This is why Trainspotting was being projected onto a wall in Leith earlier this week

CHOOSE a wall in Leith, it's all the rage right now what with Leith Late and Double Take Projections currently bringing the area’s iconic history mural to life nightly. Earlier this week, sharp-eyed Leithers also got a sneak preview of the latest project to keep Double Take Projections focused, Cinescapes, a festival which will see Scottish films projected in iconic locations.

Images from the films Trainspotting and The Illusionist, both set in Edinburgh, are projected onto a derelict site by Double Take Projections in Leith, Edinburgh, during a test screening for Cinescapes.

In a test screening, images of Trainspotting and the animated film The Illusionist, both of which are set in Edinburgh, were projected onto a derelict site near the bottom of Leith Walk, giving a dramatic glimpse of how the festival is taking shape. Described as a hyper local festival, Cinescapes will allow communities to enjoy socially distanced outdoor screenings while giving worldwide audiences a new insight into Scottish cinema.

Founder of Cinetopia, the company behind Cinescapes, Amanda Rogers explains, “We’ve been asking people which films they want to see in which locations and we’ve had a great response. Trainspotting and The Illusionist are both films people would love to see on location and we hope these events will also be shared by cinema lovers around the world. The idea is to curate hyper local events which also have a global reach.”

Among other popular suggestions for screenings were Restless Natives in Edinburgh and Beats in West Lothian with Rogers also eyeing up locations in South Queensferry for a showing of The 39 Steps against a backdrop of the Forth Rail Bridge, which features in the classic spy thriller.

Films will be free to watch by people in the local area and Edinburgh Cinema Club, which is collaborating on the project, will be running online forums where fans will be able to discuss the films after each screening.

Founder of Edinburgh Cinema Club Isobel Salamon says, “It’s very exciting. I think it will be an incredible way of connecting people together and in the last few months we haven’t had enough of that.“There is no better way of writing a love letter to Scotland than screening these Scottish films in these particular areas.”

Steven McConnachie, who runs Leith-based Double Take Projections with his twin David said the first test screening, which took place on Monday 28, using a powerful laser projector, had looked spectacular.

“I think it is going to have a great impact. This will be the first time we have projected feature films onto buildings and we are very excited about it. The most exciting thing will be seeing these films in the places where they are set in a way that will bring communities together and be accessible to all.”

Rogers is hoping to stage a screening of Trainspotting in Leith early next year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the film’s release.

Released in 1996 and based on Irvine Welsh’s best-selling novel of the same name, Trainspotting made household names of its stars Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd and Robert Carlyle. Directed by Danny Boyle it charts the mishaps of a group of Leith heroin addicts in the Eighties.

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