This award is generously supported by Baillie Gifford and eligible filmmakers are from or working in Scotland. Each finalist shows great promise for the future of Scottish documentary filmmaking, and the art of the short documentary is comprehensively explored in their work. The crucial balance between style and subject is pushed to its limits, as a diverse contemporary Scotland emerges in the form of Czech settlers, outreach work with the homeless, and the continuing battle against global market forces.

Screening with:

Iveta

• Dominika Svecova /
• UK /
• 2008 /
• 6 mins

In a simple portrait of modern Scottish life, filmmaker Dominika Švecová captures the hectic but content world of Iveta and her family from the Czech Republic, as they fill their tenement flat with the music, dance and culture of their homeland.

Director: Dominika Svecova
Producer: Dominika Svecova
Editor: Dominika Svecova
DoP: Anna Ewert
Sound Production: Elia Ballesteros
Music: Elia Ballestereos

Kirran and the Hatchmaker

• Amy Rose /
• UK /
• 2008 /
• 18 mins

This wonderful documentary introduces us to a unique mind: that of young entrepreneur Kirran, who is attempting to create his own new breed of chicken, and who has also in his spare time knocked off the design for a ship…

Director: Amy Rose
Producer: Amy Rose
Exec Producers: Emma Davie, Noe Mendelle, Sonja Henrici
Editor: Sergio Vega Borrego
DoP: Amy Rose, James Newton
Sound Production: Marcelo de Oliveira
Music: Portico Quartet, Tim Vincent Smith, Matt Douglas

Making It

• Lou McLoughlan /
• UK /
• 2008 /
• 16 mins

Documenting an outreach project between Streetwork UK’s women’s drop-in centre and the National Galleries of Scotland, filmmaker Lou McLoughlan discovers the creativity inspired by the Tracey Emin: 20 Years exhibition held in Autumn 2008. The film follows a group of regulars from the centre for vulnerable women who are homeless or close to homelessness, and captures their reactions as they respond honestly to the ideas and questions Emin’s work provokes.

Director: Lou McLoughlan
Producers: Lou McLoughlan, Robin Baillie, Rachel Adams
Editor: Lou McLoughlan
DoP: Lou McLoughlan
Sound Production: Lou McLoughlan

No Point Climbing Down

• Julian Schwanitz /
• UK, Germany /
• 2009 /
• 10 mins

Monochromatic and nearly wordless, a day in the life of a crane driver is committed to celluloid in this mesmerising observational documentary.

Director: Julian Schwanitz
Producers: Benjamin Bischof, Julian Schwanitz
Editor: Julian Schwanitz
DoP: Julian Schwanitz
Sound Production: Benjamin Bischof

Peter in Radioland

• Johanna Wagner /
• UK /
• 2009 /
• 10 mins

Fresh from winning the 2009 BAFTA Scotland New Talent Factual Award with her Edinburgh College of Art graduation film The Inner Shape, director Johanna Wagner has created a carefully observed study of her father Peter, who stubbornly remains in an analogue world.

Director: Johanna Wagner
Producer: Rebecca Day
Exec Producer: Noe Mendelle & Sonja Henrici
Editor: Mark Jenkins
Sound Production: Matt Hulse
Music: Johanna Wagner, Alan Brown, Johanna Wagner

The Shutdown

• Adam Stafford /
• UK /
• 2009 /
• 10 mins

An honest tale of life in the shadow of the petrochemical plant at Grangemouth is told in this debut for director Adam Stafford. The true story is from the childhood of contemporary Scottish writer Alan Bissett, and is unified with images of the halogen-lit behemoth and an atmospheric score also composed by Stafford.

Director: Adam Stafford
Producers: Leo Bruges, Peter Gerard
Scriptwriter: Alan Bissett
Editors: Peter Gerard, Leo Bruges, Adam Stafford
DoP: Leo Bruges
Music: Adam Stafford

Sporran Makers

• Jane McAllister /
• UK /
• 2009 /
• 10 mins

Edinburgh institution Scott and Sons employ highly skilled seamstresses to manufacture sporrans. With competition from the ubiquitous Chinese factories, proud owner Malcolm Scott won’t take it lying down. McAllister doesn’t shy away from Scott’s fiery temper and stubborn approach to business deals as his battle continues to keep his loyal staff on the payroll.

Director: Jane McAllister
Producer: Noe Mendelle
Exec Producers: Sonja Henrici, Noe Mendelle, Leslie Finlay, Ewan Angus
Editors: Fiona Reid, Jane McAllister
DoP: Ian Dodds
Sound Production: Rob Walker
Music: Red Hot Chillie Pipers

Arnica

• Des Hamilton /
• UK /
• 2010 /
• 4 mins

Director: Des Hamilton
Producer: Lara Manwaring
Editor: Julia Knight
DoP: David Dao

Ashura

• Roxana Pope /
• UK, Iran /
• 2010 /
• 6 mins

Director: Roxana Pope
Producers: Edinburgh Mela, GOL Productions
Scriptwriter: Roxana Pope
Editor: Maryam Ghorbankarimi
DoP: Maryam Ghorbankarimi, Roxana Pope
Sound Production: Peter Vilk
Music: Moussa Kamali, Shoja Ashari