Scottish Documentary Institute

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 and the United States.

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 as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.

As a family from a politically and physically divided island, Meray and her father developed extremely opposite views to each other. She travels from Scotland back to her childhood home - to the garden where she once had nightmares of the conflict. Now it's blossoming with fruit trees that her father grows, acting as the conversational middle ground for the deeper problems of the relationship. As the debates about power dynamics in the house and on the island grow in parallel, she needs to understand her father's experiences and find the courage to tell him that she always sought his validation. Meray felt oppressed by her father and the state in north Cyprus, and finally wants to express herself within her family, and the Cyprus that she once escaped.

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 where humans and animals meet.

The story of Rudolph Hess's mysterious 1941 flight to Scotland.

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 there even a country left to play for? Freedom Fields is a film about hope and sacrifice in a land where dreams seem a luxury. Through the eyes of these accidental activists we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love, struggle and aspirations collide with History.

A look at the array of mysterious, quirky objects received by fashion designer Paul Smith and the effect they have had on his life.

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 the distance between two very different worlds.

Following a politically engaged schoolboy from Easterhouse, Scotland in the lead-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

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 innovator and futurist, Jacques Fresco, proposes a solution.

In her documentary, the Scottish-Syrian director tries to reconcile the two worlds in her head: her fond memories of visiting relatives in Damascus and what has happened in Syria since then. She confronts her cousin, who fled from there, with her recordings from then - and thus calls back memories that were buried under trauma.

A young Ugandan goat herder dreams of being able to read and write but must oppose his elders.

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

Our bodies store memories. The body does not forget. A childhood in Damascus, OCD, the revolution, falling in love with a woman. My body remembers, it keeps the trauma. And after all the losses, I had to start listening to my body.

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 this has on both maker and amputee. The film demystifies this unfamiliar space and experience for the viewer, and questioning stereotyping and prejudice widely seen within our society's consideration of body image.

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 neck down by Motor Neurone Disease, he ponders how to communicate about his life in a letter for his baby son. How can he anticipate what he might want to know about his father in a future he can only imagine?

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.

Sebastién is a gay acrobat living for the thrill of the circus. Now the oldest acrobat in the troupe, he fears each show could be his last, as an uncertain future awaits. This beautifully languid documentary catches the final leap of a long, idyllic youth.

On the North East Coast of Scotland, an extraordinary family have turned the previously derelict Bayview hotel into a place of respite for international fishermen when they come to land. This film is a glimpse into this unlikely home and the transient guests who pass through it.

A portrait of the planned community of Surprise, Arizona.