Doc´n Roll Scotland Film Festival returns – at last! – to the big screens of Glasgow and Edinburgh for its third annual edition. Four feature-length documentaries will take pride of place at Glasgow Film Theatre and the Cameo Picturehouse from 1 to 11 November, with 13 more full-length films and 8 shorts screening online UK-wide from 7 to 14 November.
Following Doc’n Roll’s first Scottish offerings in late 2018 and 2019, and a lockdown-imposed hiatus last year, 2021 sees the UK’s Music Documentary Festival back in Scotland with a bang. We’ve got cinematic portraits of art-pop icon St. Vincent, acerbic No Wave pioneer Lydia Lunch, spiritually-charged Irish singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey and classical/electronic sonic adventurer Matthew Herbert. (And a note for those outside Glasgow and Edinburgh: Doc’n Roll Scotland promises to be back in Scotland in spring 2022 to take a great roster of docs to more cities.)
Turning from the big screen to home screens: for this year’s online offerings, the on-demand streaming service Doc’n Roll TV will spotlight a dazzling breadth of scenes, eras, genres and stories. You’ll see rebels and romantics, outliers and outlaws, DIY labels and fabled studios, Turkish composers and Marseilles rappers, a Québécoise club-culture subversionist and Native American heavy metallers, and the enduring mystery of a pioneering 1950s singer-songwriter who simply disappeared.
Doc’n Roll Scotland’s two spotlight locations are among 12 cities welcoming Doc’n Roll this year. Doc’n Roll London is entering its 8th year and running from 28 October to 14 November, and this year there will also be Doc’n Roll regional festivals in Brighton, Cardiff, Exeter, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. In addition, Doc’n Roll is going international, launching with a new Doc’n Roll festival in Oslo, Norway starting on 2 October.
GLASGOW CINEMA LISTINGS
Monday 1 November, GFT, 6:30PM
Damien Dempsey: Love Yourself Today + director Q&A
Wednesday 3 November, GFT, 8:15PM
The Nowhere Inn – St. Vincent
Thursday 4 November, GFT, 6:15PM
A Symphony Of Noise – Matthew Herbert
EDINBURGH CINEMA LISTINGS
Friday, 5 November, Cameo Picturehouse, 6:00PM
The Nowhere Inn – St. Vincent
Monday 8 November, Cameo Picturehouse, 8.30PM
Lydia Lunch – The War Is Never Over
Thursday 11 November, Cameo Picturehouse, 6:00PM
A Symphony Of Noise – Matthew Herbert