Image: The National
Welcome to ‘Watch, Read, Think, Act’, a collaboration between Take One Action and the wonderful team at Lighthouse – Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop.
Following on from the wonderful reading lists put together by Lighthouse for last year’s edition of the festival (which you can look back on here), we’re thrilled to be bringing back Watch, Read, Think, Act for Take One Action Film Festivals 2022, released weekly in the lead up to the Edinburgh festival (16-18 Sep). These reading lists have been lovingly drawn together by the brilliant Lighthouse Booksellers to inspire you and to ignite change beyond the cinema, and indeed bookshop. Much like the mycelial motifs in our programme, these collections are here to help you weave wiggly connections between the themes in the programme, branching out in meandering sprawls and (hopefully!) coming together to offer a more complex, nuanced perspective on the issues covered. They’ve also included links to grassroots organisations and international campaigns to explore, tied to the subject matter of each film: a toolkit for watching, reading, thinking and acting, which you can also find by clicking on the links.
1. Delikado
Delikado – screening in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness – is an urgent on-the-ground documentary following a group of fearless Filipino land defenders risking their lives to protect the Palawan rainforests from destruction. Bookseller Jess has put together a list of book that offers a mix of approaches to the themes in the film: from novels about the history and political context in the Philippines, to writing on wider environmental justice, land defence, and challenging capitalism in the quest to protect life.
2. Hostile
Hostile, which is screening in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness feels especially relevant on the tenth anniversary of the Hostile Environment. This searing documentary is essential viewing in the fight for migrant justice. Hostile is not only an exposé of the policies’ devastating impacts, but also a galvanising call for care, solidarity, and action. Bookseller Mairi has put together a list of books which highlight the perspective of those individuals caught in the web of laws and bureaucracy that form the hostile environment.
3. Foragers
In Foragers, screening in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, Palestinians attempt to evade capture by the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority whilst gathering wild plants, a practice that has been both outlawed and capitalised upon by the Israeli occupation. Bookseller Mairi has put together a literary smorgasbord, ranging from the tastes and history of Palestine, to foraging and contested lands in Scotland, via the indigenous traditions crafting a life in harmony with the land, these books interweave personal interactions with eco-systems into a wider narrative about land rights and nations.
4. The Mushroom Speaks
The Mushroom Speaks, screening in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, is narrated by a silent mushroom… If this isn’t enough to grab you, this wondrous documentary invites us to think through mycelium into networks of connectivity with the more-than-human world to ensure our survival on earth. Bookseller (and guest speaker at our Edinburgh screening!), Jess, has put together a combination of mushroom-specific books, both practical and more expansive, writing about connectivity and ecology at large, and books that explore ideas of entanglement and resilience in communities and in ourselves.