Project Detail

Stand By For Tape Back-Up

Synopsis

Following the death of his grandfather, poet Ross Sutherland discovered an old videotape in his loft. On the tape were all the things they'd watched together: one-and-a-half films, a quiz show segment, and two sitcoms. Somehow they became the story of his life.

Inspired by the 1980s stoner mainstay of matching up 'The Wizard of Oz' with Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon, Ross draws out a series of stories from his life, synchronising them with the images on the tape. In the process, fragments of old films and TV shows are looped, destroyed, and re-built into an audiovisual meditation on memory, death and re-runs.

Hot Docs International Film Festival 2015 - World Premiere
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015 - UK Premiere

Details

Year
2015
Type of project
Features
Running time
63 mins
Director
Ross Sutherland 1st Feature
Producer
Ross Sutherland, Charlie Lyne
Editor
Ross Sutherland, Charlie Lyne
Screenwriter
Ross Sutherland

Categories

Production Status

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.

Main character from The Things We Don't Say lying on the ground, looking contemplative The Things We Don't Say

Director: Ornella Mutoni

Year: 2024

A group of young adults born during or just after the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi people gather to find the courage to break a powerful taboo. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world providing specialist counselling for children conceived through rape, who number 10,000 across the country. Here, course leader Emilienne, a mother, therapist and genocide survivor, helps the group to imagine a future free from family secrets and societal stigma. In a circle of supportive peers, they tell their individual stories and face their struggles together, in the hope their participation will advocate for others facing similar trauma. Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024 NY African Film Festival 2025

Frank Zappa reads at The Nova Convention in New York City NOVA '78

Director: Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias

Year: 2025

NOVA '78 resurrects the legendary Nova Convention, the groundbreaking three-day gathering held in New York in 1978 to celebrate William S. Burroughs and the artistic revolution he inspired. Built from newly restored, previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Howard Brookner, the film captures extraordinary performances and intimate backstage moments featuring Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and many other defining voices of the era. More than a concert film or historical record, NOVA '78 is an immersive time capsule of a fleeting moment when literature, music, art and radical ideas collided to reshape contemporary culture.

Franco, Ale, and Benji walking down Leith Walk after rehearsal. When Cumbia is On

Director: Maria Paz Gonzales

Year: 2024

When Cumbia is On follows three South American musicians and traces the sound of cumbia music through the streets of Edinburgh, asking whether this rhythm is what lets them build a sense of belonging in a foreign land.