A volunteer’s perspective
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I have been involved with the Shetland Moving Image Archive project since it started many years ago. From seeds sown in a discussion with ex-pat artist and film-maker Karen Emslie, came the idea to investigate the need and demand for a local film archive, which we duly did. Karen was already working in ‘new media’ and I was a long term fan of old film, having grown up watching cine films made by my Grandad and Mam. A little bit of digging revealed that literally hundreds of people had boxes of old film in their wardrobes, attics and sheds. And quite a few groups, companies and other organisations had not insignificant collections too.
The advent of digital/ smart ‘phones/ Youtube/ etc has resulted in an immense quantity of material being created (and shared). We recognised that new film and old each have value, but we can’t collect everything – so we needed a collections policy.
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But first, we needed more people. So, we gathered a group of like-minded folk and formed a committee, which was a necessity if we were going to apply for funding of any kind. We then spent three or four years holding film shows of old movies in village halls and to community groups in order to raise a few bob, and filling out, updating and changing two grant applications (yawn) before finally managing to get to a stage where neither was out-of-date and both could be submitted. We applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund and LEADER, which is an EU fund administered by a Local Action Group via the Economic Development Department of the Council.
Lo and belold, we were successful! And last year, after spending another nine months laying the groundwork, we finally advertised for, and recruited, a Project Development Manager, the fantastic, ex-BBC Radio journalist, Helen Smith. For any group that is trying to develop a complex project with several strands, I cannot emphasise enough how much of a difference it makes to have a dedicated employee working on your project; the progress we have made in the last year has been significant.
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In that time, we have done a lot of the bureaucratic stuff that is necessary but boring – we have created various documents including, a Collections Policy, Uses strategy and Policy, Child and adult protection policy and procedure, Outreach plan, updated Constitution, etc, etc, etc.
But far more exciting is the ‘proper’ work that we have been doing. We have held a few film screenings including being part of the Up Helly Aa Fiery Films which reached 21,000 people! We regularly hear about old film, or are given old films and that is so exciting. And we have been running a new film-making project called Ebb Tide, which has resulted in six short films being made by local film-makers and artists. These films will be screened every night for a week on the Tall Ship in Glasgow as part of the Commonwealth Games 2014 Cultural Programme (tickets available from
The experience of being involved in the Ebb Tide project, and getting to see the amazingly inventive,
original and talented work of local amateur film-makers, is difficult to describe. Each film and maker
is very different with different skills, and each film has something that has surprised and delighted me – I hope you will go to see them, either in Glasgow or here in Shetland when they are screened as part of the Screenplay 2014 film festival.
If you are interested in creative or any kind of film-making, please get in touch or keep an eye out for
our website and content management system. Due soon, it’s going to be awesome!
If you have old film that you would consider donating to the archive, or that you would like preserved, we would be delighted to hear from you. And lastly, we are always looking for volunteers
to help with a whole range of activities, whether helping at a film screening, writing a project plan, being Treasurer or cataloguing an old film – if you are interested in learning more, please contact us
at Shetlandmovingimage@gmail.com or 01595 745524.
Cheers, Joanne
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