A school movie with a twist
Being part of the critically acclaimed documentary My Old School was one of the highlights of Dawn Steele’s year.
The film makes use of archive footage, new interviews and cartoon recreations to tell the story of Brandon Lee, the supposed 16-year-old student who enrolled at Bearsden Academy in 1994. He was, in fact, Brian McKinnon, 30 years old and a former student at the school, a fact only discovered after a year of him attending classes.
The film starred Alan Cumming and was directed by Jono McLeod, a former pupil at the school who was there at the same time as Lee. “He’d been making this film for a long time and he got a lot of his friends in to do the voices. He’s one of my oldest friends,” said Steele. “I only have a very small part in it but it was so clever the way he made it.
“He interviewed a lot of his friends from school and what was really interesting for me when I watched it was how everyone’s memory could be swayed. When you hear the individual stories and everyone has a different take on it, it really makes you think.
“It’s already up for lots of awards since premiering at Sundance and it was lovely when we all came up for the premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival, seeing all of his classmates together again and celebrating the film.”