Award winning documentary film You’ve Been Trumped, branded a “failure” by Donald Trump, has been scheduled for prime time television.
The filmmaker who was put in jail by Scottish police and had hours of footage impounded while making a documentary about the environmental and human toll of Donald Trump’s luxury golf course development north of Aberdeen, will see his feature length documentary shown across the UK on BBC Two and BBC HD on October 21 at 10pm.
“After all that we have gone through I can’t quite believe its happening,” says Anthony Baxter, director of You’ve Been Trumped. “It’s been an amazing journey.”
Baxter and his Producer Richard Phinney faced criminal charges when Grampian police arrested them and confiscated their camera equipment after Baxter interviewed Donald Trump’s green keeper about the cutting off of water supplies to local residents, including an 86 year old woman.
The National Union of Journalists backed the filmmakers and called the arrest of Baxter a “violent” and “blatant example of police interference aimed at stopping bona fide journalists from doing their job.” The charges were finally dropped and an apology made by Grampian police following an internal investigation.
You’ve Been Trumped tells the story of the extraordinary confrontation between the tycoon Donald Trump and a proud and tightly knit community of Scottish residents, following the controversial approval of the Trump development by the Scottish Government of First Minister Alex Salmond.
The Trump golf course has been built on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) after the Scottish Government decided the ‘economic benefits outweighed any environmental concerns.’
Baxter, who was initially turned down for production funding by broadcasters and Scottish cultural agencies, shot, directed and edited the documentary, and raised money on the internet to finish the film. Since then, You’ve Been Trumped has won 10 awards; played in 17 countries; been translated into Chinese, Romanian, Finnish, Czech, Polish and Greek; and has found its way into classrooms in Scotland, Canada and Italy.
Rarely does a film do such a masterful job of taking one small place to reveal how the world works
Though Donald Trump has called the film “a failure” You’ve Been Trumped has received widespread critical acclaim. Michael Moore said he was “blown away by the film” and invited it to his Traverse City Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize.
Alec Baldwin, the Chairman of the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York, awarded the film the prestigious Victor Rabinowitz Social Justice Award, named after one of America’s leading civil rights lawyers.
Speaking from New York after hearing of the BBC Two transmission, Mr Baldwin said,
“Anthony Baxter’s You’ve Been Trumped is my favorite kind of documentary. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. I encourage anyone to see this film.”
Meanwhile, Bill Moyers, the legendary American broadcaster, who devoted much of a recent addition of his PBS show Moyers & Company to the film added,
“Rarely does a film do such a masterful job of taking one small place to reveal how the world works. By putting a face on the One Percent – and the face of Donald Trump, at that – Anthony Baxter has given us an unforgettable portrait of capitalism run amok at the expense of the 99. It’s a remarkable, revealing and very moving and important film. Don’t miss it!”
In August, Occupy Wall Street projected the film on the side of Trump Tower in New York City, saying in a statement that Mr Trump was the ‘ultimate one-percenter’ and called for the billionaire to be held accountable for his ‘environmental crimes’ in Scotland.’
While You’ve Been Trumped was widely released in Scotland, playing in 15 towns and cities, including sold out showings in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the BBC Two broadcast on October 21 will be the best chance for many in the rest of the United Kingdom to see the film.
“As the response to You’ve Been Trumped around the world shows, this is not just a Scottish story,” said Baxter.
“The land sacrificed for this development was part of Britain’s natural heritage, and I believe the issues raised in the film are critically important to environmental and planning debates across the UK. I would like to thank the BBC for recognising the film needed to reach a broader public.”
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I can already see Mr Trump choking on his caviar at the thought of this going out on BBC2.
Sorry but I doubt Mr Trump has heard of BBC Two. Of course he’s proven in this film (and countless others) that he is such a two-faced liar, so he might well say he has heard of it.
Great film, @antbaxter!
I greatly admire Anthony and Richard, they are both very intelligent and brave men. I had hoped “You’ve been Trumped”, would get shown on national television, it will go someway in addressing the injustice caused by Mr Trump and his supporters in Aberdeenshire Council.
Typical BBC putting it on at 10pm. It should be on at least an hour earlier, preferably 8pm.
Better 10pm than not at all. We should consider ourselves fortunate to have seen this at all, thanks BBC2. I see it has won awards for the journalism, and I consider it to be a great piece of film-making, with the documentary cleverly interspersed with the natural beauty that has sadly been blighted.
Really looking forward to this! I hope it gets plenty more media coverage too.
The BBC at it’s best, exposing (albeit belatedly) the Trump greed and bullying tactics. For around £3 a week, the licence fee is well deserved by them for this kind of output. Trump on Panorama having one of his rants next perhaps? What about an interview with “Paxo”?
I saw this at a cinema I would urge everyone to watch this.
The film highlights the power of money and it is only too obvious from watching the film that backhanders were received from some high level ‘organisations.’
Donald Trump is a bully who is used to getting his own way by throwing money around and if that fails he gets his Trump Organisation puppets to throw their weight around and make people’s lives hell.
It was bad enough that the Scottish Govt overturned the council’s decision and allowed this SSSI to be destroyed but seeing how some of the residents were treated disgusted and saddened me.
The PBS interview is excellent, but Anthony wasn’t able to answer one question which was why Trump was given an honorary doctorate by Robert Gordon University in 2010. The reason is that Sir Ian Wood is Chancellor of the university. With Sir Ian being the main funder of another controversial project, the Union Terrace Gardens, it would make perfect sense for him to organise the honouring of a similarly controversial figure to make his own activities appear mainstream.
isn’t it strange how the BBC-hating daily mail hasn’t go around to reporting this? err…I think I just answered my own question.
risky, diligently-researched, factual journalism – a million miles away from our fearless brit. press.
Yes they did. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219599/Donald-Trump-Suffering-residents-near-Aberdeenshire-golf-resort-documentary.html
Ain’t it sickening how those damned capitalists go around creating jobs for people? We don’t need your stinking jobs! We’re happy wallowing in our muck and looking at the empty landscape while the government sustains our unemployed lifestyle.
Great point capitalist. Those 6,000 jobs are a god-send to the people of Aberdeen.
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/aberdeenshire sign the petition
#Capitalist and Richard Simpson.
What 6000 jobs? Evidence please? Sorry guys seems you’ve been reading the Trump loving local press too much.
Writing from Gloucestershire .. we were appalled by what we learned from this brave documentary .. and astonished that we have not heard of any investigative campaign to determine a whole series of extraordinary things that the documentary seemed to turn up, eg:
• how appropriate was it for the Scottish government to call in the planning application and grant consent of that sort on an SSSI?
• having granted planning consent for such a sensitive development in such a sensitive area, why were the planners not keeping a very close watch to ensure that the work was carried out in accordance with the planning consent? Whose interests should the planners be protecting?
• Why were the police allowed to appear without question as if they were representing the interests of Mr Trump and acting as his private security force?
• Why was Mr Trump apparently unchallenged over his apparent land grab when he was taking from residents land they believed belonged to them? Even if not on their title deeds, they presumably had obtained title by means of ‘adverse posession’ (always assuming that Scottish land law has such a concept similar to English law)?
– why was not more fuss made in the media … did we simply miss it?