BUDDING Bergmans, Tarantinos and Hitchcocks from across the Borders are being invited to learn filmaking later this year.

Alchemy Film & Arts has launched its own Scottish Borders Community Filmmaking Initiative (SCBFI).

Through a series of workshops and master classes held between November 5 and next February, the SCBI will train interested Borders residents of all ages to make a film, from concept to completion.

And films created through the initiative will screen at the 2015 Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Hawick.

The budding film-makers do not pay any fees to attend the workshops or master classes and all equipment is provided.

Alchemy Film & Arts trustee Lawrence Robertson told us: “We want Alchemy’s expertise and passion for film to help people learn the craft, develop talents, inspire and help others, and go on to make great films with communities throughout the Scottish Borders.” Films promoting intergenerational conversations about life and culture in the Borders; projects that document collective memory, oral histories, and local folklore; non-conventional/experimental film projects and narrative journeys through the Scottish Borders landscape will be explored as possible subjects for the community films produced during the initiative.

The classes are a new venture and an exciting undertaking for the organisation, which until now focused most of its efforts on moving image artist residencies and the annual Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, which takes place each April in Hawick. The first master class for the SBCI is scheduled to take place at The Haining in Selkirk on the evening of November 5.

Anyone interested are asked to contact Sabrina Durling-Jones via e-mail (sabrina@alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk) for further information and an application to participate.