Sea Change Film Festival 2023

Sea Change Film Festival 2023 will run at various locations across the beautiful Hebridean island of Tiree from Friday, 22 to Sunday, 24 September. Tickets to individual events are on sale at www.screenargyll.co.uk. Early Bird festival passes giving access to all films and events are available until 31st July, priced at £55 / £40 students and concessions. 

Sea Change Film Festival 2023 will Showcase a range of feature films, documentaries and animation, all directed by women! Sea Change is Scotland’s only annual film festival dedicated to female talent behind the camera. The festival hosts a packed weekend of films, workshops, family activities and special guests. Local venues open their doors to filmmakers, film students and film lovers of all ages as they come together to watch, talk, walk, swim, make and share.

Guests attending the festival in person include renowned director Carol Morley and 16mm filmmakers Mairead McLean and Julia Parks, with other filmmakers joining in from across the world for live digital Q&As. 

Highlights from this year’s festival programme include:

• A special opening screening of Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, Nina Menkes’ acclaimed examination of Hollywood’s male gaze in the era of #MeToo, featuring a live digital Q&A with the film's producer. 

• A look at Celtic cinema with a focus on Ireland, including Lyra, Alison Millar’s powerful documentary on the life of young Belfast investigative journalist Lyra McKee with a live digital Q&A with Alison and Cá a ndeachaigh mé? / Where Am I Going?, an experimental 16mm film delving into how emigration can transform our sense of self. 

• A series of screenings and workshops celebrating 100 years of 16mm film - the medium that put cameras into the hands of home movie makers and artists, changing who could make films and how films were made. Julia Parks will present Seaweed, exploring the folklore, ecology, and history of seaweed in north Scotland; artist Mairéad McClean will introduce her short 16mm films (including 2 x shot on Uist) and lead a masterclass on 16mm filmmaking, French filmmaker Carmen Leroi will discuss her new 16mm drama No Regrets live via Zoom artists Joanna Byrne and Lucy Bergman present hands-on workshops on working with 16mm film for both adults and families and Cardiff Animation Festival present a family-friendly programme of work by female animators on 16mm. 

• Films reflecting on the landscape and ecologies of islands, including Geographies of Solitude, following naturalist Zoe Lucas who has spent 40 years living on the remote Sable Island (some 4000KM across the Atlantic from Tiree) and The Oil Machine, focusing on Scotland’s long economic and emotional entanglement with the oil industry.

• Special preview screenings of some top upcoming feature films ahead of their UK cinema releases, including Kelly Macdonald and Monica Dolan in Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King and Anna Hints Sundance award-winning documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

• Unique outdoor activities include regular morning swims at Crossapol beach with the Tiree Polar Bears, shore walks with Tiree Ranger Hayley, which will reflect on the content of some of the films at the festival and a big beach clean.

• The chance to see recent female-directed blockbusters, including Polite Society, Women Talking,  Cocaine Bear, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, on the big screen, plus Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Well’s Oscar-nominated Aftersun 

• A closing night screening of French drama More Than Ever starring Vicky Krieps, with a live digital Q&A with director Emily Atef and an afterparty. 

Sea Change’s regular Development Lab, which invites upcoming and established female professionals in the film industry to the island for mentoring, skill-sharing and discussion, will run sessions throughout the festival aimed at those working in the film and creative industries at any stage in their career. Highlights include discussions and guidance on Creative Coaching, getting your first feature made and working on 16mm film. 

Sea Change Festival is produced by Screen Argyll with funding from Argyll and Bute and CHARTS and support from Tyree Gin and the Hynish Centre.