What's On - Real Utopias Festival

Take One Action is kicking off the Dundee edition of its 2025 film festivals on Friday, with the theme of Real Utopias, using cinema as a way to gather together to explore and imagine local and global solutions to some of the pressing issues of our time.

Festival dates are 7-9 November in Dundee, with screenings taking place at DCA, Steps Theatre and Hot Chocolate Trust. There will also be radical library tours taking place at Dundee Central Library. The festival will feature films from Mexico to the UK, Kenya and Japan, and will explore ideas from community responses to climate change to the power of libraries, tenants’ rights and trans identity and thriving.

Real Utopias Dundee Programme:

Radical Library Tours: Current Utopias // Fri 7 Nov, 3–4pm: A chance to see all the opportunities to think, create and imagine with Dundee Central Library.

Radical Library Tours: Past Utopias // Fri 7 Nov, 4–5pm: Discover some past utopias throughout Dundee’s history, and how they shaped the city we know today, at Dundee Central Library.

Power Station // Fri 7 Nov, 6–8.25pm: Two artists and activists are on a mission to power their street with solar energy, one home at a time.

How to Build a Library // Sat 8 Nov, 11.30am–1pm: In Nairobi, Kenya, two women are on a mission to transform and decolonise a dilapidated library into a public space that truly serves its community.

Red Skirts on Clydeside // Sat 8 Nov, 3–5.30pm: A documentary about the hidden stories of women’s activism in the Glasgow Rent Strikes of 1915, presented by Living Rent.

NINXS // Sat 8 Nov, 6-8.30pm: In this joyous documentary co-authored by its subject, fifteen-year-old Karla tells her coming-of-age story as a young trans girl in Tepoztlán, Mexico.

Knit’s Island // Sun 9 Nov, 3-6pm: Three curious film-makers step virtually into a post-apocalyptic online game and learn from other players how survivalist gameplay can create a sense of community. Screening followed by a participatory workshop led by young people from Dundee’s Hot Chocolate Trust.

further information.

Information published by Leisure and Culture Dundee.