The eleventh edition of the World’s first film festival devoted to folk cinema, celebrating the lived experiences of communities worldwide, will run at Edinburgh’s Cameo Picturehouse and Scottish Storytelling Centre 2 – 11 May
Fusing new cinema from across the World and rare archive screenings with live music and storytelling, FFG25 opens with a rare screening of Emma Davie’s 1997 road movie Flight, exploring Scottish traditions from Cape Breton to Nova Scotia and closes with a day-long celebration of the life and work of pioneering independent Scottish filmmaker Douglas Eadie
Other highlights include rarely seen films from BBC ALBA’s Geur Ghearr shorts; Fertile Memory, the first full-length film to be shot within the occupied Palestinian West Bank ‘Green Line’, introduced by Scottish-Palestinian poet Nada Shawa; The Enchanted Desna, a magical-realist exploration of the childhood of Ukraine’s greatest filmmaker, Alexander Dovzhenk with a special mini-concert by Edinburgh’s Ukrainian Choir; the Scottish premiere of a new restoration of cult Irish folk horror classic The Outcasts with Irish fiddle music from Benedict Morris and a rare showing of the first horror film to be made in the Welsh language, O’R DDAEAR HEN with live music from Welsh harpist and singer Gwen Màiri Yorke
FFG25 April preview events at North Edinburgh Arts Centre include a Surprise Film screening and the return of Tyneside’s Amber Collective
The full programme for the eleventh edition of Edinburgh’s Folk Film Gathering has been announced, with tickets to all events now on sale. Bringing new world cinema and rare archive film to the big screen, all festival screenings feature unique live music and storytelling elements.
The festival – the World’s first devoted to folk cinema, celebrating the lived experiences of communities worldwide – will kick off with two preview events at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. A Surprise Film, chosen by NEAC’s community film group, will screen on 26th April and Tyneside’s Amber Collective present Shooting Magpies, a powerful exploration of the impact of heroin on the communities of East Durham after the closure of the mining pits, on 30th April.
Folk Film Gathering 2025 will then officially open on 2nd May with a rare screening of Emma Davie’s 1997 road movie Flight, exploring Scottish traditions from Cape Breton to Nova Scotia. An important document of Scottish diaspora, Flight explores how Scottish customs continue to be expressed in Canada, long after families have left Scotland.
The screening will be introduced with a special mini-concert from piper Finn Moore and followed by a discussion with the film’s director Emma Davie and piping expert Hamish Moore. The festival will then close on 11th May with a day-long celebration of the life and work of pioneering independent Scottish filmmaker Douglas Eadie. Across the day a selection of Douglas’s work will be shared and discussed including Haston: A Life in the Mountains, analyzing the brilliant and brutally short career of Scottish mountaineer Dougal Haston; An Cesnachadh – An Interrogation of a Highland Lass, a docu-drama about the taking of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey on Christmas morning of 1950 by a band of Scottish nationalists and Down Home, in which Aly Bain explores connections past and present between Scottish fiddling traditions across the United States. Aly himself will introduce the screening with other special guests throughout the day including An Cesnachadh cast Kathleen Macinnes, Dolina MacLennan and Kenny MacRae, poet Jim Mackintosh and novelist James Robertson.
Jim Welsh
Radio Summerhall Arts 