibition features the work of 13 Scottish artist and makers who each express their ideas about dual identities, some born from having a cultural heritage which is both Scottish and one which is rooted in another cultural home and others exploring identity such as their sexuality, disability, or trans and non-binary selves.

Alberta Whittle is one of Scotland’s leading artists representing Scotland at the 2022 Venice Biennale with her work recently shown at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The film screening will be introduced at 7pm, followed by an in-conversation event with refreshments and Q&A. End approx. 8.45pm. Film running time: 52m.

Our aim for the Tween Film Club is to inspire a love of film in young people and an enthusiasm for discovery in an exciting, safe and comfortable environment. There are no ads or trailers with this film and it will start promptly at 2.00pm.

After witnessing a Mafia murder, slick saxophone player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his long-suffering buddy, Jerry (Jack Lemmon), improvise a quick plan to escape from Chicago with their lives. Disguising themselves as women, they join an all-female jazz band and hop a train bound for sunny Florida. While Joe pretends to be a millionaire to win the band's sexy singer, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), Jerry finds himself pursued by a real millionaire (Joe E. Brown) as things heat up and the mobsters close in.

The film contains mild comic sex references and some brief and undetailed violence which are unlikely to upset even young children (BBFC).

We are delighted that broadcaster and author Lesley Riddoch will be at the RBCFT for a Q&A and booksigning to launch her new film, Denmark - State of Happiness. We will also show Lesley's 2020 film, Estonia - The Baltic Tiger, which looks at Estonia's incredible transformation since it became independent in 1991.

6.00pm: Intro

6.15pm: Estonia - The Baltic Tiger (40m | 12+)

7.15pm - 7.30pm: 1st Q&A with Lesley

7.30pm: Denmark - The State of Happiness (54m | 12+)

8.30pm: 2nd Q&A with Lesley

9.00pm: End

We are delighted that broadcaster and author Lesley Riddoch will be at the RBCFT for a Q&A and booksigning to launch her new film, Denmark - State of Happiness.

3.00pm: Intro

3.15pm: Denmark - The State of Happiness (54m | 12+)

4.30pm: Q&A with Lesley

4.50pm: End

We are delighted to welcome writer and amateur naturalist, as well as RBC staff member, to talk about his first book, The Seafarers as part of this year’s Book Week Scotland. The Seafarers is a portrait of lives lived largely on the wing and at sea, or else seasonally tied to some of the most remote and stony outposts of the British archipelago.

Stephen will intersperse readings from his awarding winning debut book with screenings of two films he has selected. The Private Life of the Gannets (1934, 15 mins) is one of the first nature documentaries, produced by Alexander Korda about a colony of Northern Gannets on a small rocky island off the coast of Pembrokeshire. The Guga Hunters Of Ness (2011, 60 mins) is a more recent, even-handed BBC documentary about a controversial annual seabird hunt for guga, the meat of the young gannets on Sula Sgeir, a desolate island 40 miles off the Isle of Lewis in the North Atlantic.