Projects in genres: Scottish

Synopsis

This is the story of a rational, sceptical woman, a mother and wife, who does not normally remember her dreams. Until she dreamt her horse was dying. She woke so scared she went outside in the night. She found him dead. The next dream told her she would die herself, when she was 48. The Edge of Dreaming charts every step of that year. The film explores life and death in the context of a warm loving family, whose happiness is increasingly threatened as the dream seems to come true. From the kids' reaction to their horses’ death (they taught the dog a new trick called 'dead dog'), the film mixes humour, science and married life as Amy attempts to understand what is happening to her. Everyone wrestles with the concept of their own mortality, but few so directly confront the subject. When Amy fell seriously ill, as her dream predicted, she went on a search to change that dream, leading her to eminent neuroscientist Mark Solms, and to new understanding of the complexity of our brains. The final confrontation, going back into her dream with the help of a shaman, reveals a surprising twist to the tale.

Synopsis

Karen's mother used to terrify her with tales of a presence on the dark tenement stair - something you should never look at. Years later Karen reluctantly returns to the house she loathed to find her elderly parents, and finds it facing demolition. But her childhood fear still waits within.

Synopsis

We see Iraqi kids regularly in our media. Nearly always as part of the war, its victims, its adjuncts. But what about their imaginative lives? Inspired a bit by Night of the Hunter, Northern Irish Mark Cousins went to a small village in the Kurdish North, took a projector, some great movies and 3 small cameras to give to kids. The resulting film is about war, yes, but also about not-war: We hear of a fish called Bery who lives in a magical palace, and about a cow that farts. A child combs a dove's feathers in the gloaming. We meet a boy who 'gives his dreams to the mud'.

Synopsis

The Mapmaker is a short film based on a suicide. It is a series of assumptions after the fact - it is told in still images linked to a third person prose narration. The film explores a hostile environment and makes some vague poetic presumptions on the thought processes of woman as she proceeds to her self termination.

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Extracts from the maiden speech of Scotland's first ambassador to the United Nations (with officially translated English sub-titles).

Synopsis

The story of a lonely man whose search for the existence of life outside our universe takes a remarkable turn when he connects with a recently bereaved family.

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Each year, an estimated 200,000 people are reported missing in the UK alone. But when a loved one goes missing, the space left behind in their families can mean a future trapped in a tortured present, one obsessed by the past.

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This film is the first to document the life and work of the Scottish painter, illustrator and decorative artist, William McLaren. From humble beginnings in the 1920s in Cardenden, a mining town in Fife, McLaren went on to produce work in some of the finest houses in the UK. His illustrations appeared regularly in the 1950s and 1960s in the BBC's Radio Times. He became a prolific book illustrator and designer of dust jackets for over 150 books. In 1966 a commission to create a series of paintings for Hopetoun House near Edinburgh was the breakthrough for McLaren, leading to decorative commissions in private houses and public buildings where he developed his trompe l'oeil style. The filmmakers have traced hundreds of works by McLaren and many of these are included in this documentary, together with testimony from those who knew him. He died in 1987, aged 64, leaving behind a range of work that will surprise and delight many people.  

Synopsis

A different kind of Vampire movie set in the ancient creepy gothic city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Everyone keeps talking about her..ever since she was born. As they say "No peace for the wicked". But really, what has eleven year old Morticia done to anyone...apart from throw a cup of tea into Rev. Maclean's face at the Vicar's garden party...and write graffiti all over the church walls "Reverend Maclean is a Dirty Bugger." The Three Witches love to gossip about her....making up tall tales...or are they? None of the children seem to like her. And her Mum and Dad are hopeless cases. Well, they would be...fancy Christening her "Kylie". What a yucky name. So anodyne. Kylie much prefers "Morticia" meaning Death. Nothing seems to happen much until she hears a voice calling her name "Morticia". it is her Master's voice. It draws her to the local zoo, where she encounters the man...or beast of her dreams.....but everybody else's nightmares. Morticia knows what she must do. And fearlessly she does it....and is transported...far away from her war-mutilated ex-soldier Dad, and her guilt-ridden Mum.

Synopsis

The Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas's reputation rests on the trilogy of films he made in the 1970s about his childhood in postwar Scotland. What many people do not know about Douglas is that he was also a passionate collector of cinema memorabilia and pre-cinema optical devices. He incorporated many of these into his last film, Comrades, which tells the story of the first trade union from the point of view of an itinerant lanternist. Lanterna Magicka recounts the story of Douglas's collection, the making of Comrades and the remarkable legacy Douglas left us with.

Synopsis

What does it feel like to know that you are about to be killed? Nearly a decade ago, a terrified village in southern Mexico sought refuge in a small wooden church and awaited their inevitable fate. Several hours later, 45 of them were dead. Until now the full story of the massacre at Acteal has never been told. A Massacre Foretold is a powerful story of drama and intimacy, that takes us into a world of masked Mayan rebels, clandestine government death squads and an inspiring indigenous village.

Synopsis

A biopic celebrating the life of visionary musician Billy MacKenzie of the Associates. Focusing on his rise to fame and untimely death. Set at the height of the 80's.