Scottish Documentary Podcast

What does it mean to be a Black content producer in Scotland? For this Zoom event, Carmen Thompson was in conversation with Vanessa Kanbi and Stewart Kyasimire as we heard about their experiences and consider what can be done to increase opportunities for Black filmmakers. Vanessa Kanbi is a Scottish Ghanaian filmmaker, podcaster and presenter who has a passion to shine a light on untold stories. Vanessa has grown her YouTube channel to 40,000+ subscribers and over 4.5 million views. Vanessa has appeared in the likes of BBC Scotland’s documentary Black and Scottish and The Peoples News in 2019. She has created content for CNN and the BBC. Vanessa is often a contributor on several BBC Radio shows and also has a successful podcast called Magnificent Mothers in which she interviews mums about their life story’s and experiences. Stewart Kyasimire is an experienced BAME-led director who recently directed the BBC Black and Scottish documentary and a Lloyds Banking Group film. He also advises the Scottish Government on better ways of working with the BAME community and in the process of setting up a Scottish BAME talent agency. As part of the event we’ll discuss our New Voices mentoring programme for women and non-binary filmmakers, and the next Bridging the Gap programme for emerging filmmakers. We’re committed to diversity within both of these programmes and welcome and strongly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic and non binary filmmakers. Watch the video of the event: https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/masterclasses/black-voices-in-documentary/

This event expanded on DocSociety’s New COVID-19 Risk Assessment for Independent Filmmakers, focusing on the challenges of producing documentary films during and after lockdown, the ethics of working with people in vulnerable situations and the responsibility towards the crew, the protagonists and the audience. Elhum Shakerifar is a BAFTA nominated producer, winner of the 2017 Women in Film & TV’s BBC Factual Award, and one of Screen International’s 2018 #Brit50 Producers on the Rise.

For this episode we’re bringing you a recording of an event we hosted in 2020 with Anthea Harvey. Anthea is an experienced freelance documentary and drama editor who works in TV and film and specialises in narrative, characters and long form. The discussion should be of interest to other film editors or anyone thinking about editing as a career, plus anyone who might find themselves collaborating with an editor. Anthea discussed some of the challenges of working from home and what it’s like collaborating remotely, as well as some of the technical and physical aspects of film editing. She also offered some organisational and communication tips. Anthea was in discussion with SDI’s director, Noe Mendelle.

This is the third and final episode focusing on our series of films developed for broadcast on BBC Scotland in association with Screen Scotland as part of the Right Here initiative. Right Here explores the rich diversity of Scottish identity through character-driven stories and beautiful imagery, and this episode we’re discussing Lindsay Brown’s 30 minute film, Time to Fly, which is available now on BBC iPlayer. Time to Fly is an emotional documentary about a mother, Sami, navigating through care options for her autistic daughter, April, as she leaves residential school and transitions to adult accommodation. We met up with Sami and Lindsay earlier this year, following a screening of the Right Here films at Glasgow Film Festival. We discussed the development of Time to Fly and how it’s a follow up to Lindsay’s 2016 short, Swan, a film that will be available to watch on our website from the start of July.

This is the second episode focusing on our series of films developed for broadcast on BBC Scotland in association with Screen Scotland as part of the Right Here initiative. Right Here explores the rich diversity of Scottish identity through character-driven stories and beautiful imagery, and this episode we’re discussing Zoe Hunter Gordon and Kieran Hennigan’s 30 minute film, Our Fathers, which is available now on BBC iPlayer. While there, you can also watch the other two films in the series, Long Live Livi and Time to Fly. Our Fathers introduces viewers to Father Max and Father James, who have been sent on a mission to Scotland by the Bishop of Aba, Nigeria due to a shortage of priests in the Scottish Highlands. Will their humour and songs keep these remote communities alive? In this interview recorded on Zoom, Zoe and Kieran discuss the process of bringing their idea to TV screens and collaborating as co-directors. You can also watch a video of the discussion on our website at scottishdocinstitute.com/masterclasses.