MAXIMUM TILT: Programme Announcement
Part of MAXIMUM TILT
We are excited to announce the full programme for our upcoming festival MAXIMUM TILT, programmed by Andrew Black and Anne-Marie Copestake.
Across three days, the programme includes works by Prantik Basu, Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, Seamus Harahan, Amal Al-Nakhala, the premiere of Susan Hughes’ ‘Ultraviolet’ and a special edit of a new film by Basyma Saad. These works are contextualised with historic films by Finlay J MacDonald and Helen Biggar; feature films ‘Akenfield’ by Peter Hall and Masao Adachi’s ‘A. K. A. Serial Killer’; and films by filmmaking collectives the Sheffield Film Co-Op, Red Star Films and Cranhill Arts.
The programme for MAXIMUM TILT explores land, place and belonging through a selection of films that explore collective agency over placemaking common to both rural and urban settings. Bringing together films made in Scotland and the UK in conversation with international works, the programmers intend to undermine conservative and authoritarian narratives of place and disrupt oversimplified and romantic ideas of the rural.
By considering the potential of the moving image to be a political, poetic and collective endeavour, Andrew and Anne-Marie seek to trouble a nostalgic view of the past and find forms that resist a slide into disillusionment, apathy, and passivity in the present. Together we will explore how filmmaking can articulate and claim agency over place – insisting that perceived fixed realities are fluid and conditional.
Tickets for MAXIMUM TILT are available to book on a sliding scale (£0 – 20) here. The festival programme includes one vegan or vegetarian group meal (lunch or evening meal) per day which is included in all tickets. The festival begins on the afternoon of Tuesday 23 June and concludes on the afternoon of Thursday 25 June 2026.
Programme
Screenings, discussions and meals will take place across the Byre Theatre for the duration of the festival.
Tuesday 23 June
Afternoon session
1pm – Registration
2.30pm – Opening screening
Basyma Saad ‘Congress of Idling Persons’ (2021)
Finlay J MacDonald, ‘A Future for the Past, (Look Stranger)’ (1973)
Prantik Basu, ‘Sakhisona’ (2017)
Susan Hughes, ‘Ultraviolet’ (2026)
4pm – Comfort break
4.15pm – Group discussions
5.15pm – Break
Evening session
6.30pm – Group meal (complimentary)
8pm – Screening
Peter Hall, ‘Akenfield’ (1974)
9.30pm – End
Wednesday 24 June – Midsummer’s Day
Morning session
10am – Registration
11am – Screening
Sheffield Film Co-Op, ‘Bringing it all back home’ (1987)
Seamus Harahan, ‘Samurai’ (2006)
Seamus Harahan, ‘Free as a Bird’ (2006)
Helen Biggar, ‘Challenge to Fascism: Glasgow’s May Day’ (1938)
12pm – Comfort break
12.15pm – Group discussions
1pm – Break
Afternoon session
2.30pm – Screening
Masao Adachi, ‘A. K. A. Serial Killer’ (1969)
4pm – Comfort break
4.15pm – Group discussions
5.15pm – Break
Evening session
6.30pm – Group meal (complimentary)
8pm – Screening
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, ‘And still, it remains’ (2023)
Red Star, ‘The War Zone (video 2)’ (1982)
Amal Al-Nakhala, ‘Limitless’ (2024)
Prantik Basu, ‘Rang Mahal (Palace of colours)’ (2019)
9.30pm – End
Thursday 25 June
Morning session
10am – Registration
11am – Closing screening
Cranhill Arts, ‘Clyde Film’ (1985)
Prantik Basu, ‘Makara’ (2013)
A special edit of a new film by Basyma Saad (2026)
12pm – Comfort break
12.15pm – Closing discussion
1pm – Group lunch (complimentary)
2.30 – End
Accessibility
For more information about accessibility at MAXIMUM TILT please visit this page.
Image descriptions:
1. An archival still shows protestors marching with a banner that reads “BRITISH IMPERIALISM means COLONIAL FASCISM”.
2. An oceanic horizon cast in a bright neon pink hue.
3. In 16:9 format a man with brown hair and wearing a white shirt appears above a vibrant green hedge against a rural English farming landscape.
4. A red protest banner with yellowing-white text reads “…ANKEES LIVE HERE LIKE …INGS THEY SUBVERT OUR SOVER… ANIPLUATE OUR POLITICS, CONTROL OU… CONOMY, FREEZE OUR WAGES …TODAY THEY REFUSE THE RIGHT TO LIFE!! BTEU-DFA”.
5. On a Japanese city street a large gang of riot police walk in front of a luxury department store with red banner’s reading its name ‘MITSUKOSHI’.
6. A man in a pale blue clothes and a black head covering kneels down in a farmed plot of land with small green plants emerging from it. Behind him a dry and rocky landscape is mustard yellow and sun-lit orange.
7. A CRT computer screen shows a simple computer generated graphic of a white dove and red flag against a light blue glowing background.
8. Surrounded by thick black darkness a figure wearing a highly embellished head dress sits besides a small glowing outdoor fire.
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