Untapped potential of island film makers

Around 40 films were shown as part of the event that ran from Tuesday to Friday and was put together by film programmer Muriel Ann Macleod of Rural Nations CIC, in partnership with An Lanntair and another 10 venues from the Butt to Barra.

The range was breathtaking. From the natural world at its most majestic, fading into life being gently lived on earth and cutting to the most impactful international work.

There were documentaries, dramas, shorts and children’s films, plus some immersion experiences. The festival shows contemporary film – made within the last three years – that connects with the islands, is about the environment or is award-winning global cinema that resonates in some way with remote and rural life.

Each year has its own theme, this one being “adapting to a changing world” and the international films shown are usually those that have made waves at festivals such as Cannes, Sundance or Venice.

This year’s choice included films such as “Four Daughters”, a Tunisian docu-drama about radicalisation nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards and described by one viewer in An Lanntair as “such an important piece of cinema that would not be shown here outside of an event like this – harrowing, truthful and would touch anybody that watched it”.

Or Kneecap, an edgy biopic about a real-life rap group from Belfast, which closed the film festival on Saturday night. It was the first Irish language film to screen at the famous Sundance Film Festival and won its prestigious Audience Award.

This film had an 18 rating and showed indigenous language films don’t have to play it safe. It was in the programme “because it’s in Irish and it’s provocative,” said Muriel Ann.

It was a cinematic call to arms and as its director, Rich Peppiat, said: “There’s a universal message about the importance of language and culture and how they go together.”

Programmer Muriel Ann hails from Lewis but is now based in Paisley and works part time with a Film and Digital Arts innovation project, Refractive Collective, as well as running HIFF and making her own film, theatre and animation.

Although she said she was “very pleased” with this year’s programme, she said outreach and awareness was still hard. “It is so difficult for people to understand that these films are unusual, that they’re going to push your thinking, they’re going to change your world.”

The whole point to a festival like this is that “it has to push boundaries”, she said. “But then all the time you feel, ‘why aren’t we making Gaelic, or English, film in the islands? We too could be making contemporary culture films on the islands.

“It’s such a beautiful place to live. People come here a lot because of the environment. Why can’t we be making films about here and why can’t I be showing that at the festival?

“Why can’t we have funded artists making films? People from here have something to say. We all have stories to tell and we have an incredible history that people don’t know about. And not only that, there’s an international market for cinema out there.”

For example, “Silent Roar”, filmed entirely on location in Lewis, showed there was definitely “a demand for drama set in the island”, in Gaelic and English, as well as a demand for documentaries.

Looking at the big picture, Muriel Ann believes the Scottish film industry could learn a lot from how Ireland are using films such as Kneecap to promote language and culture, and also has a lot of catching up to do with supporting creatives outwith the central belt.

She said: “I cannot tell you the number of young film makers who’ve said, ‘I’m trying to make a film about the islands, and where can I be funded?’”

One solution would be for local museums and the local authority to “commission from their local talent more” and it could be small, “just something to get it started”, she said.

“Bord na Gaidhlig could do a lot more for Galic language film and I think that Screen Scotland should think about supporting Highland and Island makers because then they’ll get the stories.

One of the issues across Scotland for film makers is that even when work does get made, a lot of it “lies on the maker’s desktop or hard drive and does not get screened for Scottish audiences in rural places as much as it could".

​Given how much the Hebrides relies on tourism, Muriel Ann said there was a clear audience as these visitors would “seek out” documentaries and drama about the islands long after they had gone home.

And while the BBC and MG Alba do generate this kind of work, much of the broadcast made film is not accessible.

“Once it goes into the BBC annals,” she claimed, “the BBC are less interested in giving it out to you to screen at Festivals.” BBC Archive material is for broadcast only and it’s difficult to get access to it. “It’s their property… You can’t even find out what they have or see it.”

To Muriel Ann there is a wider ethical problem and called for greater “transparency” on what footage is held, “particularly when they go out and make documentaries and films about island people and they never get to see or know what that film’s like till it’s broadcast.

She said: “Broadcast documentary footage is made so easily on the islands and then local people are supposed to feel pleased that a broadcaster’s filmed them.

"People have rights and people’s stories really matter and we should be able to see archives of film made since MG Alba started, especially when it’s islanders lives and their stories.

​Muriel Ann pointed to Niall Morison Macrae and Zoe Paterson Macinnes as great examples of young talented island filmmakers who were making “lovely” work on probably small budgets.

They both had short films at the festival: Niall’s “And So It Was” is about his gran, Norah Macrae from Achmore, the longest serving Post Office worker in Scottish history; while Zoe’s “M’athair an t-Iasgair” (My father, the fisherman) is a portrait about her creel fisherman dad and changing times for the fishing community in Bernera.

She urged other would-be filmmakers to gather their confidence and “try and make something, even if it’s on your phone, and then try and develop”.

There is also a need for film that “expresses our culture now”, she said, adding: “When you look at archive films of the 70s and the 80s you go, ‘Oh wow, look at those people! Look at the clothes! Oh my goodness!’ But that film was kept for us to see. My question is, who’s keeping now, for everyone else to see later on?

“Be confident. To make any creative project you have to be resilient. You don’t listen to the knockbacks and the naysayers. And even if people don’t think it’s good enough, the next one will be better. Keep doing it. And have something to say.”

Like one of the characters says in Kneecap: “No one is anyone until they are.”

The Film Festival is primarily funded by Screen Scotland’s Film Exhibition Fund, which includes Creative Scotland and National Lottery money, and delivered in collaboration with An Lanntair and in partnership with a team of rural venue promoters and projectionists.

This enabled films to be shown at Taigh Dhonnchaidh in Ness, Bernera Community Centre, Talla na Mara in Harris, Carinish Village Hall and Taigh Cearsabhagh in North Uist, Cnoc Solleir in South Uist and Castlebay Hall, Barra. Stornoway’s Masonic Hall and Taigh Ceilidh were also utilised.

Muriel Ann, Kevin Smith (An Lanntair ) and Tara Drummmie (Uist Producer) put the programme together and each venue chooses their films from the list, depending on preference and availability.

​In Bernera, Callum Macaulay ran the screenings at the community centre. He said it was “brilliant” although it was at times hard to get people to come out. “It’s trying to put things on in the community so that they have a choice. They can’t complain that there’s nothing on.”

There was a particularly good turnout for M’athair an Iasgair by Zoe, with clear pride in one of their own, telling their story. “Zoe’s film was very good and it was very well done. I’ve screened a few of Zoe’s films before and the beauty about it is that it brings people out.”

But there were other highlights too, including the Norwegian documentary “Songs of Earth”, which Callum described as “absolutely phenomenal” and “a piece of art”.

He said: “The film festival needs to be in places like this because not everybody can get to An Lanntair. I’m not a fan of centralisation of anything and these things need to be in rural places.

"It’s important that the arts are shared out everywhere. We need more of them out in rural areas so they can be appreciated and the communities will benefit from them.”

Back in An Lanntair and the final film of the week, Kneecap, was ending. The hip-hop beats and drug-induced psychedelic visions had faded from screen, giving way to a stark postscript in white text against black: “Across the globe an indigenous language dies every 40 days.”

A parting shot as the curtain came down on the 2024 Hebrides International Film Festival.