Skip to main content

Irvine Welsh: Reality is Not Enough

Duration: 1h30m
Dates: Fri 3 - Thu 9 Oct 2025

Irvine Welsh is at a crossroads. After experiencing the huge success of several film adaptations and six million books sold worldwide, he has become acutely aware of his own mortality. 

Now, with his hedonistic days drawing to a close, the outspoken author decides to explore the boundaries of consciousness through a psychedelic DMT trip.

Through this unique lens, join Welsh on a brutally honest examination of his life: how his creativity was fostered by his childhood in Edinburgh; the influences he gained living amongst 70’s London counterculture; and how groundbreaking work such as Trainspotting and Filth pulled him out of a self-destructive cycle, but also led him to heights of fame he never could have imagined. And still one burning question remains – what will come next?

This captivating piece of autobiographical filmmaking combines intimate observational footage with readings from his novels narrated by Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, Star Wars), Stephen Graham (Adolescence, The Irishman), musician Nick Cave, Ruth Negga (Ad Astra, Passing) and Maxine Peake (The Theory of Everything, Shameless).

Documentaries

Discovery Film Festival
A teenage boy and a husky puppy.

Folktales

Duration: 1h46m
Sun 2 Nov 2025
Documentary
A couple in a bed perched on top of a roof at night

Take One Action Film Festival: Power Station

Duration: 2h4m
Fri 7 Nov 2025
Exhibition on Screen
An angel speaks to a saint in an oil painting by Caravaggio

Exhibition on Screen: Caravaggio

Duration: 1h31m
Tue 11 Nov 2025
Documentary
A Constable painting shows a river scene with a house on a riverbank and a group of people.

Exhibition on Screen: Turner & Constable

Duration: 1h31m
Tue 10 Mar 2026
Exhibition on Screen
A photograph of Frida Kahlo wearing a blue dress, gold jewlerry and a red ribbon in her hair.

Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo

Duration: 1h31m
Tue 19 May 2026