I’m a second year student attending Pellissippi State Technical Community College in East Tennessee. The Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 6-18-08 to 6-29-08 and hosts films from around the world.  

The festival has been very insightful. Seeing films from different cultures and points of view through the lens has helped me to see that everyone is essentially the same: human. 

The Cameo – Three screens in downtown Edinburgh

Cineworld -Part of Fountain Park mall, 20 screens

Filmhouse – 3 screens in downtown Edinburgh,

for the more artistic or independent films, main site of EIFF

My Festival Experience

Edinburgh and the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) have been great experiences for me. The festival itself was rewarding because there were so many films from around the world. You really get a sense of what other cultures think. Some of the foreign films had parts that didn’t quite make sense, or were a cultural reference, but most were still very good.

These are my top choices:

Best Foreign Film – The Song of Sparrows

Best Comedy Film – Bigga Then Ben

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Let the Right One In

Best Overall Film – The Fall

There are many others of course, and many I didn’t get to see but these are my favorites. As Honorable Mention I would like to say Faintheart for comedy is also good. I would imagine it will reach the States in a few months.

Scotland:

While we weren’t at the festival we saw Edinburgh and traveled to Inverness, Loch Ness, Stirling, and Bannockburn.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and the biggest city. The main attractions are the Castle, Holyroodhouse, the undergrounds, the Royal Mile, and Arthur’s Seat. The city itself is nice and very friendly. It doesn’t seem to have much crime and is clean. Prince’s Street and Mall is the central (from what I can tell) shopping area. Located north of the Royal Mile.

We stayed at university housing on Warrender Crescent. There is a pub nearby called Links that has a good atmosphere. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have good internet access. The wifi is too slow for any practical work. Most of the places to eat here can be split into fast food and pub/restaurant. The fast food here is generally sandwiches and soups to go. They’ve managed to not fry everything like in the States. There are so many pubs and not many stand-alone restaurants. That is okay though because most pubs have a full menus and are open for lunch.

Inverness/Loch Ness

Inverness is a town near Loch Ness. It is also called “the Gateway to the Highlands” it has the feel of a small town that has grown too fast. The roads and infrastructure are cramped and can make travel difficult by car. The best way to see the city is to walk. Inverness is still small enough that you can walk the downtown area in a few hours and see everything. The biggest attraction within the city itself is the Inverness Castle and scenery. The city sits in a shallow valley and most of the city can be seen from the castle. The castle is still used though as a court house and I don’t believe it can be toured.

Loch Ness was an amazing place. The water (as it was described by a tour guide) is black from the peat that comes down the mountains when it rains. You can only see about three feet down. We also saw Urquhart Castle. It is mostly ruins now but was very neat to see. It looks out over Loch Ness and with mountains on both sides, dropping straight into the loch.

Stirling/Bannockburn

Stirling was awesome too. We went to Stirling Castle and Bannockburn. Stirling is also in a valley like most older cities. You can see the whole city and surrounding areas from the caslte. The city is build on a small mountain so all the streets are slanted. We only had time for one day so we couldn’t do too much in the city itself but we did get to see Bannockburn. Bannockburn is the site of a battle where Scotland won it’s freedom from England in 1314. The battlefield is all farmland now of course but you can image the field being filled with soldiers and horses. It was a great trip and if I get to come back to Scotland again I’ll have to see more.