You've Been Trumped

Anthony Baxter’s 2011 You’ve Been Trumped, a powerful picture which successfully engages with the local audience and incites a dynamic discussion.

Because of lack of support from any governmental organisation such as Creative Scotland, Baxter mortgaged his house to fund the making of the film. It is a powerful picture of a contemporary David and Goliath story. Whereas the American billionaire Donald Trump’s golf course and hotel development project in an area of Special Scientific interest on Scotland’s Aberdeenshire coast was rejected by the local authority initially, Scottish Government later overturns the decision and approves it arguing for economic reasons.

The documentary follows how life of the local residents who insist on remaining in their home in Aberdeenshire has been altered by such a turn; their view is blocked by heaps of mud, water supply cut off for weeks, Trump’s security guards and policemen constantly patrolling the neighbourhood. The film interweaves archival footage of children playing on the beach and farmers plowing in Aberdeenshire of the past, news footage of Trump giving interviews and inspecting the site, and Baxter’s observation on the site over a period of eight months, which reveals the dramatic change of the landscape. The demeanour of local residents contrasts with that of Trump at the same time that nature of the past measures against construction site of the present. You’ve Been Trumped exemplifies the kind of environmental, socioeconomic and political issues that (Source: Filmint/BBC)