There was big news in advance of today’s Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) and Screen Scotland Docs-in-Progress showcase in the Cannes Marché. Oscar winner Emma Thompson was announced as exec producer of one of the projects being presented, Felipe Bustos Sierra’s new doc Everybody To Kenmure Street.
Celebrating direct action, the rousing film tells the story of how neighbours and activists came together to surround an immigration van holding two residents from one of Scotland’s most diverse communities. Bustos Sierra is a Chilean-Belgian film director based in Glasgow.
The Scots were first invited to Cannes in 2022 and have gladly been coming back since then. “It’s going to be our third showcase at Cannes Docs,” says Flore Cosquer, Director of SDI. “Like in the previous years, our showcase is very diverse in tone. I think they really show that documentary in Scotland is not a genre – it’s an art form. It has so many different genres in it. Hopefully, that is what we are bringing with the projects.”
She describes the Kenmure Street doc as “a very optimistic and warm reminder that when we come together as a society, things can change and we can make things happen. It’s a call for solidarity.”
Also being presented is Anthony Baxter’s Average White Band: Soul Searching, a profile of the legendary Scottish R&B and funk band who developed a huge following in the US.
A third Scottish feature doc is Daniel Cook’s Love Letters, an observational film set in the fishing village of Gardenstown. This profiles a Scotland that not many people will be aware of and is notable for its lyrical approach.
The fourth project highlighted is Bircan Birol’s Your Honour, about a trans law student living under considerable threat in contemporary Turkey. This is produced by Reece Cargan.
All the films are supported by Screen Scotland. Cook is a first-time feature filmmaker, as is Birol.
Films presented in the previous showcases have benefited significantly from being in Cannes, often finding sales opportunities or securing festival premieres and broadcast commitments. “All the projects share a political side to them at different levels,” Cosquer says of the four pitches.
Baxter is one of Scotland’s best-known doc directors thanks to his 2011 film, You’ve Been Trumped, about Donald Trump’s attempts to build a luxury golf course in Aberdeenshire. The Average White Band film is a in very different register – it will show how the Scottish musicians made it big in the US, winning over fans from Barack Obama to Aretha Franklin. The film, in post-production, is produced by Richard Phinney and Stacy Robinson.
It has been a robust start to the year for SDI (which this year celebrates its 21st anniversary.) “We’ve been very busy. We have been able to travel quite a bit thanks to the support of Screen Scotland and to introduce our producers to the international market. The work we do very much supports Scotland-based directors and we support them on a national and international level. But we also want to connect with the international industry,” the SDI head explains why the organisation collaborates with so many foreign organisations.
Shorts remain fundamental to the organisation’s activities. For over 20 years, SDI has been backing ‘Bridging the Gap,’ an initiative which offers development training, a cash budget, and one year of international festival distribution to emerging filmmakers based in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“It’s the only funding opportunity for short films in Scotland,” Cosquer notes. “These short films, if commissioned, are awarded eight and a half thousand pounds but also some distribution support. Our institute distributes them on the international film festival scene.”
Films commissioned through the programme in the past have achieved spectacular success. For instance, The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, made by Theo Panagopoulos, a Palestinian living in Scotland, won Best Short at IDFA last year and had its US premiere at Sundance. It was also nominated for a BAFTA. “It was a big recognition for the programme and the support of the short form in Scotland,” Cosquer says.
Late last year, DokuFest and the Scottish Documentary Institute announced a new partnership. SDI and DokuFest received an international collaboration grant from the British Council toward organising residences for filmmakers both from Bridging the Gap and DokuFest ‘Future Is Here’ filmmakers. “They were put together for three weeks to get inspired together, to get radical, and to make films together.”
SDI also has a very close relationship with national funding body Screen Scotland. “They support us on an annual basis which allows us to have a finger on the pulse of the market and to be very reactive…we can be very, very flexible and we have this shared strategy basically to be able to support the industry the best that we can.”
Cosquer and her team work with other partners including Screen Scotland and Skillset. They have also previously received funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery too. “We are always on the lookout for new funding partnerships,” the SDI boss says, The organisation runs on a budget of around £500,000 a year.
SDI also works closely with the Edinburgh International Film Festival where all its Bridging the Gap films are shown. “It’s a new team [at Edinburgh], they are very ambitious, we love what they are doing,” Cosquer says.
The Institute’s annual “Edinburgh pitch” is held next month. The projects being presented are soon to be announced.
Still Pushing Pineapples, the new film from Kim Hopkins, about a former pop star (Dene Michael from Black Lace) and his ageing mum, was pitched in Edinburgh at the annual pitch and will now have its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest.
“We are absolutely delighted that they will be opening the festival. They had a Scottish producer coming on board as part of the pitch.”
In the meantime, “quite a few” new Scottish docs will be surfacing at International festivals later in the year. Cosquer can’t yet reveal details about these as they haven’t been formally announced but these are clearly boom times for the sector.
It’s not just talent from Edinburgh and Glasgow that is benefiting. SDI’s reach is right across the country.
“Scotland is a compact-sized industry which means we can very much pay attention to equity and make sure it’s not just a one size fits all but actually take into consideration the specific needs of projects,” Cosquer concludes.
