Anthony Baxter is most famous for being a thorn in Donald Trump's side with You've Been Trumped and the same applies with his follow-on, A Dangerous Game. The game here is the superficially benign pursuit of golf. In You've Been Trumped he exposed American leisure-industry tycoon Donald Trump’s plans to build a golf resort on an ecologically endangered section of the Scottish coastline, and this film literally revisits that territory.
In both cases public opposition is treated with disdain, and the impact on natural resources – most notably water – ignored, but ultimately truth and reason prevail.
I was lucky enough to attend a screening of the film and a Q&A with Baxter afterwards, which proved to be an enjoyable and insightful evening with a very eloquent and passionate man who has made a very impressive follow up to a fantastic and important film.
He started off by saying how the sequel came about. “After making You’ve Been Trumped we showed it around the world, and people kept coming up to me and saying, ‘we’ve got the same thing happening here’,” he says. He continues: “There's certainly a pattern emerging of people becoming unhappy”. He continued about his surprise at how big the original had gotten: "When it was screened on the BBC across Britain it was seen very much as a story that resonated with all parts of the British Isles," says Baxter. "The dignity of the residents and the way they remained so calm under such unbelievable strain, and the way they stood up for their local environment, was compelling and inspiring to people in other parts of the world as well."
Baxter then spoke about what it was like to work on a limited budgets and how he managed to make a follow up. “We put all the resources we had on the first film into this film. We've had a battle to try and get it out and we're happy it's gotten a limited cinema release” he says.
So, is the story complete now? "In terms of documenting it, it’s come to a natural close for me. But I think the story is likely to continue and I just hope that other journalists will pick it up and continue to investigate the claims made by Mr Trump and others like him." Which beckons a call from the audience, what's the process with Trump and Ireland (Trump has moved away from Scotland and is planning a golf course in Ireland instead). Baxter replies: The process isn't moving as quickly as he would like and unlike Scotland, the course isn't already there, so let's hope it doesn't get any further”
A threequel in the Baxter vs Trump saga maybe?