Have been running around like mad for the last days, but I like it. The Edinburgh Fringe John Lewis shopping window turned out to be great, but as it is only on at main shopping time, I misunderstood a bit the timing, so no, I did not have to stay there for the three hours, but in the end it was so entertaining I stayed there for two. Though everybody was kind of gobbsmacked that I had my foldable chair and picnic with me to make it more comfy on the footpath. I liked the Breakfast with the filmmakers at EIFF in the Sheraton hotel, they had so much lovely food on offer, but there was hardly any time to chew as there was so much chatting going on.

Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns Walking Tour Saints and Sinners Walking Tour This sightseeing tour leads up the Royal Mile, down the Mound and via the New Town and St. Andrews Square finishes up on the Bridges about two hours later. Four different guides offer this entertaining walk under the Saints and Sinners Banner; however, here the topic is more generalised into explaining also the negative side of Edinburgh; and not just the bright side. We are treated to a whole lot of facts and figures, historical dates and some illustrations, amusing tales and unusual stories. I liked the various changes of narrative; from factual – informative to the subjective first person tale to how the the tour participants would have coped with fashion in the Middle Ages.

Run Granny Run Marlo Poras / USA / 2007 / 77 min We all love underdogs (well at least here in Scotland), who fight the good fight. So Granny D. is straight up our road, with her 94 years and who is running in the election for senate against the hardcore conservative. At the same time, she is campaigning against funding from special interest groups,too, and walking through the US and her state in protest. The film is a light-hearted, for all audiences enjoyable documentary about people power. The film has a good pace, is never boring and is nicely cut and edited.

Garbage Warrior Oliver Hodge / UK (England) / 2007 / 86 min The film is about Michael Reynolds, an architect in New Mexico. Well, almost! Whilst the film starts like a typical character study of this environmental rebel, it later on broadens out to include a little bit more about the “earthship”, his invention of self-sustainable housing. Amazingly, the visionary takes on planning authorities, lawyers, senate, extreme climates, the architects association, funding crisises, and emergency housing tasks after earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. Impressing with his hard physical and clever intellectual work, his passion, enthusiasm and humanity, he founded not only several earthship communes in the desert and mountains of New Mexico, but also builds prototypes all over the world, such as in Honduras, Bolivia, France and even Brighton, where he met the film maker Oliver Hodge on a UK test site.

The other side of the country (De l’autre côté du pays) Catherine Hébert / Canada / 2007 / 83 min The film is about the northern part of Uganda, which is split by the Nile. Whilst the subject is about the Lord’s Resistance Army and should therefore be interesting and enlightening, the director managed to make this film incredibly boring. Everything just takes too long – the titling, the interviews, … . There is no focus on a particular character, there does not seem to be any structure and the director just tries to be too objective for the viewer to get involved.