Scottish Film Goes Down a Dream in China
A dreamlike array of Scottish sights, smells and sounds was recreated in Beijing in March with The Scottish Cinema of Dreams in China. Enjoying sell-out audiences, the festival was a resounding success.
Beijing audiences were transported to a rustic ballroom in Scotland when the Scottish Cinema of Dreams landed at the China Film Archive from 20 to 23 March. Audiences reclined on comfy bean bags while surrounded by video projections playing alongside some of the most memorable films ever to come out of Scotland. Part-installation, part-artistic experience, the Scottish Cinema of Dreams presented some lesser known cultural treasures of Scotland in a fresh and experimental viewing experience.
The brainchild of Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton and Scottish film director and scholar Mark Cousins, the Scottish Cinema of Dreams built on a previous festival held in Nairn, a small town in north east Scotland, in August 2008. Swinton and Cousins organised the 9-day festival of films as an experimental grass roots alternative to the commercialised glamour of contemporary film festivals. A disused ballroom was chosen as the venue and thus was born, in the words of Swinton, “a festival of beanbags on the floor, that would run 81/2 days, that would be a 6 out of 10 on the grunge scale, that would serve home-made cakes and fish finger sandwiches, whose tickets would be £3/£2, and that would transform the [ballroom] into something like a ghost train . . .”. After attracting acclaim and nightly box office sellouts, the two hoped to recreate the same atmosphere of a small Scottish community cinema in Beijing, complete with bean bags for seats and installations promising to transport viewers into a dreamlike world. The festival was presented by The Scottish Government and British Council.
Seven feature length films were screened, representing 60 years of Scottish film from the 1940s up to 2008. Among the films audiences watched were the 1945 film I Know Where I’m Going, acclaimed as a masterpiece by Martin Scorsese, and a trilogy of biographical films by Scottish director Bill Douglas about his upbringing in poverty and deprivation. A range of award-winning short films were also presented. Together, the programme offered a perspective on half a century of Scottish film making in a viewing environment which created an overwhelming sensual experience.
Mark Cousins and Tilda Swinton attended all screenings and Swinton held a master class lecture at the Beijing Film Academy later in the month.
This sell-out festival is just the latest in a series of events highlighting cultural exchange between Scotland and China in film. In 2007, Scotland hosted one of the largest overseas exhibitions of Chinese cinema, ‘Cinema China’, which toured 26 films around the UK. Cousins served as Artistic Director for ‘Cinema China’ and Swinton attended the opening ceremony with Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung. In exchange, three Chinese film directors screened their films at the prestigious Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2008. The Red Awn, directed by Cai Shangjun had its UK première in Scotland. Other film directors who screened at this event included Xiaolu Guo, director of We Went to Wonderland and Jin Guang-hao, director of Life Track.
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