Hebrides International Film Festival

From the 13th to the 17th September, venues across Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra will host fascinating films from island cultures, rural environments and native peoples from across the world.

The 2017 programme will feature 22 features produced by communities from New Zealand to Norway, plus a host of short films made across the world and right here in the Hebrides.

Programme highlights include:

• Director and dancer Delila Vallot travelling from LA to Stornoway and Uist to introduce Can You Dig This, her inspirational documentary about the urban gardening revolution currently taking place in South Central Los Angeles, one of the largest food deserts in the US. To celebrate there will be a local growers market held outside An Lanntair where Delila will lead masterclasses on ‘gangster gardening’.

• A masterclass from Oslo screenwriter Torfinn Inverson who will introduce his moving new film Oskars America, about a young boy attempting to row across the Atlantic with his pony.

• Award-winning shorts director Justin Oakey travels from Newfoundland to introduce his debut feature, Riverhead, about a blood feud dividing a small rural town. Justin will also deliver a masterclass on making the move from shorts to features.

• The UK premiere of White Waves, an eco documentary following surfers fighting against unseen pollution in the seas of Europe

• A special advance UK screening of Bruce Parry’s Tawai: A Voice From The Forest

• A selection of locally made and inspired short films, including Ans An Fhuil (Gaelic for ‘In the Blood’), an exploration by young Lewis filmmaker Zoe Macinnes of the passion the fishermen in Bernera, Isle of Lewis, have for their lifestyle.

Programmer Muriel Ann Macleod says: “This year the HIFF programme is packing a pretty strong environmental punch, with major campaign environmental documentaries like Freightened, Chasing Coral, An Inconvenient Sequel, White Waves and Tawai-a voice from the Forest.

“We also celebrate remote lives and cultures with films like Angry Inuk and The Eagle Huntress and alongside this we have crime dramas set in rural places so there is great diversity in our programme of 24 Features and 17 shorts.

“The visiting masterclass speakers from Norway, Canada and the US are coming to HIFF to inspire local film & TV makers and audiences with the aim of encouraging more feature film to be originated and made locally.”

The 2017 Festival is programmed by Muriel Ann Macleod (Creative Director at Rural Nations CIC) working in collaboration with Andy Mackinnon at Taigh Chearsabhaghand with Paul Taylor, Cinema Programmer, at Eden Court Theatre.

Tickets are on sale now from venues and online: here