Happy Lands now on tour

As part of the Glasgow Film Festival, that recently finished, the hugely successful premiere of The Happy Lands took place. Indeed, so successful was the film, that an extra (third) screening had to be added!  The film is a unique collaboration between many hundreds of volunteers from the Fife coalfield communities and Theatre Workshop Scotland.  It tells the story of the 1926 General Strike and the subsequent miners’ lockout as it impacts on a pit town in Fife. More details are in a previous blog.

Dan Guthrie, miners leader,
confronts the pit supervisor

I reviewed the film in the Morning Star, here. And one of the points I made is that the film does not have a commercial distributor. This is because the distributors are unsure that the film will have an audience. Therefore the producers have started a roadshow (with the premiere) that is traveling to many coal mining and other areas in Scotland and the rst of Britain and being shown in halls and theatres as well as cinemas to try and  build up the level of support to take back to the distributors.

The details of this roadshow change frequently, but the list below is where things stand at present. Links to the venues for tickets (where appropriate) are included.

MARCH:

• FRI 1^st; BLANTYRE MINERS WELFARE blantyre miners welfare
• SUN 3^rd; PENICUIK CINEMA penicuik cinema
• SUN 10^th; EDEN COURT, INVERNESS eden-court. whats-on
• SUN 10^th; ADAM SMITH THEATRE, KIRKCALDY adam smith
• MON 11^th; ADAM SMITH THEATRE, KIRKCALDY (11.00 am)
• SAT 16^th; DURHAM MINERS, REDHILLS, Durham Miners
• MON 18^th; LOGANLEA MINERS WELFARE (Pitstop) loganleamw
• WED 20^th; GALA CINEMA. DURHAM gala durham
• FRI 22^nd; KIRKCONNELL MINERS MEMORIAL HALL – Dumfries Kirkconnel Miners
• TUE 26^th; SHEFFIELD SHOWROOM  sheffield showroom
• SUN 31^st; BONESS HIPPODROME  Boness Cinema

APRIL: 

• FRI 5^th; NATIONAL COAL MINING MUSEUM, WAKEFIELD, ncm
• SAT 13^th; LEICESTER PHOENIX ARTS CENTRE phoenix arts
• WED 24^th; CANTERBURY GULBENKIAN Gulbenkian Kent
• FRI 26^th;  COLINSBURGH COMMUNITY CINEMA, FIFE cccinema

• 21-28; BEIJING INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL bjiff

MAY:

• WED 1^st; RIVERSIDE STUDIOS, HAMMERSMITH, LONDON riverside studios
• SUN 5^th; DCA Dundee dca

If you are around any of these venues when the film is being shown, I can heartily recommend it. Why not get along, have a great night, and increase the pressure on commercial distributors to give The Happy Lands a mainstream release?