Aberdeen Voice

With thanks to Anthony Baxter.

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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