Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, the UK’s festival of experimental film and artists’ moving image, has released details of its 14th edition which will run from 2 – 5 May 2024. Based in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, only 90 minutes from the Scottish capital, Alchemy is the biggest film festival of its kind in the UK, uniquely blurring the boundary between cinema and visual arts. It blends the global with the local, integrating year-round commitments to Scotland’s only film-based residencies programme and an award-winning community filmmaking and creative learning programme, bringing international artists and work to Scotland whilst giving locally-based artists and filmmakers an international platform for their work.
This year’s event features 75 films and screenings will take place in the Heart of Hawick art centre with installations in neighbouring venues including Borders Textile Towerhouse and Heritage Hub.
The 2024 festival will open with the World Premiere of a newly digitised version of Hawick-made film Sons of Heroes, marking the 60th anniversary of the film’s creation. Shot in 8mm format in 1964 and made by longstanding amateur cineaste club Hawick Film Group, Sons of Heroes marked the 450th anniversary of Hawick’s Battle of Hornshole when the townspeople defended it from the marauding English.
Building on Alchemy’s significant work in recent years securing a digital legacy for Hawick’s filmmaking culture and heritage, the screening will be accompanied by live music from the town’s Saxhorn band which created the original score for the film. The screening will be held in memory of its director, Scott Renwick, who died aged 91 earlier this year.
Artists showcased in the festival include Palestinian artist Noor Abed, who will receive a special focus screening of her work, as well as Emily Jacir, Sonya Dyer, Sanaz Sohrabi, Madison Brookshire and Lilan Yang across four days of cinema screenings, free exhibitions and live performances.
“We are delighted to share details of the programme for our 2024 festival,” says Alchemy Film & Arts Director, Rachael Disbury. “This year we will feature 75 films made by artists from across the globe, which were selected from a record number of submissions.
“Alchemy has been supporting Hawick Film Group to digitise its substantial archive including the annual ‘Pictorial’ snapshots its members made between the mid 1960s and 1980,” she adds. “We are particularly pleased to launch our 2024 festival with the much-anticipated premiere screening of the newly digitised version of Sons of Heroes on the 60th anniversary of its creation and with a contribution from the Hawick Saxhorn Band – the group which created the original score for the film. Sadly, we lost the film’s director, Scott Renwick, only a few weeks ago, but will celebrate his remarkable contribution to Hawick’s film culture at the festival.”
“Our focus artist this year will be Noor Abed, who works at the intersection of performance and film. Presented in our prime-time Saturday evening slot, Noor’s programme will include her new work, A Night We Held Between, filmed in spring and summer 2023 in ancient sites in Palestine.”
“The festival will also include the UK premiere of Background, a feature length documentary by the Syrian artist, Khaled Abdulwahed, presented in partnership with London’s Open City Documentary Festival. In the film, Abduwahed creates links with his father, Sadallah, who is trapped in the contemporary difficulties of Aleppo, by investigating his youth as a Syrian who went to study engineering in the German Democratic Republic in the 1950s.
“This year in response to popular demand we will also be extending the opening hours for our programme of film installations, and will be welcoming around 100 artists and filmmakers to town, many of whom will be visiting Scotland and the UK for the first time.”
Alchemy Film & Arts is supported by Screen Scotland. Sambrooke Scott, Head of Audience Development at Screen Scotland said:
“Alchemy's boundless creativity and innovative spirit continues to be incredibly inspiring. As a long-term supporter and funder of the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, we value the festival's role as a vital platform for nurturing artists film and moving image, and as a place for the filmmakers and artists to come together to share their work and connect with their peers. Rachael and Michael have created a unique sense of community; one that is underpinned by a strong sense of collaboration, appreciation, respect, and empathy, and 2024 promises to be another excellent edition.”
Tickets are now on sale. For full programme visit: www.alchemyfilmandarts.org.uk/festival-2024-welcome/
