Hamish Henderson, Burns & Music Illustrated talk by Professor Fred Freeman
- RBC Film Theatre Mill Road Dumfries, Scotland, DG2 7BE United Kingdom (map)
Click on film title below for more info.
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We are pleased to take part in this years Nithraid, the annual sail and row boat race and festival held just outside the RBC each August, with a debut documentary screening by locally born filmmaker Glenda Rome.
The film delves into geopoetics, a philosophy developed by Scottish poet and thinker Kenneth White, which emphasizes a deep connection between the mind, language, and the living world.
Lecturer in Environmental Humanities at the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries Campus, David Borthwick, will lead an informal discussion following the screening, touching on Geopoetics and the ways in which the film depicts landscape and ecology.
About the Director: Glenda is a Scottish filmmaker, originally from Dumfriesshire, whose cinematic work bridges art, environmental and human connection. For over two decades she has worked internationally on documentaries and community projects — from collaborating with Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian rainforest and Iñupiat people in Alaska, to helping young and under-represented voices tell their own stories through film.
On Sunday 23 August and Monday 24 August, we are delighted to welcome Dr Marie Martin to give a half hour talk before each screening of The Odyssey. You are welcome to attend both the film and talk, or come for the film only.
Sunday 23 August 4.15pm - talk begins, 4.45pm tea and coffee break, 5pm film starts.
Monday 24 August 6.15pm – talk begins, 6.45pm tea and coffee break, 7pm film starts.
The Odyssey is an epic story of Gods and monsters, a poem that has stood the test of time and engages with issues like displacement, family relationships, identity, and encountering the unknown that relate to modern life as much as to life in the ancient world of Homeric heroes. This short, informal talk will draw out some of the main themes of the Homeric epic poem and will set a scene against which Christopher Nolan’s film, the most recent retelling of this epic traveller’s tale, can be viewed.
Dr Marie Martin is a classicist and archaeologist. Currently, regional archaeologist for Dumfries & Galloway Council, she was previously lecturer and tutor in Classics and Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and The Open University.
In his wildly popular Broadway show American Utopia, David Byrne delivers an exhilarating rush of iconic songs, infectious energy and pure theatrical joy. Following the huge big-screen success of Stop Making Sense, and with Byrne returning to the UK this summer including a headline appearance at Latitude Festival, Spike Lee transforms the celebrated production into an electrifying cinematic experience bursting with astounding performances, inventive choreography and political urgency.
Flowing like an iridescent dream vision, the film fuses work by James Baldwin, Janelle Monáe and Kurt Schwitters with exhilarating renditions of Byrne’s solo work and Talking Heads classics.
Joyous, urgent and utterly crowd-pleasing, Byrne and his co-performers light up the screen and burn down the house.
The 50th Anniversary of punk is being celebrated with a new documentary from internationally renowned producer/director Danny Garcia - also responsible for recent docs on Stiv Bators, Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders and The Fuzztones and last year's The Rise and Fall of The Clash Redux - Vive Le Punk focuses on four bands formed during the glory days of punk - Sham 69, 999, Ruts DC and The Boys - and still carrying the torch five decades on.
Featuring new and revealingly candid interviews with all the bands as well as punk icons Charlie Harper, Dr. John Cooper Clarke, Gaye Advert and other noted punk luminaries, the film examines the history of the scene and discusses the meaning and purpose of punk today.
Filmed at the National Galleries of Scotland during the 2025 retrospective, ‘Andy Goldsworthy: 50 Years’, this film captures a dialogue between artist Andy Goldsworthy and art historian, author, and broadcaster Andrew Graham Dixon.
The documentary offers a look behind the scenes of Goldsworthy’s largest and most ambitious indoor exhibition. Surrounded by new installations created specifically for the show, the pair explore the core environmental philosophies, fleeting natural materials, and creative ideas that have defined the artist's extraordinary half-century career.
There will be a Q & A Session with Andrew Graham-Dixon after the film.
At a garden party on a sunny afternoon, Alice is surprised to see her parents’ friend Lewis Carroll transform into a white rabbit. When she follows him down a rabbit hole, events become curiouser and curiouser…As Alice journeys through Wonderland, she encounters countless strange creatures. She’s swept off her feet by the charming Knave of Hearts, who’s on the run for stealing the tarts. Confusion piles upon confusion. Then Alice wakes with a start. Was it all a daydream?
Peter Wright’s production of this festive family favourite sparkles to the wondrous swell of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral score, alongside the glow and grandeur of Julia Trevelyan Oman’s period designs.
Princess Odette is bound by a curse, turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart. The spell can only be broken by a pledge of eternal love. When she meets Prince Siegfried, he is immediately enamoured by her fragile beauty and pledges to free her. But freedom is not promised for Odette as Von Rothbart conspires to thwart the lovers’ plans.
Liam Scarlett’s production for The Royal Ballet brings together Tchaikovsky’s towering score and John Macfarlane’s picturesque designs to create an enduring ballet spectacle of love, treachery and forgiveness.
- Tagged: April, Documentary, talk
