Take One Action
Take One Action, the UK’s leading global change film festival, celebrates its tenth edition this year. Tamara Van Strijthem, Executive Director of Take One Action Film Festivals, looks back on ten years of bringing people togethr — and looks forward to another decade of making ripples.

The first Take One Action Film Festival, held in 2008, emerged from a fundamental belief in the power of film to activate and inspire audiences. Its aims were simple, yet bold. We wanted to bring people together, to nurture conversations and encourage action for a fairer world through films, events and workshops.
Since the first edition, this unique programming ethos has remained the same: to spotlight stories from across the planet that champion everyday heroes whose energy, vision and tenacity are shaping our world for the better.
Over the years, our events have continued to highlight campaigning and advocacy victories, to spotlight opportunities for action and to resource defiance. We have welcomed guests from all walks of life (nurses, bishops, poets, MSPs, farmers, musicians, journalists, engineers, beekeepers, filmmakers and campaigners) and from Argyll to Zimbabwe. Our audience numbers have exceeded 55,000.
“Take One Action brings to light stories from across the planet which — like South Africa’s injustices, courage and beauty — were once hidden.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu
We welcome our tenth-anniversary edition in the knowledge that our work has contributed — directly and indirectly — to countless amazing journeys of change. As part of a global network of festivals and social movements, we have supported films that have helped lead to the International Arms Trade Treaty Ban, to Scotland’s bold Climate Change Act and to worldwide access to HIV medicines. To achieve this, we have worked with and benefited from the support of fantastic partners, including Christian Aid, and hundreds of volunteers along the way.
Our tenth festival (13–24 September, Edinburgh & Glasgow) is animated by the same, fundamental belief that a kinder, fairer and more sustainable world is possible. By connecting you with voices and experiences that too often remain unheard, our screenings, conversations and events invite you to create this world right here, right now.

Our programme is brimming with urgent, impassioned films (50% of which were directed or co-directed by women), that will take you to over twenty five different countries.
These films will immerse you in stories of hope, anger, and resilience. They celebrate international solidarity at play in Borneo’s rainforests and a Kenyan farmer’s extraordinary determination as he battles the causes and impacts of climate change. They delve into transformational efforts towards peace in Israel and Palestine and Colombia. They bring you to the heart of a Parisian surgical unit and wonder at the pre-war innocence of a nonchalant group of friends in Syria.
Join us as we forge deeper connections beyond the screen, re-imagining — as cinema does — not only the world we want to see, but how to get there.

Christian Aid will be taking part in a discussion panel at the showings of Disturbing the Peace and Thank You for the Rain.
Set in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Disturbing the Peace is one of the bravest, most powerful examples of ordinary citizens reaching out to one another across seemingly insurmountable barriers. It offers a clear-eyed, courageous message of hope in a context that has for too long been devoid of any. Watch the trailer.
Thank You for the Rain tells the story of a Kenyan farmer, Kisilu, who started to use his camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the damages of climate change. When a violent storm throws him and a Norwegian filmmaker together we see him transform from a father, to community leader to an activist on the global stage. Watch the trailer.
The full Take One Action film programme is available on their Facebook page.


