Expressing The Earth documentary receives go ahead
Earthy crowdfunders have helped raise thousands of pounds to make a feature documentary film starting out on Luing.
The island’s Norman Bissell will be writing the script and co-directing the film being made by the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics.
It will tell the story of a young woman’s search for the meaning of geopoetics - a growing movement inspiring artists, scientists and climate activists across the globe to creatively express the natural world.
The film called Expressing The Earth will include interviews, specially composed and performed music and incredible footage and imagery. It will also look at what geopoetics can offer the world in a time of climate and ecological crisis, said published poet, novelist and scriptwriter Norman, who is also the director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics.
The crowdfunded amount was doubled to £9,000 by the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics and topped with a £5,000 donation from RSK, the UK’s largest privately owned technical services and environmental consultancy, which meant the project could go ahead.
The film will also follow its main character’s efforts to find out about geopoetics’ roots and her journey of discovery will take her to tiny Luing where the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics is based, to Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders, and to the home in north Brittany in France of the Scottish poet and thinker Kenneth White, who founded the International Institute of Geopoetics.
Film-makers are also hoping for more international contributions to add to its footage, including from an American group in Ashville, North Carolina. ‘It’s not just going to be talking heads, there will be film footage of our natural world, of bird and other animal life on the planet. We have composers, musicians and singer-songwriters who’ll be getting involved too. It’s early days for the script but we’d like to make a start on the film this year, it could be 2023 before it’s ready to show,’ said Norman.
Ideas are still being floated, but Luing and Cullipool Bay will be in it, spots in Argyll such as the cup and ring markings in Kilmartin Glen could also be featured.
Glasgow-based film-maker Ellen Francis will be its editor and co-director of the film, which she says will be ‘ground-breaking’. Although she has made several short drama and music films, this will be her first feature-length one.
Co-director Norman said: ‘Geopoetics is a big idea whose time has come. It is an international movement which places the Earth at the centre of human experience and creative expression, and this film will bring it to the attention of even more people throughout the world.’
Sponsorship from RSK delighted the Expressing The Earth’s team. RSK’s director of climate change and sustainability Garry Charnock said: ‘Geopoetics added a completely new dimension to our Live from COP26 event in Glasgow and we are keen to build on our relationship with all the poets by sponsoring this delightful film.’
Norman has pitched the idea of the film to a leading documentary institute and also to an ‘excited’ film distributor who was involved in taking another powerful crowdfunded movie Nae Pasaran, a documentary about Scottish factory workers refusing to service Chile’s jet fighters after the 1973 military coup, to a wide audience that included film festivals, TV viewers and cinemas.
‘We’re hoping for something similar to that,’ said Norman.
Watch a short video by Ellen Francis about the film here https://bit.ly/Earthshort.