Movies: Scottish Documentary Institute

A portrait of America as told by three old men fishing on a frozen lake....

When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender film essay questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and viol...

A palpably rendered audiovisual essay draws together the distinct sensibilities of filmmakers Peter Mettler (The End of Time) and Emma Davie (I am Breathing) and philosopher David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous) to forge a path into the places wher...

Bill Drummond, once the most notorious man in pop music, now travels around the world baking cakes, building beds and shining shoes as part of a twelve year World Tour which is his final art project. This film follows him as he does his work in India...

Mentiras is a visually stunning but profoundly unsettling journey through the world’s largest city. Based on one man’s confession to human rights crimes committed with the backing of the Mexican government – it is the story of a troubled conscience a...

Soon after her ‘big break’, Italian actress Nadya Cazan disappeared. Ottica Zero follows Nadya from her rejection of the monetary-based system to find an alternative way of living. It is a journey which takes us from Rome to Venus, where social innov...

In post-revolution Libya, a group of women are brought together by one dream: to play football for their nation. But as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the “Arab Spring” begin to fade, can they realise their dream? And is...

Fitting explores the relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist, by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg. It asks what it means for to create an extension to someone else’s body, and the impact t...

The changing face of a pebble beach on the coast of the English channel serves as a backdrop to compare the long history of sea rescue with the present day plight of migrants crossing the sea....

Cunenk grew up as a girl trapped in a boy’s body. She could not wait to leave her village and become a performer....

This rare and intimate portrait explores a young woman’s perspective about living with albinism – a condition which has often made her an outsider – who is determined to lead a normal life....

A wind turbine development threatens a hunting estate in the Scottish Highlands....

Work. Eat. Sleep. And back to work. For a long time skippers in the North East of Scotland could not find locals to work on their fishing vessels. That was until Filipino fishermen started coming to town for work. Both nationalities strive to shorten...

A remote and wild island on the west coast of Scotland is home to a small group of people that live in deep connection with the land, the sea and the weather. For different reasons, they left their city life to escape their inner demons and to live a...

Breathing is about the thin space between life and death. 34-year-old Neil Platt plans his own funeral, muses about the meaning of life and the impossibility of terminating a mobile phone contract. With 5 months left to live, and paralyzed from the n...

A unique point-of-view insight into a day in the life of Jimmy McIntosh, a wheelchair user living with cerebral palsy who on a daily basis fights for the rights of others....

In the Basque town of Altsasu, the beds of seven young men lie empty. As the town celebrates its annual festival, Altsasu follows Igone as she copes with the imprisonment of her son Jokin and six others, convicted in a case which has been widely cond...

An exploration of the power of music and words, looking at a blues musician recovering from a stroke....

April loves music, dancing, trampolining and swimming, but with sensory difficulties faces challenges in the search for independence as her 16th birthday approaches....

Livingston skateboard park became internationally legendary. Forty years on, the park is no longer a favourite. That is until a group of school girls, passionate about skateboarding, step in....