Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival

Alchemy Film & Arts celebrate a landmark fifteenth edition of their flagship annual film festival in Hawick this spring.

Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival will take place 1 – 4 May. Join Alchemy in the heart of the Scottish Borders for a rich and invigorating edition of the UK’s festival of experimental film and artists’ moving image.

Featuring more than 60 films across an international programme of screenings, exhibitions, new commissions, live performances, and Alchemy's ever-popular Festival Ceilidh, this year’s festival embodies the warmth, togetherness, solidarity and critical engagement for which the festival has become known.

This year's programme highlights include world premieres of films made in Hawick by Turner prize nominee Luke Fowler and Corin Sworn, responding to the legacies of textiles artist Bernat Klein and his modernist Scottish Borders home; a new 16mm film exhibition by artist Maybelle Peters exploring Scotland's colonial legacies in British Guiana; a newly commissioned feature-length film about Hawick Common Riding and the town-wide labours that sustain the centuries-old tradition.

This is a typically diverse offering from Alchemy. Even by their own high standards, they are making good on their promise to deliver a festival with the warmth and good politics that they’re known for. All films in this year's cinema programme have descriptive subtitles for Deaf audiences and all Q&As have BSL interpretation.

Whether you’re visiting for a day, staying overnight or just passing through, this is something you’ll want to catch.