Running From Crazy (N/C)

Running From Crazy (N/C)

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Dir: Barbara Kopple

With: Mariel Hemingway, Bobby Williams

Runtime: 100 minutes

THE Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is under way, with Barbara Kopple's superb documentary about Mariel Hemingway and the troubled history of her family one of its stellar offerings. There have been seven suicides among the Hemingways, including that of Mariel's grandfather. With double Oscar-winning Kopple at her side, the model, actress and mental health campaigner picks through her family past to discover what, if anything, unites the events. A wise, dignified and at times heartbreaking look at depression and its ripples.

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, October 17; Belmont, Aberdeen, October 17; DCA, Dundee, October 18; Glasgow Film Theatre, October 20.

First Cousin Once Removed (N/C)

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Dir: Alan Berliner

Runtime: 78 minutes

FOR poet and translator Edwin Honig, words and memories were the very stuff of life, his oxygen. In the face of Alzheimer's, however, he was as powerless as anyone. His relative of the title, Alan Berliner, filmed Honig, with his permission, over five years to chart the course of the disease as first it devastates his memory, then his speech.

By asking the same questions over the course of the filming period, the decline is only too apparent. What emerges is just as much a portrait of Honig in his prime - flaws and all - as it is of this unforgiving disease. Often a difficult watch, but Berliner's affection and compassion for his relative and mentor shines through.

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, October 5; Glasgow Film Theatre, October 6. Both with Q&As with Alan Berliner

Wayland's Song (15)

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Dir: Richard Jobson

With: Michael Nardone

Runtime: 90 minutes

ANOTHER in the SMHAFF strand, Richard Jobson's drama is the tale of a former Scottish soldier (Michael Nardone) who heads to London in search of his missing daughter.

As he pieces together her life, it becomes clear that Wayland himself is something of a broken soul too. An arresting performance from Nardone and not without visual flair, but even at 90 minutes it is as a slow as a Glasgow to London snail race.

SWG3 Studio Warehouse, 100 Eastvale Place, Glasgow, October 8, 8pm