Programme for second LandxSea is online

The festival is co-produced by acclaimed filmmaker and podcaster Anthony Baxter and international festival producer Rachel Caplan and will run at the state-of-the-art community-owned cinema Montrose Playhouse Fri 13th – Sun 15th September 2024.

Highlights across the three day festival include the Scottish premiere of the Shetland-shot Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, the UK premiere of Chasing Time, the spectacular new glacier documentary from the team behind the Emmy Award-winning Chasing Ice and an iconic red phone box transformed into a one-person cinema for screenings of Local Hero and You’ve Been Trumped

LandxSea 2024 will give out the inaugural North Light Award, a major new award honouring Scottish environmental filmmaking and host the Coastal Erosion Summit addressing the urgent issues affecting Montrose.

The full programme has been announced for Scotland’s premier environmental film festival, the second annual LandxSea Film Festival, which returns with an exciting three days of inspiring films and thought-provoking conversations designed to spark a deeper connection with our planet.

The festival is the brainchild of Montrose-based filmmaker and podcaster Anthony Baxter (You’ve Been Trumped) and Edinburgh-based festival producer Rachel Caplan (previously of San Francisco Green Film Festival) and will bring a host of new feature films and special guests to the state-of-the-art community-owned Montrose Playhouse from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th September.

LandxSea 2024 will open with the Scottish premiere of Charlie Hamilton James’s Shetland-shot Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story. A wild otter and a man form an unlikely bond that transforms both their lives in a documentary that explores their shared joys and challenges, highlighting the profound connection between humans and the natural world.

The festival will then close with the multi-award-winning The Eagle with the Sunlit Eye, Ted Simpson’s account of the dramatic reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle in Britain and the ensuing conflict within Scotland’s rural community. This gripping documentary combines breath-taking visuals and intense action to explore humanity's uneasy relationship with this apex predator.

Other feature documentary highlights across the packed three-day festival include:

The Scottish premiere of The Battle For Laikipia, Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi’s nuanced look at climate change and historical injustices igniting a conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white ranchers in Kenya's Laikipia County.

The Bough Breaks, charting Alan Watson Featherstone’s inspiring efforts to restore Scotland’s ancient Caledonian forest and the pivotal role of rewilding in addressing the global environmental crisis. Featuring renowned conservationists and ecologists, the film emphasises individual responsibility in environmental stewardship and the enduring impact of Alan's legacy.

The UK premiere of Chasing Time, as the team behind the Emmy Award-winning Chasing Ice returns for a final mission, closing a 15-year project with an unprecedented photographic record of the world’s melting glaciers. A mesmerising big-screen experience exploring time, mortality, and the powerful impact of over a million images documenting climate change.

The UK Festival Premiere of Notes from Sheepland, the crowd-pleasing Irish documentary about lipstick-wearing, always-swearing, no-nonsense artist and shepherd Orla Barry. Living in South East Ireland with her flock of Lleyn sheep, Orla balances the tensions of being an artist and eco-farmer, finding inspiration in both worlds and reflecting on her primal, poetic bond with nature.

The UK Festival Premiere of Planet Wind, which joins renewable energy pioneer Andy Evans on a global journey exploring the transformative potential of offshore wind energy and its role in our sustainable future. Featuring over twenty offshore wind experts, Planet Wind delves into the development of offshore wind energy, its potential to revitalise regions, and its crucial role in achieving energy independence and reducing emissions.

The UK premiere of Send Kelp!, following Canada’s self-professed “Seaweed Nerd” Frances Wallace, as she embarks on an ambitious kelp farming project off the country’s west coast, discovering the potential of this miraculous organism along the way.

X Trillion, UK director Eleanor Church’s story of the fourteen women who set sail on a 3,000-mile journey across the North Pacific to confront the plastic pollution crisis, aiming to transform both their lives and the planet’s future. Battling high seas and storms, the crew conducts ground-breaking microplastics research, revealing the hidden crisis beneath the ocean surface and offering a hopeful, optimistic call to action.

Alongside the feature films, LandxSea will celebrate short film talent including a programme highlighting rising sea levels – one of the Montrose community’s most pressing concerns – and the World Premiere of Finding Bo, following photographer Karen Miller as she braves the wintery Scottish elements to capture the lives of mountain hares, exploring the delicate balance between nature and adventure.

Tickets at landxsea.org