Glasgow Short Film Festival / Montreal International History Film Festival 2020 – Tha thu air Aigeann m' Inntinn (You are at the Bottom of my Mind)
A hand-drawn animation in Scottish Gaelic about the Iolaire disaster, in which 201 sailors lost their lives just yards from home, as they returned from WWI.
Interview with Director/Producer/Animator Catrìona Black
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
On New Year's Eve 1918/19, 280 sailors were packed into a yacht to get home from the war in time to party with their loved ones, and on a pitch-black stormy night, they hit submerged rocks on their way into the harbour. 201 of them died, smashed against the rocks and drowned. They washed up on their own shores the next morning, to be found by their own relatives.
Understandably, the community was struck dumb by the experience, and with the centenary coming up, everyone felt it was time to open up. I wanted to make something that would revisit the story in an authentic way for the community affected, and bring the story to the wider world.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This is a disaster you've probably never heard of, but you should. It was awful. And what better way than to hear it described by the people who lived through it?
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
There's nothing more universal than the moment between life and death, and the grief that comes after. This is about a community in trauma, and the impact it can have on the generations to follow.
On a personal level, I never tire of the power of people's personal recollections recorded in a moment in time and unearthed in the archives years later. And that's all the more powerful in a language - Scottish Gaelic - which is becoming more imperilled with every year that passes.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film was born almost fully formed in my mind, and just as well, because for an animation, I didn't have much time to get it done before the date of the centenary. But over the course of making the film, I became much more emotionally involved with the events and the people in the recordings, so I'm not sure if that changed the film, but the film definitely changed me.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The communities affected by the disaster have received the film very warmly, and are particularly affected when I explain to them the layers of imagery, laden with significance, that I have almost hidden inside it. Some have seen the names of their own relatives. Some have heard their voices for the first time in decades. It has been very emotional.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback has been an enormous relief. Although I am a part of the Gaelic community, I am not from that part of the world and was terrified of handling the subject insensitively in any way. But the film is something that people are proud of, and in making it I was made very much to feel like an insider, not an outsider. So it challenged my point of view in the most welcome of ways.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I want the world to know about the Iolaire disaster, which is little known even in Scotland. And I want Scottish Gaelic to be heard on an international stage, because, as a minority language, it's so often seen as an inconvenience to shove to one side.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I'd love journalists to write about the disaster, and about Gaelic, and I'd love the film to be seen in film festivals, galleries, and on TV wherever there is an appreciation for its themes and approach.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I'd like to make people cry! And to make them want to hear more Gaelic.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How do you make a documentary about something that happened 100 years ago, where very little visual record exists?
Would you like to add anything else?
I'd like to make special mention of the music. Sarah-Jane Summers is a Scottish Highland fiddler who lives in Norway, and as soon as I conceived of this project I knew she would be perfect for the soundtrack. Her music is brutal, raw, visceral and exquisite all at the same time. We worked really closely, so a lot of what sounds like sound effects - the iron boat juddering for example - is actually played on her viola as part of the composition. Her soundtrack is so powerful that the first time I heard it, I burst into tears.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I'm working on a beautiful project just now - animating with the paintings of Scottish artist James Morrison, for a documentary film about him by Anthony Baxter.
Interview: May 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Tha thu air Aigeann m' Inntinn (You are at the Bottom of my Mind)
A hand-drawn animation in Scottish Gaelic about the Iolaire disaster, in which 201 sailors lost their lives just yards from home, as they returned from WWI.
Length: 6:00
Director: Catrìona Black
Producer: Catrìona Black
Writer: Poem by Iain Crichton Smith
About the writer, director and producer:
CATRÌONA BLACK uses archive material to tell Scottish Gaelic stories. Her animations, screened on BBC ALBA, have been nominated for numerous awards and screened worldwide. Born and brought up in Edinburgh, she now lives in the Netherlands.
The film is a combination of archive interviews and poetry by IAIN CRICHTON SMITH, renowned Lewis writer 1928-1998.
Key cast: Sarah-Jane Summers (Music), Patsi Mackenzie (poetry v/o)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, film festival directors
Twitter: @CatrionaBlack
Hashtags used: #Iolaire
Website: www.ambocsa.co.uk
Other: YouTube
Funders: MG ALBA
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Montreal International History Film Festival/Montreal & online - June 4-14; Glasgow Short Film Festival/Glasgow - August 2020