Project Detail

A Map with Gaps

Synopsis

A Map With Gaps is an account of a journey made by the director's father through Soviet Russia in the early 'seventies, in a van he built and named Supervan.

Utilising a combination of archive audio recordings and still photographs, drama reconstruction and animation, a surreal and comic tale unfolds of 12,000 miles, 14 countries and 26 very peculiar days. Essentially this is a catalogue of minor disasters, a story that demonstrates that fact can indeed be stranger than fiction and sometimes the grey area between the two is the most interesting place to explore, particularly if you forgot to bring a map.

Details

Year
2006
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
26 mins
Format
DV Cam
Director
Alice Nelson
Producer
Noe Mendelle
Co-Producer
Noe Mendelle
Editor
Alan Brown
Screenwriter
Brian Nelson, Alice Nelson
Director of Photography
Ian Dodds
Production Designer
Annmarie McKenna
Sound
Zoe Irvine
Composer
Zoe Irvine
Principal cast
Pauline Goldsmith, Duncan Rennie, Jim McSharry

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Full Nelson Films

11/1 Dunedin Street
Edinburgh EH7 4JD, Scotland
UK

T +44 (0)13 1557 5301

alice@fullnelson.co.uk

Sales Company

Full Nelson Films

11/1 Dunedin Street
Edinburgh EH7 4JD, Scotland
UK

T+44 (0)13 1557 5301

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A Difficult Case A Difficult Case

Director: Alice Nelson

Year: 2006

The remarkable story of a woman who owes her life to unseen angels and an eminent psychologist who was prepared to believe.

A meditating Buddhist Nun at Bodhgaya Temple Tracing Transcendental Tone

Director: Julian Konczak

Year: 2025

Following a pilgrimage through the sacred sounds of India – a land of many faiths, including Vedanta, Islam and Buddhism. Using striking visual material accompanied by an evocative, multi-layered soundtrack, the audience is taken on a unique sonic journey through the sacred sound practices of many of the world’s key religions. A combination of interviews, performances, and natural sounds creates a rich, immersive cinematic experience. With an intimate, direct camera style, viewers can get close to the many spiritual practitioners, musicians, and meditation teachers who form the fabric of the journey. Bubbling hot springs, subtropical nocturnal symphonies of insects, and harsh, frozen mountain winds combine with mantra chanting, classical Hindustani music, and the dynamic temple sounds of drums and trumpets. This audiovisual tone poem invites you to experience heightened sensory awareness and the transformative, healing power of sound.

An audio cassette tape, with the title 'Childrens Tape for Sue', being repaired. The Solway

Director: Eamon Bourke

Year: 2026

Filmmaker Eamon Bourke lost his mother, Sue, when he was three and has no memory of her. When his father decides to sell the remote Lake District home where she died, Eamon returns with his camera to document the house and its clearing. Among Sue’s belongings - diaries, poems, photographs and tapes - he discovers a box of damaged cassette recordings. After painstakingly repairing them, he uncovers something extraordinary: his mother’s voice. Through these intimate audio diaries, Sue speaks candidly about motherhood, sings to her children, and captures fleeting family moments Eamon never knew. One final tape records her describing the onset of hepatitis, days before she fell into a coma and died in 1983. Another, more haunting still, features three-year-old Eamon calling out to his unconscious mother in hospital, in a desperate attempt to bring her back. As Eamon pieces together this archive, he confronts the enduring impact of early loss, speaking with his father and sisters while retracing the emotional landscape of his childhood. Set against the vast beauty of the Lake District, a deeply personal exploration of grief, memory and love - an attempt to recover what was lost, and to finally say goodbye.