Surrounded, as we are, in our beautiful square mile in the North East of Fife, by beaches, sand is never far from our thoughts. The urge to be on the beach on a summers evening or a frosty morning is powerful, the experience always exhilarating and effectively depicted in the iconic running scene in Hugh Hudson’s Academy Award winning film from 1981, Chariots of Fire, famously filmed on location at St Andrews West Sands.

But more than this. The nature of sand evokes the very essence of film, reflecting the sense of St Andrews as a place and of the people who live and work here. Sand is as transient as a frame of film, yet leaves a lasting and emotional impression, in the same way as a great film can.

The sands of time are a theme that runs through this historic town with its ancient University and a fleeting population of holiday makers, golfers and students, whose short four years are possibly the most formative of their lives, rubbing shoulders with residents who can trace their connection with the town through generations.

Let’s celebrate these contrasts in a dark room together, watching the magical illusion of light projected on a big screen.