Thesis Sep 2015 Working Draft

Curating a Stateless Nation: Selection, Access and Issues of National Specificity in the Promotion of Scottish Film Heritage

Master Thesis Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image 30 September 2015

Faculty of Humanities Department of Media Studies University of Amsterdam

Stephanie Cattigan (10619046) [email protected] Supervisor: Dr. Eef Masson Table of Contents

Introduction (3)

Chapter 1 - Background: Discussing ‘The National‘ (9) 1.1 Defining National Specificity (9) 1.2 Britain & Scotland; State, Nation, Stateless Nation? (12)

Chapter 2 - Theoretical Framework: Reading & Interpreting National Heritage (17) 2.1 National Heritage & Canon Formation (17) 2.2 Modes of Interpretation (20) 2.3 Framing & Context (23)

Chapter 3 - Case Studies: British & Scottish National Contexts (27) 3.1 Introduction: Two National Archives (27) 3.2 Comparing Title Selections: (29) - Feature Film (30) - Television/Broadcast (32) - Sponsored/Documentary (34) - Topical/Actuality (36) - Amateur/Experimental (37) 3.3 Internal & External Framing (41)

Conclusion (50)

Works Cited (55)

Appendices: A: SSA Exhibition Showreel Titles List (59) B: BFI ‘Scottish Reels’ Titles List (60)

2 Introduction

In the run-up to last year’s referendum on Scottish independence the UK media speculated heavily on the possibility of Scotland no longer remaining part of Britain, and the many hypothetical outcomes in this event. Everything from new passports, flags and currency to different dialling codes and time zones were flouted as conceivable side-effects of Britain ‘breaking up’. The status of several prominent British institutions such as the BBC, Tate Britain and the British Museum were also considered1. When asked his opinion on the implications of this the director of the British Museum is quoted as saying, ‘the British Museum is the first cultural evidence of the union. [...] It was marrying Scottish Enlightenment ideas to London's global contact, and it was a real expression of what that new country [Britain] was’2. It is interesting to note the use of the word ‘was’ here, as much of the debate and contemplation surrounding this ‘identity crisis’ leading up to the referendum focused on the past, and on the idea of something (‘Britishness’) that had actually long since disappeared. Sociologist David McCrone writes that historically British identity depended upon firstly ‘a powerful enough sense of ‘Britain’ to encapsulate the minor national identities of these islands’3 and secondly ‘upon the British Empire, the monarchy, and institutions such as the BBC’4. As the influences of these institutions has waned, so too has the shared sense of British national identity. McCrone also isolated the mobilisation of British nationalism by the Thatcher government as an important factor, stating that it ‘became clear - at least to the ‘periphery’ - that it had become an empty shell, or at least was indistinguishable from English nationalism’5. Taking these points into consideration prompts some important counterpoints to those hypothetical musings about the fate of the ‘British’ in the British Museum; is the concept of ‘Britishness’ still culturally relevant enough to have an impact on heritage provision? And would the removal of Scotland from this equation really make much of an impact on the way these national institutions manage and exhibit their collections?

1 Jonathan Jones, ‘Would Scottish independence unleash a British art identity crisis?’, The Guardian, 10 September 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/sep/10/would-scottish-indepence-unleash- british-art-identity-crisis, (accessed 1 September 2015). 2 Charlotte Higgins, ‘What would be the implications for the British Museum if Scotland voted for independence?’, The Guardian, 25 June 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/jun/25/british-museum- scottish-independence, (accessed 1 September 2015). 3 David McCrone, Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Stateless Nation. (London, Routledge, 1992): 209. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 3 Britain remains happily married (or at least cohabiting tolerably) so these questions are still very much hypothetical in nature. But they do provide a jumping off point for what this thesis aims to address; the shared custody of national heritage and how it is cared for in different national contexts. Because it is often the case that these ‘peripheries’ have their own ‘national’ institutions. As a result there are two ‘national’ institutions serving, in theory, the same country. For example, there is also a National Museum of Scotland to provide an equivalency to the aforementioned British Museum. A situation such as this prompts questions regarding the shared responsibility of these institutions, and how each fulfils a requirement to represent collections of national importance. The difference being, this thesis assumes, the national context that surrounds this work: either ‘Scottish’ or ‘British’. This thesis aims to address these questions within the field of film preservation and archiving. Scotland also has its own film archive, established in 1976 in response to a ‘concern that Scottish cultural needs and Scottish cultural expression was not being met in the collection policy of the London [National Film] Archive’6. I will argue that national context has an important role in determining how film heritage is curated by focusing on the work of Scotland’s two national film archives; the Scottish Screen Archive and the BFI National Archive.

Hit with the realisation that much of early film history was lost forever through neglect or deterioration, early film archivists quickly put together their first preservation initiatives. Janna Jones recognises that ‘there was not a unified philosophy for preserving film in the early years of cinema collecting and archiving’ but recognises that ‘there was a nationalistic undercurrent that ran through much of early film collection rhetoric’7. Caroline Frick also explores the rationale behind preservation choices in the early days of film archiving in her book Saving Cinema. She identifies the focus on the national canon and the rise of ‘heritage’ as important socio-political concepts behind why early film archives such as MoMA and the BFI, ‘both defined and limited the range of material deemed worthy of preservation and future scholastic inquiry’8 In many cases, this narrow and highly limited national outlook was often problematic as it informed selection processes and resulted in the neglect of marginalised works and those deemed unsuitable for preservation. There are several issues highlighted by these authors that explain why nationalism was important for early film preservation practice. Frick equates it predominantly with the rise of the

6 Janet McBain, ‘Film and History: An Interview with Janet McBain, Curator of the Scottish Film Archive’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. 27.1 (2007). 97-8. 7 Janna Jones. The Past is a Moving Picture: Preserving the Twentieth Century on Film. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012): 28. 8 Caroline Frick. Saving Cinema: The Politics of Preservation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011): 5. 4 heritage movement. She links the centrality of preservation (as opposed to access) within early film archives as being symptomatic of this era which ‘gave rise to the heritage phenomenon’9. In turn she comments on how heritage preservation was then and is now ‘inextricably’ linked to nationalism (19). While this may be the case when it comes to the broader topic of heritage provision across a range of institutions, for the film archive specifically this link has weakened. Jones writes, ‘the nationalistic discourse that helped to shape early film collections has significantly diminished. The meanings of the film archive became less and less controllable as the twentieth century progressed, helping to liberate the archive from its original inclinations towards historicism and its nationalistic underpinnings’10. There are several contributing factors as to why this influence waned. Most notably the role of the orphan film movement which has brought attention to the importance of different types of film, especially those which do not necessarily reflect the national or have direct importance for a national cinema or heritage. However, as Frick notes, ‘prioritizing the preservation of, rather than the promotion of public access to, global film heritage “treasures” remains the foundation of contemporary motion picture archival practice and training’11. As a result, there does not seem to have been as much consideration of the role of nationalism and nationalist discourse in how preserved material is made accessible. This thesis will offer an example of one way that these issues can impact on access projects, as will be demonstrated in the analysis of two key case studies.

I intend to compare and contrast two examples of curated access projects dealing with Scottish film heritage; one from the Scottish national archive and one from the British national archive. The aim is to analyse each project to ascertain what differences and similarities arise from within different national contexts. The first case study is an exhibition that took place at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and was co-curated in collaboration with the Scottish Screen Archive (SSA)12. The second is focused on the launch of a Mediatheque in Glasgow by the BFI, and will concern the ‘specially commissioned’13 collection of films that were made accessible to visitors as part of this project. Both are launch projects and took place at roughly the same time. This provides a good impression of what each archive considers to be ‘essential’ Scottish film heritage. These case

9 Ibid., 18. 10 Jones, The Past, 51. 11 Frick, 19. 12 Re-branded as ‘Moving Image Archive of the National Library of Scotland’ as of 17 September 2015. This thesis will continue to refer to the archive using the abbreviation ‘SSA’. 13 ‘Glasgow Mediatheque Introduction’, http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/introduction-bfi-collections/bfi- mediatheques/bfi-mediatheques-around-uk/mediatheque-bridgeton-library-glasgow (accessed 23 May 2014). 5 studies bring together the disparate yet highly related ideas I have outlined so far. This thesis presents one example of how national issues are still present in the work of film archives, but the issue is further complicated and made more intriguing by the fact that Scotland has (technically) two national archives. This is not particularly unique considering that many countries have more than one film archive responsible for the safekeeping of the national film heritage14. However, the complicated structure of the UK and its fractured national identities introduce a range of concerns not often found in other countries. As I have already touched on though, the more pertinent issue that will be addressed in this thesis concerns the subject of national context and the required unpacking and deconstructing of different (and often taken for granted) terminologies that are used to discuss Britain and its ‘national’ institutions.

A complex methodology is required to attempt this unpacking of terminologies. As I have already alluded to thus far, this thesis deals with a range of different disciplines including nationalism studies, film preservation and the topic of national heritage. These concepts are all interlinked, but require an equally varied theoretical framework to enable a constructive and persuasive analysis of the aforementioned case studies. The discussion of these cases can be split into two areas of consideration; selection and framing. I will pay close attention to the role of film canons and selection processes in film archives in order to compare and contrast the titles selected in each case study. I will then move on to how these selections have been framed within each project. This part will draw upon the work of film theorist Paul Willemen, his ideas on ‘national specificity’ and his interpretations of the work of semiotician Mikhail Bakhtin. Through Bakhtin’s work links can be made to the research of cultural theorist Mieke Bal who focuses specifically on the act of framing in curatorial work. I will consider both examples of external framing in the case studies (focusing on textual descriptions) as well as external framing (promotion and advertising). There are of course limitations to this approach that I must address upfront. These case studies were chosen for their high profile status, and because they were both launch projects occurring within the same year. These factors indicate a fairly accurate sense of what each archive considered to be ‘essential’ Scottish moving image history at this time. This thesis can not speak to the wider representation of Scottish film heritage that each archive produces in smaller scale projects.

14 For example in France there is both the Cinémathèque Française and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). 6 Another point to clarify is that this thesis is very much concerned with the specificity of the Scottish experience and the way that Scottish film heritage is managed and promoted within Britain. Any wider claims about the impact of national contexts on curating film within the wider field of film preservation are in this case are strictly tangential. What this thesis aims to demonstrate however is that ‘nationalist underpinnings’, whilst indeed not as relevant anymore in film preservation for initial collecting work, can still be an important factor in the way that some film archives promote their collections when it comes to curated forms of access.

This thesis begins with an introduction to the concept of ‘national specificity’. This particularly useful concept encompasses some of the broader issues of nationalism and national identity, and provides a concise way of dealing with these particularly challenging ideas. It is beyond the scope of this thesis to detail the complex socio-economic ideas behind nationalism and national identity. However, key concepts from the field of nationalism studies will be explored in order to provide context. Of particular concern here are the various debates these scholars have established concerning the ontology of seemingly everyday concepts such as ‘nation’ and ‘state’. Drawing on the pioneering concepts of theorists such as Benedict Anderson and Anthony D. Smith will provide a basis for much of the necessary deconstructionist work that is essential for a discussion of Britain and Scotland today, especially as the field is then further complicated by hybrid concepts such as ‘nation-state’ and ‘stateless nation’. The aim of this chapter is to provide some background information that will help establish what is meant by ‘national context’ within the confines of this research. Chapter Two will then focus on the theoretical framework that this thesis will employ in order to ‘read’ and interpret its case studies, so as to ultimately make wider conclusions about the role of national context. Drawing again on the work of Willemen, and introducing some key concepts from cultural theorist Mieke Bal, this chapter will provide an overview of how ‘the national’ operates within heritage institutions. Particular attention will be paid to the process of canon building and the cyclical nature of national heritage formation, with specific references to how these issues have played out historically at a UK level, as well as within film archives. The concept of ‘framing’ and its practical use within curatorial work will be introduced here as a precursor to a more nuanced exploration of this practice when applied to the case studies. The final chapter consists of an analysis of two case studies, each demonstrating a different national context. I will compare and contrast the selections made by each archive to represent five distinct categories: ‘feature film’, ‘television’, ‘documentary’, ‘topical films’ and ‘amateur films’.

7 Referring again to ideas relating to canon formation I will analyse what is included in each project, as well as what is neglected, in order to make broader claims about how each approaches the topic of Scottish film heritage. The second part of this chapter will focus on curatorial practice and issues of internal and external framing. Considerations of interpretation, tone and language choice will be analysed so as to better understand the motivations and rationale of each archive in their approach to the same topic within different national contexts.

8 Chapter I: Discussing the National

1.1 Defining National Specificity

Film theorist Paul Willemen first introduced his concept of ‘national specificity’ to the field of film theory in his 1994 book Looks and Frictions15. For the purposes of this thesis, the most useful aspect of Willemen’s term is that it ‘encompasses and governs the articulation of both national identity and nationalist discourses’.16 I suspect that these terms are often used in place of what would more accurately be termed ‘national specificity’. I myself encountered this pitfall when preparing to write this thesis. This is due in part to the axiomatic and confusing nature of these terms and because they are both linked. National identity is the ‘underlying ideology’17 of nationalism, and nationalism only ‘works because it is based on national identity’18. There is something of a ‘chicken and egg’ situation involving these two concepts with some believing that nationalism creates national identity, whilst others believe that national identity provides the motivation for nation building. There has been an inability for most scholars to find or settle on precise definitions for these terms. On this subject, historian John Breuilly writes, ‘people do yearn for communal membership, do have a strong sense of us and them, of territories as homelands, of belonging to culturally defined and bounded worlds which give their lives meaning’19 but then punctuates his observation by stating, ‘ultimately, much of this is beyond rational analysis and, I believe, the explanatory powers of the historian’20. On the same topic Cubitt writes that it is a ‘concept more easily evoked than defined’21. Academics have been trying to characterise nationalism for decades and have yet to settle on a common definition. I highlight these various acknowledgments of theoretical and semantic difficulty surrounding the field because this act of grappling with terminologies and conflicting positions is an important aspect of this thesis. The intangibility of many of these nationalist ideas,

15 He later approached the subject again in a revised version of his original essay. Paul Willemen, ‘The National Revisited’, in Theorising National Cinema. Eds. Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen (London: British Film Institute, 2006): 16 Ibid., 34. 17 Robert C. Thomsen, Nationalism in Stateless Nations: Selves and Others in Scotland and Newfoundland (Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2010): 12. 18 Madan Sarup, Identity, Culture and the Postmodern World (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996): 130. 19 John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993): 401. 20 Ibid. 21 Geoffrey Cubitt, ed. Imagining Nations (Manchester: Manchester Uni Press, 1998): 1. 9 based so much on emotion, judgement, opinion and statements of value, can be hard to pinpoint and even harder to prove or define. The concept of national specificity enables the consideration of both of these terms (‘nationalism’ and ‘national identity’) concurrently, and provides something of a concessionary framework to work within. To gain a grounding in the context in which Willemen applied his use of the term, it is important to first explore some of the ways that academics have attempted to define nationalism and national identity. I do not aim to provide a comprehensive guide to these complex terms, nor is it my intention to settle on any concrete definitions, but simply to consider why Willemen isolates these two areas as intrinsic to his definition of national specificity.

As a starting point I will borrow Anthony D. Smith’s working definition of nationalism, which he describes as, ‘an ideological movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity for a population which some of its members deem to constitute an actual or potential ‘nation’’22. Smith also acknowledges how definitions of nationalism have tended to overlap and conflict, but offers this simple definition as a way of emphasising three things (national autonomy, national unity and national identity) as the main goals of nationalism. For the purposes of this thesis, national identity is the most relevant of these three, and will be explored further later in the chapter. Broadly speaking, theories on the ideology of nationalism can be split into two major subcategories. The first focuses on primordial ideas of ethnicity and ancestry, and emphasises a nationalism where people feel a connection to their land of birth. Studies that fall into the second category focus on modernist interpretations of nationalism. Perhaps the most widely known scholar in the field of nationalism studies, Benedict Anderson, is aligned with this school of thought, along with other notable theorists such as Eric Hobsbawm and Ernest Gellner. In the most simplistic terms, the difference between these two camps is the belief that nations are made, not born. Research on the topic of national identity can be placed within the traditions of both nationalism studies and identity studies. Along with other modes of identity such as race, class, and gender, it situates the subject within a socially constructed, collective framework of identification. As I have already mentioned, national identity is inextricably linked with issues of nationalism and nationalist discourses. It is an extremely volatile phenomena, and one which Tim Edensor refers to as an ‘ever shifting matrix’23. As is inevitably the case though with identity searches, it is a source of continual preoccupation in academia and, it could be argued, everyday life.

22 Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism: Key Concepts (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010): 9. 23 Tim Edensor, National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life (Oxford: Berg, 2002): 30. 10 To return to Willemen’s concept of national specificity. As I have outlined already this term incorporates both ‘the national’ and its various intertwined, complex discourses including nationalism and national identity. Willemen gives several succinct examples to demonstrate this. Firstly, he discusses Black British cinema and remarks that, particularly in comparison with African-American cinema, these films are ‘strikingly British yet not nationalistic’24. Willemen highlights this to demonstrate that there is a difference between ‘the discourses of nationalism as objects of study or as a political project’ (33) and ‘the issue of national specificity’ (33). He argues further that there is a ‘crucial difference between nationalism and a concern with the ways a particular social formation functions’ (30). With regard to national identity, Willemen uses Australia as an example, noting that ‘concerns with notions of Australianness and with national identity’ were only a ‘temporary component of the dominant registers of Australian cultural specificity’(33). He uses this example to demonstrate that ‘other motifs and discourses’ (34) besides national identity can become intrinsic to national specificity, citing the example of preoccupations with immigration policy in Australia in the early 1990s. Willemen’s main goal is to further emphasise that the ‘concern with socio-cultural specificity is different from identity searches and debates’ (34). He continues, ‘the specificity of a cultural formation may be marked by the presence but also by the absence of preoccupations with national identity. Indeed, national specificity will determine which, if any, notions of identity are on the agenda’(34).

Willemen’s ideas are a starting point for this thesis, and will be built upon in order to progress towards a more thorough outline of what is meant by national specificity within the contexts of this research. Willemen acknowledges that he has borrowed ‘national specificity’ from the ‘vocabulary of modernism applied in the realm of political economy’ (33). Another field in which this term is used frequently is in translation studies. There are some useful concepts to be mined in this field that can help provide greater clarity to the concept of national specificity. In particular, Anthony Pym explores ‘the general notion or even feeling that such peoples might have about their specificity’25. He explains his use of the term as dealing with ‘a unitary paradise able to motivate the way you or I or anyone else may manifest or interiorise a national cultural identity through

24 Willemen, 33. 25 Anthony Pym, ‘Coming to Terms With and Against Nationalist Cultural Specificity. Notes for an Ethos of Translation Studies’, in Folia Translatologica. Eds. Jana Kralova and Zuzana Jettmaraova (Prague: Charles University, 1993) 49. 11 adherence to specially marked action and thought’26. This outlook emphasises the idealism inherent in notions of national specificity, and the term ‘specially marked’ is also particularly relevant. The reason why becomes clear when focus is directed towards the ‘specificity’ part of this concept, which derives of course from the word ‘specific’ and means to have a ‘special determining quality’27. This thesis understands ‘national specificity’ as a concern with perceived special and specific qualities that are seen as particular to a specific nation (usually by those who identify with said nation). In other words, those elements that are seen as ‘quintessential’, and the aspects which are thought to reveal something about the character of a national people or national culture; ‘judgements of value’ rather than ‘judgements of fact’28. These values are usually seen in opposition to other nations; a quality which one national culture possesses that differentiate it from others.

1.2 Britain & Scotland: State, Nation, Stateless Nation?

In order to place this theory of national specificity within a UK context it is important to look briefly at the history of its formation. McCrone isolates three key dates that triggered new definitions of ‘Britain’; 1707, 1801 and 192129. Britain officially became a sovereign state in 1707 when England and Scotland joined to form one kingdom, along with Wales which was already under English jurisdiction at this point. In 1801 Ireland joined and Britain became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. When Ireland declared its independence in 1921 the arrangement of the UK changed again, with only the six most northern counties of Ireland remaining. This is particularly succinct account of the development of the UK, but I include it to give a very rough idea of the different levels of constitutional change happening until fairly recently. Robin Cohen describes identity in Britain as a ‘fuzzy frontier’30. This thesis will attempt to clear away some of this ‘fuzziness’ by focusing on particular discrepancies in the way the terminologies surrounding Britain and its various identities are used. As a starting point I will focus on the observation by Willemen that, ‘British nationalism is in fact an imperial identification, rather than an identification with the British state. To complicate matters further, an identification with the British state is, in fact, an English nationalism, as opposed to Welsh, Cornish or Scottish

26 Ibid. 27 "specific, adj. and n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, §1a. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/185999? rskey=XDCeIc&result=2&isAdvanced=false#eid (accessed 2 July 2015). 28 Pym, 49. 29 McCrone, Understanding Scotland, 97. 30 Robin Cohen., ‘Fuzzy Frontiers of Identity: The British Case’, Social Identities. 1.1 (1995): 35. 12 nationalisms, which relate not to a state but to nations’31. For the purposes of this thesis I will use these observations (British nationalism as an imperial identification, British state identification as English nationalism and identification with the nation of Scotland as Scottish nationalism) to reconsider the terms ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’ and make clearer what I mean by national context. In order to do so it is important to look more closely at the terms ‘nation’ and ‘state’.

What is a nation? This is the question at the forefront of nationalism studies. Perhaps the most widely known and heavily utilised answer to this question is Benedict Anderson’s concept of the ‘imagined community’. For Anderson, nations are ‘imagined communities’ because ‘members of even the smallest nation will never know most fellow members’32. He stressed that because it is imagined does not mean that is it false, because ‘communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined’33. When it comes to the topic of British nationalism it is possible to adapt an Orwellian turn of phrase and acknowledge that although all nations are imagined, some are more imagined than others. By this I do not mean to be facetious, but simply to acknowledge that in the case of the UK there is an added layer of complexity deriving from its imperialist past and the concept of Britishness. In order to fully explore this yet another term (‘the state’) must be deconstructed. Anthony D. Smith offers a perspective on what differentiates the state from the nation, positing that a nation is ‘not a state, because the concept of the state relates to institutional activity, while that of the nation denotes a type of community’34. Whether Britain can officially be called a nation or a state is of course further complicated by its imperialist history and as such terminologies have been offered by leading nationalism scholars in order to help cross this ‘fuzzy frontier’. McCrone describes Britain as a ‘state-nation masquerading as a nation-state’35. By viewing Britain this way, he explains, ‘we are alluding to the fact that it was a state first, and only later (if at all) a nation. At no time can one seriously consider Britain as a ‘nation-state’, that is, a homogenous cultural grouping which mobilized that homogeneity to become a state’36.

There are many of these hybrid terminologies used in Scotland’s case also. In particular the term ‘stateless nation’ has come to be used to signify something of the Scottish situation. The term is by

31 Willemen, 33. 32 Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983): 15. 33 Ibid. 34 Smith, Nationalism: Key Concepts, 12. 35 McCrone, Understanding Scotland, 97. 36 Ibid., 98. 13 no means unique to Scotland, and has been applied to many disparate minority groups within a larger, dominant state who seek the establishment of a state of their own. However, as Tom Nairn stipulates, ‘there are many stateless nationalities in history, but only one Act of Union’37. He is referring here to what he labels ‘a peculiarly patrician bargain between two ruling classes’ (129). The 1707 union of Scotland and England was of mutual benefit to both parties, and despite the current political drive for autonomy within the country, Scotland was a willing participant. This has come to be referred to as a ‘marriage of convenience’, a favourite phrase in the media rhetoric surrounding last year’s referendum on Scottish independence. Nairn identifies the period in which this union took place as particularly opportune as it took place after the age of ‘absolute monarchy’ but before the ‘age of democratic nationalism’ (129) had arrived. The particular effects of this endeavour lie in ‘the results of the bargain: a nationality which resigned statehood but preserved an extraordinary amount of institutional and psychological baggage normally associated with independence - a decapitated national state, as it were, rather than an ordinary ‘assimilated’ nationality’ (129). Nairn stresses that Scotland’s cultural development has not been ‘normal’ and refers to the condition of culture in Scotland as ‘stunted’ and ‘caricatural’ (143). He writes that because of the aforementioned ‘psychological baggage’, Scotland has not developed a culture that is not ‘straightforwardly nationalist’ and can only described as ‘sub-nationalist - in the sense of venting its national content in various crooked ways - neurotically, so to speak, rather than directly’ (144). I would contend also that it is a culture that can be described as nationally specific. As I have explained, national specificity does not have to focus on identity searches or issues of political nationalism. Yet it still very much expresses a continual preoccupation with, and reflection upon, certain aspects of national culture. This constant rumination ties in with Nairn’s psychologically worded metaphors on the state of Scottish culture. Similarly, McCrone refers to the image of Scottish society as ‘schizophrenic’ because of the ‘separation of state (British) from society (Scottish)’38. Much of this ‘neuroticism’ is triggered by imprecise terminologies. Let us return to the observations made by Willemen at the start of the chapter and look at them in turn. Firstly, the idea that British nationalism is in fact an imperial identification. This alludes to the fact that, as McCrone writes, ‘Britishness was almost wholly a political rather than a cultural phenomenon. It became a mobilising device, almost entirely defined by its external relations, without a substantive,

37 Tom Nairn. The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-nationalism (Norfolk: Lowe and Brydone Printers Ltd, 1977): 129. 38 McCrone, 17. 14 cultural content’ (210). In Scotland’s case this resulted in the formation of a ‘unionist’ strain of nationalism, which focused on Scottish cultural achievements and participated in the activity of a shared, unique national culture without any of the political implications. This was a time of temporary fixity within Britishness for Scots, facilitated through a ‘post-Union attachment to imperialist militarism’(105). McCrone notes however that ‘By the first half of the twentieth century, British national identity was exposed for what it was - a supra-national identity deriving from an imperial past’ (104). It is this development which allows for the possibility of holding both a Scottish and a British sense of identity simultaneously or, in some cases, to choose between them:

Being British is a sort of umbrella identity sitting loosely upon the older territorial identities of England, Scotland and Wales. Simply put, you can be both English and British, Scottish and British, Welsh and British; these may be seen by academics and the person in the street alike as nested identities, complementary, not contradictory, although in practice people sometimes see them as alternatives depending on context.39

If we heed McCrone’s advice that, ‘it is important to remember that nationalism, or national identity, is not characteristic, but imputes a relationship between different identities. To be Scottish, for example, is to be not English’40, then we are able to work towards a diagnosis regarding Scotland’s ‘schizophrenic’ tendencies regarding national identity. Willemen equates an identification with the British state with English nationalism. Therefore, an identification with Britishness is far simpler in the English case. English expression of national identity is streamlined through identification with the British state. It is incorporated into a larger entity because as McCrone writes, ‘Englishness became submerged into a wider, and more artificial, sense of Britishness because, as the overwhelmingly dominant nationality within the state, its assertion, in the context of the Union, would have been divisive’41. Scottish expression of national identity however, as we have already touched on, is not able to gel quite so seamlessly, as ‘the Scottish masses were not socialized into a unitary national culture. Inevitably they were forced to compose for themselves a bastard product that was part ‘indigenous’ - expressing the still quite different life and social ethic of the country - and part Great-British, or imperialist’42.

39 Frank Bechhofer and David McCrone. Eds. National Identity, Nationalism and Constitutional Change (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009): 1. 40 McCrone, 207. 41 Ibid., 210. 42 Nairn, 167. 15 These ideas simply create frameworks for the study of the wider, more generalised issue of national identification. They of course do not allow room for the more subtle nuances of individual subjectivity. Hill acknowledge this aspect of identity studies and refers to the ‘suppression of difference’43 that is inherent in the structure of other collective identities such as gender, race etc. He does note however, that ‘in the case of Britain this suppression of difference is all the greater in so far as there is more than one national community within the boundaries of the nation-state and, therefore, no obvious alignment between ‘national culture’ and nation-state of the sort assumed by nationalist ideology’44. Andrew Higson picks up on a similar issue which incorporates the homogenising tendency of collective identities and explains it as a process of ‘displacement and condensation’ which can be found in ‘the slippage from the South County to England, from England to Britain, from urban to rural, from class antagonism to patrician authority, and thence to organic community, and from the interests of one class to national interest’45. These accidental processes of overlapping and condensation, and perhaps even in some cases through a deliberate effort to simplify discussions of British structure and identity, have resulted in this range of synecdochical terminologies.

This chapter has functioned as an opportunity to provide necessary background information that will prove useful in the later analysis of case studies in Chapter Three. The subject of national specificity, which as we have explored combines elements of nationalism and national identity, deals with values rather than fact and refers to the ‘special’ or ‘marked’ qualities of national cultures that are perceived as distinctive from others. Placing this concept within a UK context led to a discussion of the terms ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’. The ideas explored here draw attention to how these concepts which, although seemingly commonplace, cannot be taken at face value. The term ‘British’ is complicated by its status as a ‘state-nation’; ‘Scottish’ by its status as a ‘stateless nation’. These issues, together with the theoretical concepts outlined in the next chapter, will combine in the analysis of the case studies in Chapter Three.

43 John Hill, ‘The Issue of National Cinema and British Film Production’, in New Questions of British Cinema. Ed. Duncan Petrie (London: BFI, 1992): 15. 44 Ibid. 45 Andrew Higson. Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995): 44. 16 Chapter 2: Reading & Interpreting National Heritage

2.1 National Heritage & Canon Formation

Having explored the topic of national specificity and national context in the previous chapter, I now shift focus to the second part of my question. The term ‘heritage’ is equally as loaded, and also often taken for granted like the term ‘national’. I will explore the importance of heritage and the role of the institutions that are responsible for it. Finally I will move on to some exploration of the methodology and theory behind how curatorial work in the heritage field is carried out. On the topic of heritage Frick writes:

much contemporary analysis of heritage discourse focuses upon the concept’s uniting capacity and potential within a largely socio-economic context. Oppositional, and even adversarial, interest groups can join together behind the rubric of heritage and its emotional, if indefinite, nature. The term’s very imprecision makes “heritage” as acceptable and useful as it is.46

Here Frick has zeroed in on the difference between the term heritage and the issues surrounding nationalism explored in the last chapter. It is a far less divisive term that can generally be applied without the baggage of nationalism. It is, as Frick stresses, a ‘naturalized concept’ (13), which can be misleading. As Frick points out however, ‘the preservation of so-called national or state heritage is not, and never has been, a neutral concept, although it is presented as such by politicians, the press, intellectuals, and archivists. Moreover, heritage preservation, as a primarily nineteenth- and twentieth- century mode of dealing with history, remains inextricably related to nationalism’ (19). In her book Uses of Heritage, Laurajane Smith explores how the dominant conversations and practices surrounding heritage (what she calls ‘Authorized Heritage Discourse’) have identified the key role of nationalism, ‘The AHD was itself both constituted by, and is a constitutive discourse of, the ideology of nationalism. In identifying ‘national heritage’, the ‘nation’ is symbolically and imaginatively constituted as a real entity’47. Indeed, the term ‘heritage’ has been a popular topic in academia and Frick identifies the mid-1970s as important, writing that since then it ‘has become an important sociocultural and

46 Frick, 15. 47 Laurajane Smith, Uses of Heritage (London: Routledge, 2006): 49. 17 economic force. A significant amount of literature has been produced for heritage management, for and by heritage practitioners’48. This was an important time for heritage in a UK context also, as there were differences in the way this movement developed in the UK. The National Heritage Acts of 1980 and 1983 were important, and as Andrew Higson explains, ‘these acts reworked concepts of public access and use in terms of commodification, exhibition, and display, encouraging the forthright marketing of the past within a thoroughly market-orientated heritage industry’49. This commodification was highly linked to the Conservative government of the time. However, Higson stresses that ‘the heritage impulse is not confined to Thatcherite Britain but a ‘characteristic’ feature of postmodern culture’ (112). This is very much linked to a preoccupation with nostalgia and a desire to recycle culture, and reflect on highly self referential elements of national heritage. As Higson writes, ‘the past is reproduced as a flat, depthless pastiche, where the reference point is not the past itself, but other images, other texts’ (112). The concept of national specificity shares many of these preoccupations. To reiterate, national specificity pertains to what is seen as special or unique to a national culture. It has strong links to national identity and nationalistic discourse, but these issues are not necessarily always at the forefront of this concept. Issues of national specificity often makes up what is considered national heritage. Heritage institutions show the public what they recognise to be traits, values, achievements and aspects of culture that are perceived to be specific to the experience of belonging to a certain nationality, and capable of only being produced within said national context. To understand fully the link to heritage and its status as somewhat superficial and self referential we must look in more detail at the institutions which not only protect national heritage, but also have a hand in producing it.

Institutions play a defining role in establishing national heritage and identity. To return once again to Willemen’s article, ‘it is my contention that the formation, imposition, and indeed the acceptance of, or consent to a ‘national identity’, is to be tracked in the addressing dimensions of institutions set up and maintained to select a cluster of ‘differentiae’ [...] decreed to be ‘our’ inheritance by those social groups or power blocs who seek to perpetuate their dominance’50. Referring specifically to museums, Smith explains how narratives of ‘national and cultural identity became embedded in exhibition and collection practices’51. She also notes how they ‘took on a regulatory

48 Frick, 15-16. 49 Andrew Higson, ‘Re-presenting the National Past: Nostalgia and Pastiche in the Heritage Film’, in Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism. Ed. Lester D. Friedman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1993): 112. 50 Willemen, 30. 51 Smith, Uses of Heritage, 18. 18 role in helping to establish and govern both social and national identity’52. These authoritative images of national culture produced within heritage organisations are created with the education of the public in mind. Ernest Gellner labelled these modern institutions as existing within ‘garden cultures’, and described them as possessing a ‘complexity and richness, most usually sustained by literacy and by specialized personnel’53. As Edensor writes, ‘a mass education system binds state and culture together, canons are devised, museum are established, official histories written, scientific bodies set up to subtend the propagation of ‘official’ knowledge, so that specific bodies of knowledge, values and norms are ingested by all educated citizens’54. Canon formation is an interesting aspect of the work of heritage organisations. Smith writes, ‘it is now widely recognised that the idea of a canon is linked closely with that of nation, and that canons might be understood to represent ideological tools that circulate the values on which particular visions of nationhood are established’55. The use of the word ‘circulate’ here is key as, in many ways, the process of canon formation within cultural heritage organisations is a self- sustaining cycle, and one that can lead to the displacement of ‘the material dimensions of historical context’56. By this I mean that this ‘differentiae’, the nationally specific, distinguishing features of a national culture are first designated as such within institutional contexts. As Eric Hobsbawm notes, ‘the ideology of nation, state or movement is not what has actually been preserved in popular memory, but what has been selected, written, pictured, popularized and institutionalised by those whose function it is to do so’ 57. If these images are then ‘ingested’ by ‘educated citizens’ and become part of the national imagination, they become one step removed from their original context. Which is not to say that canons are blindly accepted. They are also ‘digested’ and reflected upon. As Liz Czach writes, ‘the formation of a canon is not an automatic, innate procedure but rather a contested cultural process’58. Edensor also picks up on this idea, writing that ‘a national cultural hegemony must be achieved, must offer plausible points of identification’59. In other words it must appeal to that which is nationally specific which as, Willemen stipulates in his description of the

52 Ibid. 53 Ernest Geller, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd, 1983): 50. 54 Edensor, 3. 55 W.J.T. Mitchell, ‘Canon’, in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Eds. Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg and Meaghan Morris (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005) 20. 56 Higson, ‘Re-presenting the National Past’, 112. 57 Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds. The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1983): 13. 58 Liz Czach, ‘Film Festivals, Programming, and the Building of a National Cinema’, The Moving Image. 4.1 (2004): 78. 59 Edensor, 8. 19 term, does not necessarily focus on national identity but ‘will determine which, if any, notions of identity are on the agenda’60.

This process of canon building is equally important within film archives and Frick advocates for awareness surrounding their role in ‘creating, solidifying, and promoting film canons’61. As Czach highlights, the formation of film canons includes ‘processes of inclusion and exclusion’62. This leads to the areas of film archival work I am most concerned with; selection. Janna Jones writes, ‘collection, inspection, cataloguing, storage, preservation, restoration, exhibition and duplication - these are ways the archive shapes history’63. It is noticeable that the important process of ‘selection’ is missing. This may have something to do with the specific history of film preservation. As Karen F. Gracy reminds us, in ‘the historical genesis of many film archives, appraisal has largely resided in the activity of preservation, not selection. Most archives collected with abandon because so much moving image heritage had been lost to deterioration or destruction by studios’64. Selection is a more prominent concern for film archives when it comes to the process of making their collections accessible. As I have outlined in my introduction, there is an argument to be made that issues of national specificity are very much at the forefront of these selection decisions, even if they are no longer as relevant in the initial archival chain of collection and preservation.

2.2 Modes of Interpretation

My methodology for analysing and interpreting my chosen case studies rests on another theory introduced in Willemen’s essay. Drawing on the work of social theorist and semiotician Mikhail Bakhtin, Willemen introduces three modes of interpretation ‘which correlate with three different ways of framing relations with other socio-cultural networks’65. For the purposes of this thesis, these ‘socio-cultural networks’ will consist of national institutions and their associated national heritages. I aim to connect these ideas (which I will outline below) with the concepts I have already covered relating to national specificity, different national contexts and the role of cultural institutions in absorbing and producing heritage canons.

60 Willemen, 34. 61 Frick, 7. 62 Czach, ‘Film Festivals’, 78. 63 Jones, The Past, 21. 64 Karen F. Gracy, Film Preservation: Competing Definitions of Value, Use and Practice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2007): 81. 65 Willemen, 36. 20 Willemen labels the first mode of interpretation that he outlines ‘project appropriation’, which he describes as projecting beliefs from one culture or context on to another. He links this to a process of what he calls ‘internationalising ways of making sense’ (36). Using Indian cinema as an example, Willemen describes this mode as employing ‘scornful amusement’ (38) and is often dismissive. The second is described as becoming a ‘mouthpiece for others’ and is therefore labelled ‘ventriloquist identification’ (36). Willemen associates this with a sense of ‘imperialist guilt’ (37) and the false assumption by academics that in India for instance, the popular cinema represents ‘the people’s cinema’ in the same ways as it does in Hollywood (38). Willemen then describes a ‘transitional’ mode which bridges a gap en route to the third and final mode. This particular approach is the most useful for the purposes of this thesis. This is a traditional scholarly method that pays attention to trends and historical narratives. Willemen highlights that this mode is useful because it provides essential information, however we should be cautious of this narrative as it is ‘riddled with elements of the populist (i.e. ‘ventriloquist identification’) and the ‘projectivist’.(38). He writes:

This is a transitional moment in the process of engagement with otherness, because it still maps the familiar Western reductive paradigms onto, for instance, the development of the Indian film industry. But to the extent that the effort is genuinely scholarly, this type of historiography is also bound to register areas of difference where the object of study resists the interpretive framework projected upon it (39).

The final mode avoids the pitfalls of the two previously outlined as it does not appropriate nor does it subordinate the culture concerned. Willemen refers to this as ‘creative understanding’ but acknowledges that this approach more commonly falls under the Bakhtian term ‘dialogic’ (37). He states though, that this is in fact a misunderstanding as ‘dialogism is inherent in all language and communication’ (37). He defines this approach as one ‘which concentrates on the need to understand the dynamics of a particular cultural practice within its own social formation. However, that social formation is simultaneously taken as a historical construct, and thus as an object of transformation rather than a given essence hiding deep within the national soul’ (40). The final part of this definition refers to common debates within nationalistic discourse that we have already covered; the gradual shift in academic study of nationalism as a primordial awakening as opposed to a modern imagining.

21 By way of a concession, it must be noted that Willemen concentrates on the way that Western scholars theorise and interpret other cinema cultures from within their own culturally specific frameworks. It is important to tread carefully when arguing any of these positions in the discussion of the place of Scotland within Britain. These approaches are designed to address and compensate for the uneven balance of power that imperialism has created. Although Willemen cites examples where this approach can be used other than in interactions between western and non-western cultures (Britain and Ireland; Japan and Korea), there is still a postcolonial factor and therefore an imbalance of power. This situation between Scotland and Britain is not directly comparable, and situating this argument within any sort of postcolonial discourse would be extremely problematic as historically Scotland has been part of colonisation processes. As Michael Gardiner explains, Scotland can neither be ‘identified as coloniser or colonised - to believe it was definitively indefinable as either would be to misunderstand it fundamentally as a nation’66. That is not to say that these approaches can not be applicable when analysing the relationship between Britain and Scotland, as there is still an argument to be made regarding an imbalance of power. The way to address this imbalance according to Willemen depends on the ability of the analyst to engage with other cultures whilst also reflecting on their own socio-cultural context. He explains that, ‘we are talking here about a double outsideness: the analyst must relate to his or her own situation as an other, refusing simple identifications with pre-given, essentialised socio-cultural categories’67. He warns that, ‘if this cross-eyed dialectic is forgotten, the term ‘specificity’ loses any meaning and any notion of creative or diagnostic understanding. That would be unfortunate, since a position of double outsideness, that is to say, of in-between-ness, is the precondition for any useful engagement with ‘the national’ in film culture’68. Above all it is important not to lose track of this notion of national specificity, and not to assume that one culture can be framed in the same context as another. I intend to use these approaches to analyse the curatorial and promotional work of the Scottish and British national film archives, focusing mainly on selection choices.

66 Michael Gardiner, ‘Literature, Theory, Politics: Devolution as Iteration’, in The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature. Ed. Berthold Schoene (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007): 45. 67 Willemen, 40. 68 Ibid. 22 2.3 Framing & Context

As I have outlined in the previous chapter Willemen draws heavily on the work of semiotician Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as borrowing terminology from other academic fields in order to make observations about the national in film culture. Cultural theorist Mieke Bal has famously advocated for the usefulness of this interdisciplinary approach in her book Travelling Concepts in the Humanities which explores the ways in which concepts from other fields can be employed in cultural analysis. In her work Bal also draws on the work of Bakhtin, and the wider fields of linguistics and semiotics, in order to theorise curatorial practice and reflect on the ways that heritage and culture are exhibited. I intend to combine concepts from these two scholars in order to form a theoretical framework that will enable me to analyse my case studies as well as the wider topics of both the ‘national’ and the ‘curatorial’.

Mikhail Bakhtin is a philosopher and semiotician whose work is predominantly occupied with the analysis and ontology of language and discourse, and is known in particular for his theories on ‘dialogism’. Bakhtin’s theories centred around the idea that ‘meaning is established through dialogue - it is fundamentally dialogic. Everything we say and mean is modified by the interaction and interplay with another person. Meaning arises through the ‘difference’ between the participants in any dialogue. The ‘Other’, in short, is essential to meaning’69. Given the nature of most curatorial work and its impulse to compare and contrast it is easy to see why Bal draws on concepts such as the ones originated by Bakhtin to explore the field of museum studies. Bal writes, ‘a museum is a discourse, and exhibition an utterance within that discourse’70. The idea of the ‘utterance’ is very important in Bakhtin’s work. Another area that Bal focuses on is rhetoric. In her analysis of an exhibition she attended she talks about ‘selective rhetoric’. By this she means that the language used by curators tells a very purposeful story or ‘narrative’. She writes that, ‘rhetoric helps us to “read” not just artefacts in the museum, but the museum and its exhibitions themselves’71. It is this progression towards the importance of ‘reading the museum’ that sparked what was coined ‘the new museology’, of which Bal states, ‘should be an interdisciplinary study of the institution of the museum within the dual framework of critical anthropology and discursive

69 Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1997): 235-6. 70 Mieke Bal, ‘The Discourse of the Museum’, in Thinking about Exhibitions. Eds. Bruce W. Ferguson, Reese Greenberg and Sandy Nairne (London: Routledge, 1996): 153. 71 Ibid., 149. 23 analysis’72. It is this duality that Bal outlines that is most directly relevant for this thesis. Firstly, I am interested in the institutional national context and how it impacts on curatorial work. Secondly I want to draw attention to the ways in which this curatorial work can be studied through the analysis of issues such as framing and context, both of which are important aspects of ‘discursive analysis.’ As Rhiannon Mason points out, previous writings on communication theory and museums ‘do not focus adequately on the importance of contexts within which acts of communication occur’73. This is precisely what this thesis aims to explore through looking at the use of framing within national institutions that align themselves with different aspects of British identity, which as we have already explored previously, is very complex. Of course, in this case my focus in on the work of film archives and how they have curated their collections. However, Bal’s work on museums and exhibitions is still extremely relevant with many of her key points easily transferrable to this topic, as I will explain in more detail shortly.

The terms ‘framing’ and ‘context’ are often used interchangeably, an issue that literary theorist Jonathan Culler discussed in his seminal text Framing the Sign. On the subject of context he writes, ‘context is not fundamentally different from what it contextualises; context is not given but produced; what belongs to a context is determined by interpretive strategies; contexts are just as much in need of elucidation as events; and the meaning of a context is determined by events. Yet when we use the term context we slip back into the simple model it proposes’74. He proposes that we use the term ‘framing the sign’ instead. Bal on the other hand acknowledges that, ‘the concept of framing has been productively put to use in cultural analysis as an alternative to the older concept of context’75, referring here to Culler. She however argues for a specific use of the terms ‘framing’ and ‘context’ and is careful not to argue for the use of one over the other. This idea, that we should consider terminologies and concepts in relation to their surroundings and on their own terms, is integral to Bal’s work. Along these lines I will differentiate between framing and context for the purposes of analysing my case studies. I refer to ‘context’ particularly in my discussion of different national outlooks within institutions responsible for national heritage. In my discussion of acts of ‘framing’ I will use this term to mean the curatorial practices carried out within these national contexts.

72 Ibid., 148. 73 Rhiannon Mason, ‘Museums, Galleries and Heritage: Sites of Meaning-Making and Communication’, in Heritage, Museums and Galleries: An Introductory Reader. Ed. Gerard Corsane (London: Routledge, 2005) 221. 74 Jonathan Culler. Framing the Sign: Criticism and Its Institutions (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988): ix. 75 Mieke Bal. Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002): 134. 24 This chapter began by emphasising how the term heritage, despite being very much linked to the concept of nationalism, avoids much of the baggage associated with it. It has a vague, imprecise quality and as a result has been somewhat exploited. The impulse to capitalise on heritage, seen predominantly in the UK from the 1970s onwards, saw the recycling of elements of culture that were subsequently reduced to what Higson termed flat pastiches. Much of this activity takes place in heritage institutions which cultivate and circulate these elements of culture. They are complicit in both forming canons and and are informed by them. These issues are important within film archives, and whilst adherence to national canons is not as prevalent in preservation work, this thesis aims to highlight that it is still important in terms of access, as the case studies in the next chapter will explore. Willemen’s modes of interpretation have been outlined in this chapter as useful methods of considering the way heritage institutions engage with cultures outside of the national context within which they operate. He outlines three separate modes; ‘projectivist’, ‘ventriloquist’ and ‘creative understanding’. These correlate, respectively, with the act of projecting views from one culture on to another, acting as a ‘mouthpiece’ for other cultures, and entering into a process of understanding other cultures on their own terms by first considering one’s own culture as ‘other’. An auxiliary fourth mode is also outlined and labelled as ‘transitional’ because it fills a gap between the second and third mode. It is a traditional, scholarly approach which is useful for providing necessary information but falls into the pitfalls of the first and second modes. As I will explore in the next chapter these ideas are most relevant when considering the BFI project. This is an peculiar example of a case where the national culture explored (Scottish) is both ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ the national context (British) within which it is interpreted. I will explore how this is managed and make reference to the concepts outlined here.

Finally, following on from the Bakhtin inspired work of Willemen, the final part of this chapter outlined key ideas related to context and framing through the work of another theorist who draws on the work of Bakhtin; Mieke Bal. This thesis will compare and contrast case studies in order to gauge how each archive has approached the subject of Scottish film heritage within its respective national context. I will pay close attention to which titles have been selected by each archive as representative of Scottish film heritage, and will discusses these choices in relation to the ideas on national heritage canon formation that I have outlined at the beginning of this chapter. My discussion of how these titles are framed (both internally and externally) will focus on textual

25 descriptions, how each project is promoted and synopsised by its curators, and how analysis of these aspects enable these events to be ‘read’.

26 Chapter 3: British & Scottish National Contexts

3.1 Introduction: Two National Archives

The BFI National Film and Television Archive (BFI) was officially established in 1935 and was then known as the National Film Library. Along with the MoMA in New York and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, the BFI was very significant in the early days of film preservation. The archive was established as part of an initiative by the British Film Institute. Established in 1933, the Institute aimed to ‘promote the various uses of film as a contribution to national well-being’76. The organisation was, as Frick stresses, ‘from its inception [...] concerned specially with education, culture, and, most importantly, the nation’77. As I have already explored, nationalism and nationalist sentiment and rhetoric were very much intertwined in the early days of film archiving. However, although the BFI was established with a nationalist agenda in mind, its history is very much bound up with the history of the film archiving profession itself and the much larger, international scope of film preservation. The central figure at the inception of the BFI archive was Ernest Lindgren, its first curator. His rivalry with Henri Langlois, and their differing and often combative approaches to preservation, are the issues most commonly fixated upon when one reads about the founding on the BFI archive. Former BFI curator Patrick Russell commented that, ‘in the folklore of the profession, the ‘Lindgren v Langlois’ morality play has the character of a national foundation myth: real historical persons yet also symbolic figures, competing for control of the curatorial soul’78.

The Scottish Screen Archive (SSA) is a fairly new organisation. It was formally established in 1976 as part of Scottish Screen, a governmental organisation supporting the screen arts in Scotland. A large part of its collection was inherited from the Scottish Film Library (SFL), a small collection established in the mid-1950s with support from the British Film Institute. The SFL was set up because it was felt that there was a greater need in Scotland for a collection separate from the British one held in London than for the rest of the UK. Its collection consisted mainly of educational films and was part of a government initiative to use film as a pedagogical medium; therefore only certain aspects of Scottish film culture were collected. Upon the discovery of a large

76 Frick, 89. 77 Ibid. 78 qtd. in Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Christophe Dupin, The British Film Institute, the Government and Film Culture, 1933-2000 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012): 65. 27 trove of film cans in a shed on the premises of the Scottish Screen agency, an archivist was hired to catalogue and assess the state of Scotland’s film heritage collection. The SSA is a founding member of Film Archives UK; an organisation set up to foster cooperation between the UK’s network of national and regional film archives. The labels ‘national’ and ‘regional’ pose a problem for the SSA because, as one member of staff commented, ‘We are sometimes, rather annoyingly, slotted in to become a ‘region’ of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland when it suits, but we do preserve a unique collection of images related to Scotland and the Scottish people’79. In 2007 the SSA collection became a part of the National Library of Scotland.

My first case study is the BFI Mediatheque project in Glasgow, and more specifically the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection which was specially curated for its launch in 2012. In 2007 the BFI launched its first Mediatheque in London: a library of moving images freely accessible to the public. It consists of a selection of curated collections organised thematically, with such titles as ‘Silent Britain’ and ‘Animated Adventures’. In addition to the first one in London, the Mediatheque project had been rolled out in four other cities before reaching Scotland: Cambridge, Wrexham, Newcastle and Derby. Since then many more have been opened in cities such as Manchester, Bradford and Birmingham. My second case study focuses on the 2012 exhibition, ‘Going to the Pictures: Scotland at the Cinema’ which was co-curated by the Scottish Screen Archive in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland. This exhibition ran from 15th June to the 28th October 2012 and was curated in order to mark the Scottish Screen collection becoming a part of the National Library. Like the BFI ‘Scottish Reels’ collection, its focus was on displaying over one hundred years of Scottish cinema history. It was equally diverse with attention paid to images of Scotland on screen, Scottish life and Scottish cinema, as well as displaying movie posters and memorabilia collected by the National Library. The exhibition attracted over 40,000 visitors and was one of the most successful exhibitions held by the National Library of Scotland at their location in Edinburgh.

79 Frick, 149. 28 3.2 Comparing Title Selections

Sponsored/Documentary

Given film historian Paul Swann’s observation that it was the ‘only occasion when complete responsibility for the national screen projection of an entire country was to be delegated to the documentary movement’96 it would be somewhat of oversight to downplay the significance of documentary film in Scottish film heritage. There are twenty-three titles that can be categorised as ‘sponsored’ or documentary film on the ‘Scottish Reels’ list. Sponsored films can be loosely

94 Ibid. 95 Willemen, 42. 96 Paul Swann, The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926-1946 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989): 135. 34 described as films which received some sort of institutional support, and usually deliver a message or subscribe to a particular point of view dictated by the funder.97. This genre often focuses on industry, travel and tourism and is well represented in the wider SSA collection. Indeed, ten of the titles included in the BFI project are credited as being taken from the SSA holdings. The SSA exhibition also pays close attention to these films with special mention given to John Grierson, referred to as the ‘father of documentary film’98. Grierson played an integral role in the sponsored ‘Films of Scotland’ initiative which aimed to depict ‘all aspects of Scottish life - social, cultural and industrial’ as well as promoting Scotland ‘both nationally and internationally’99. Colin McArthur describes this scheme as being, ‘the most exclusive channel through which indigenous Scottish film production flowed and the determining structure on the practice of several generations of Scottish film-makers’100 This legacy is perhaps the most important distinction credited to these films today as they have received considerable negative critical attention since. McArthur in particular goes on to describe the films as having given, ‘new and monstrous life to the regressive discourses of Tartanry and Kailyard’ as well as stunting the emergence of any ‘alternative production structures which might have dealt more adequately with Scottish history, politics and contemporary life’101 Grierson is himself critical of the authenticity of his own sponsored documentaries, citing Drifters and Night Mail 102 in particular as ‘pictures of Scotland that also suited the London purpose’103. He continues that they ‘have been at best indirect in their service to Scottish expression. The local accent has been lacking and the substance of it’104.

There are significant differences in the way that each archive treats this material within their respective projects. In order to establish this close attention must be paid to national context and national specificity. The industrial focus of these films provides an easy way to situate Scottish film within a very British framework for the Meditheque collection. Whereas in the SSA exhibition this

97 Prelinger, Rick Prelinger, The Field Guide to Sponsored Films (San Francisco: National Film Preservation Foundation, 2006) vi. http://www.filmpreservation.org/userfiles/image/PDFs/sponsored.pdf, (accessed 15 September 2015). 98 NLS Exhibitions Description. http://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/cinema (accessed 23 May 2015). 99 ‘Biography of Films of Scotland Committee’, NLS Moving Image website, http://movingimage.nls.uk/biography/ 10037 (accessed 20 September 2015). 100 Colin McArthur. Ed. Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television (London: British Film Institute, 1982): 57. 101 Ibid., 58. 102 Drifters is included both projects. Clips of Night Mail were shown as part of the SSA exhibition. 103 Forsyth Hardy. Ed. Grierson on Documentary (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966): 213. 104 Ibid. 35 particular genre is lauded as an important aspect of Scottish film history because of its reputation as a breeding ground for new Scottish talent.

Topicals/Actuality

This category comprises nine titles in the ‘Scottish Reels’ list, of which four are attributed to the wider SSA collection. Indeed, this particular area of film makes up a large part of the archive’s collection and is subsequently very well represented in the SSA exhibition. As McBain describes, ‘local topicals sit somewhat uncomfortably between news reportage and actuality’105 They show real events but have something in common with sponsored films as they are often promotional, which ‘robs them to a degree of the objectivity of the actuality’106. Actuality films can be more closely linked to the genre of documentary as they portray real events, but they are not as structured or coherent. These genres represent a fairly under-appreciated area of film, even within archival communities. McBain writes, ‘they are classified inconsistently as topicals, local topicals or local newsreels. The fact that we in the archive community still do not have a standardised genre or classification term is indicative of the lack of understanding of, or attention to, this material’107. The use of this material within the SSA exhibition serves mainly an evidentiary purpose. There are many examples of early films showing the public queuing outside cinemas and attending town fairs as well as footage of early transport systems. There are also three examples of very early films of this type included in the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection from the filmmakers Mitchell and Kenyon. The films of Mitchell and Kenyon were an important discovery for the BFI which were added to the ‘Unesco Memory of the World’ UN Heritage list in 2011.

McBain has called for these titles to be ‘re-discovered’ and given their place in film history. This, however, is not something that the SSA exhibition attempts to do by any means. As I have already highlighted these films serve more of an evidentiary purpose within this exhibition. In fairness, this is really not the scope or intent of the SSA project, which is mainly concerned with the nationally specific topic of Scottish cinema-going activities. Footage of eager crowds queuing for matinee screenings, clips of ornate cinemas of by-gone eras, and films depicting visits to Scottish cinemas

105 Janet McBain, ‘As Others Saw Us: Observation on the Local Topical after Mitchell and Kenyon’, Early Cinema in Scotland 1896-1927 [Blog]. 1 July 2013. http://earlycinema.gla.ac.uk/as-others-saw-us/ (accessed 12 March 2015). 106 Ibid. 107 Ibid. 36 by famous cinema stars are used extensively throughout this exhibition. They support a view of cinema-going as a particularly special aspect of Scottish cultural history. In stark contrast, the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection contains only one title that deals with this particular topic. This project contains a greater variety of topical and actuality material, as well as economical use of digitised material from past BFI projects.

Experimental/Amateur

There are only five titles which fit this category as part of the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection and of those only one is an example of amateur film. Once again this genre is not represented in the SSA exhibition and this absence is particularly striking given that amateur film makes up an important part of their wider archival collection. I believe that the reason these titles have been neglected can be explained when we consider the role of national context. It is important to first define what I mean here by ‘amateur’ film, as many of the titles that made up the previous chapter could also technically be described in this way. I subscribe to Czach’s ‘spectrum’ of nonprofessional film which places home movies at one end and amateur film at the other. She refers to amateur film as demonstrating ‘preproduction in terms of planning and preparing for the film as well as postproduction techniques, such as editing and the addition of sound’ whereas home movies are more casual and ‘less polished’108. Amateur cinema is considered, at least in academic circles109, as particularly important in Scottish film history. Much of this prestige is based on the reputation of the Scottish Amateur Film Festival which was founded in the early 1930s and was the first of its kind in the world110. With much of the focus on this genre emphasising Scotland’s pioneering role in fostering amateur film culture, it is possible to cite this as another example of national specificity. Why then is this genre neglected in the SSA exhibition? This thesis will offer some explanations as to why this is the case later in the chapter, but first it is important to consider the title included in the BFI case study.

The ‘Scottish Reels’ list includes only one example of the genre; Frank Marshall’s ARP: A Reminder for Peacetime from 1939. Marshall is one of Scotland’s most prolific amateur

108 Liz Czach, ‘Home Movies and Amateur Film as National Cinema’, in Amateur Filmmaking: The Home Movie, the Archive, the Web. Eds. Laura Rascaroli, Gwenda Young and Barry Monahan (London: Bloomsbury, 2014): 33. 109 See Ryan Shand and Ian Craven. Eds. Small-Gauge Storytelling: Discovering the Amateur Fiction Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2013); Ryan Shand and Karen Lury. Eds. Show and Tell: Children and Amateur Media (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). 110 ‘Biography of Scottish Amateur Film Festival’, http://movingimage.nls.uk/biography/10043 (accessed 20 September 2015). 37 filmmakers. He made over one hundred films in his lifetime, and is known for capturing the humorous, fun side of everyday life films which often focused on his own family. The title selected is one such example of this and it is easy to understand why this particular title was chosen for a project aiming to promote British film heritage. It shows a family in 1939 preparing for the black- out, building an air raid shelter and trying on gas masks. It was entered into a competition seeking films focusing on ARP and was commended at the 1939 Scottish Amateur Film Festival for bringing some levity to its serious subject matter. The description accompanying this Mediatheque title does list Marshall as an amateur filmmaker, however it does not appear that this title was chosen in order to promote or showcase an example of amateur film. Instead it is emphasised as a ‘wartime film’ and is a prime example of what appears to be the main aim of this particular project; to select examples of Scottish titles that still fit in with the objective of creating greater access to British film heritage. This does not however, explain why an amateur title was chosen. The curators of this project could have opted for an instructional film like the one that is included in the SSA exhibition111. This title also deals with air raid precautions but is a educational film intended to teach children how to behave in the classroom in the event of an air raid. Perhaps the reason why this film is included is because it displays ‘not so much the “stiff upper lip” attitude so often praised in wartime’ but ‘laughter in the face of adversity’112 Given how synonymous the expression ‘stiff upper lip’ is with British national identity113 it seems that, although not overtly, the curators may have selected this title because it represents a slightly different outlook, albeit within this very British context. Overall, there is no emphasis placed on the amateur status of this title. It does not appear to have been included to showcase the fresh outlook that amateur film can bring, not does it seem to have been selected to highlight the role of amateur film in early Scottish film culture.

Of all the amateur films included in the wider SSA collection, it is those that were entered into the amateur film festival (like the Marshall title described previously) that have so far garnered the most attention. There are many other examples of Scottish amateur film that could have been

111 ‘Air Raid precaution training film’, Glasgow, c. 1940. 112 Liam Pateron. ‘ARP: A Reminder for Peacetime title description’ BFI Mediatheque. Scottish Reels Page 1. Paragraph 2 (accessed 23 August 2014). 113 The term is used again by curators in their description of the Essentially British Mediatheque collection, http:// www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/introduction-bfi-collections/bfi-mediatheques/essentially-british (accessed 20 September 2015). 38 included in either of these projects.114 Given the much wider scope of the BFI project, and its ability to provide a broad educational overview of Scottish film history, it is disappointing that this genre has been largely overlooked. Also, considering how many of the selections fall under the category of popular (and readily available) feature films and television programmes, it seems that including a few more examples of early amateur film would have made a more substantial contribution to the project’s overall aim to provide greater access to British film heritage. With its considerably more populist aims, it is a little more difficult to envisage where amateur material would be compatible with the SSA exhibition. The focus of this project is predominantly on screen representations of Scotland with particular attention paid to Hollywood films. There is significant attention paid to Hollywood stars of the screen also, as well as indigenous actors who have found success internationally. Another dominant strand is the subject of cinema- going in Scotland in order to appeal to a certain sense of nostalgia in its visitors. For the most part archival film in this exhibition has an evidentiary function, and is not necessarily included as examples of Scottish film heritage. One possible way of aligning the inclusion of amateur film with the exhibition’s theme would have been to focus on the role of the Scottish Amateur Film Festival and to emphasis its international standing. The festival was once judged by Alfred Hitchock and had a major role in fostering prominent Scottish talent such as director Bill Forsyth.

Further reasons why amateur film may not have been included can be found in academic writing on the genre. In general, amateur film is often overlooked because as Czach explains, scholars in the field of national cinema often ‘fail to conceptualize a national cinema as anything other than a cinema of narrative feature film making’115. Furthermore, these films often challenge established imaginings on the national. As Patricia Zimmerman explains, ‘narrative, commercial cinemas function as national allegories. They invoke a mythologized and stabilized past for national identity formation. [...] In amateur films from a range of national, regional, and local archives, these national allegories and separations collapse into a range of differences, eruptions, discontinuities’116. An inability to align these titles with traditional concepts of national cinema, mainly because of the diverse irregularities inherent in the genre, are certainly factors which apply to this case study.

114 See Ryan Shand, ‘Amateur Cinema: History, Theory and Genre, 1930-80’, PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007. 115 Czach, Home Movies, 28. 116 Patricia R. Zimmerman, ‘Morphing History into Histories: From Amateur Film to the Archive of the Future’, in Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories. Eds. Karen I. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmerman (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008): 276. 39 However, there are other considerations which complicate the inclusion of amateur titles even further. To cite Czach once again, countries with a delayed entrance into commercial filmmaking often ‘construct an alternative narrative to that of mainstream cinema and reclaim their amateur cinematic heritage’117. However, for those countries with a ‘strong tradition in educational, industrial, and other nontheatrical film productions’118 this is not always the case. Czach gives the example of Canada in in her essay, where ‘even in the absence of mainstream narrative films, amateur films and home movies do not solely constitute, but rather augment, Canadian national cinema’119 This description mirrors the status of Scottish national cinema also and in the case of the SSA exhibition it would appear that there is only room for one alternative imagining of the national canon in the form of sponsored and documentary filmmaking. These films with their, as I have already highlighted, strong ties to the national and depictions of everyday life fit more comfortably with the ethos of the exhibition. In other words they do not disrupt ‘the ‘mytholigized and stabilised’ past that Zimmerman discusses in the way that amateur film does.

The same idea can be applied to the lack of attention given to Scottish experimental film within these projects. The work of artist and filmmaker Margaret Tait is featured in the ‘Scottish Reels’ list but there is no mention of her experimental films in the SSA exhibition. Her work also appears to present a challenge to traditional conceptions of the nation. In a recent academic overview of her work former SSA curator Janet McBain described her ‘highly visual film poems’ as ‘far removed from the main body of production in Scotland. They have an international critical standing that few Scottish makers in history have achieved. As such hers is a collection that at one level reinforces a Scottish tradition in film, but equally challenges and pushes out its boundaries into new forms’120 Tait’s international standing provide an opportunity for her work to be embraced as a point of national specificity, however it also pushes boundaries and struggles to be contained within an easy or simple idea of Scottish national cinema. Petrie also makes the observation that Tait, and her contemporaries, ‘marked a new phase in the representation of peripheral and rural Scottish experience, founded on indigenous internal cultural expressions rather than externally imposed metropolitan fantasies’121. The ‘Scottish Reels’ list clearly attempts to represent geographically as many parts of Scotland as possible, but the

117 Czach, Home Movies, 27. 118 Ibid., 33. 119 Ibid. 120 Janet McBain, ‘Preserving the Margaret Tait Film Collection’, in Subjects and Sequences: A Margaret Tait Reader. Eds. Peter Todd and Benjamin Cook (London: Lux, 2004): 103. 121 Petrie, 165. 40 selection of Scottish film is predominantly ‘central belt’ specific with little indigenous material from the peripheries. As for the SSA exhibition, its main goal is not to present a comprehensive overview of all parts of Scotland but instead to emphasise elements of national specificity. Tait’s work, and experimental film in general, is too idiosyncratic to contribute to this aim.

Chapter 3.3 Internal & External Framing

In the previous chapter I gave an overview of the title selections for each project and highlighted how both projects follow very much the standard, academic outline of Scottish cinema and pay attention to key areas in Scottish cinema, television and film history. I will now turn to how these specific titles are described and ‘framed’ by the curators from within their respective national contexts. I will also take into consideration how these national contexts affected the way the projects were advertised and promoted in line with each archive’s dedication to showcasing ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’ heritage.

Each title included in the BFI’s vast Mediatheque library includes a specially written section of text to provide background information on the content. What is notable about the descriptions given to the titles included in the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection is how much they attempt to situate these titles within the context of British, rather than Scottish, film history. In the description of the ‘Scottish Reels’ project on the BFI website, and on the main page of the Mediatheque system at the Glasgow location, it reads, ‘to celebrate the arrival of our very first BFI Mediatheque in Scotland, this extensive collection immerses viewers in life north of the border’122. From the offset we are reminded of Scotland’s geographical position as the Northern part of Britain. Indeed, much of the context is framed in such a way as to provide context for rest of Britain, with focus on England in particular. This makes sense given the scope of the project. The Mediatheque project on the whole aims to give access to a wider selection of British heritage, and these titles can be viewed by users in several locations across Britain. Cubitt writes that ‘to imagine a nation is, first, to differentiate it from others’123. Both cases contrast ‘Scotland’ and ‘England’ with each other in their framing of their respective events. However, depending on the national context each is curated within, the tone of these comparisons changes. The BFI project attempts to open Scottish film heritage up to rest of the Britain with these

122 ‘Scottish Reels Introduction’, http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/introduction-bfi-collections/bfi- mediatheques/scottish-reels (accessed 1 May 2015). 123 Cubitt, 6. 41 textual descriptions, compensating for the fact that many of the titles included (particularly when it comes to television) would be classified as ‘regional’ and therefore not necessarily familiar to the rest of the UK. However, given the position of the BFI as a London based organisation there is the impression that Scottish heritage, although constantly grounded and contextualised as part of Britain, is ironically still framed very much as ‘outside’; as if it is another, much more distinct culture that must translated for an English audience. There are hints of Willemen’s first mode of interpretation ‘projective appropriation’ here, which tends to adopt a dismissive attitude. Contrastingly, when attempts are made to situate Scottish film heritage within British (and also American) film history by the SSA exhibition the approach is one of justification and striving to be included. There is an emphasis on national specificity and a desire to make a case for Scotland having a unique cinema traditions, distinct from other cultures, but that are important and significant within wider film culture. There are attempts to be both niche and mainstream at the same time. The factor complicating these issues even further can most readily be expressed by Cubitt who writes that certain imaginings of nations ‘seek to articulate one kind of national identity within the larger framework of another’124, and he offers Scotland within British as a specific example of this . Although England and Scotland may strive to establish large chunks of their respective identities as different from each other, composite parts of each of these identities are (in theory) combined to contribute to an expression of British identity.

Within several of the BFI project descriptions, particular attention is paid to how Scottish television shows were received in England. For example, it is noted that English viewers were amazed that no subtitles were provided for the television drama Just Your Luck125. It is also noted that Scotch & Wry, a popular Scottish comedy programme, was ‘only transmitted to an English audience once’126. It could be argued that they are included merely as humorous asides and perhaps even aimed squarely at a Scottish audience who may find them funny. However, it is notable that this division is drawn attention to repeatedly, with intentions seemingly to make the content more relevant for English audiences. There is a notable contrast between the way certain titles are described as either ‘Scottish’ or ‘British’. It is far more likely for film entries to be contextualised within British cinema history. For example, filmmaker Bill Douglas is described as ‘British’. This changes when it comes to television

124 Ibid. 125 David Rolinson. ‘Just Your Luck title description’, BFI Mediatheque. Scottish Reels Page 4. Paragraph 2 (accessed 23 August 2014). 126 Alison Strauss, ‘Scotch & Wry title description’, BFI Mediatheque. Scottish Reels Page 6. Paragraph 1 (accessed 24 3 2015). 42 entries, presumable as there was greater regionalisation in this industry. It is interesting to note that amateur filmmaker Margaret Tait is mainly referred to as Orcadian. As I have already explored there is a subversive quality to local film which can provide a challenge to the national. It is useful to consider why certain episodes of television programmes were chosen to be included in this particular project. For example, the episode of popular comedy programme Rab C. Nesbitt that is chosen focuses on issues of national identity and features the main characters ‘taking a trip to Loch Lomond in search of the “real” Scotland, only to find their imagined spiritual home populated by Londoners’127. There are also references to contemporary political events in the accompanying title description, where there is a suggestion that ‘the voice of today’s “Yes” campaign chimes with Rab’s struggle to find his national identity amongst purple heather that glows in the dark because the country is being used as a “nuclear dustbin”’128. As Mason points out, ‘visitors draw on pre-exiting knowledge and so too will museum, gallery and heritage professionals inevitably draw on, and be informed, by the various discourses circulating within society when they produces displays, or interpretation’129. The aforementioned nod to the 2014 independence referendum is an obvious example of this, and can be found in other title descriptions. For example, for the television play The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil there is commentary on how the ‘aggressively incendiary’130 promotion of Scottish political nationalism in this programme would not be given air-time today.

The SSA exhibition does not contain as much textual framing as the BFI project. This is due in part to the innate differences of each project. One is a standard, traditional exhibition that took place in a physical space for a limited period of time. The other is digital and currently available, and while it must be accessed within a physical space can be done so with a fair amount of agency from the user. As a result it is perhaps the case that less textual information is required, or indeed practical, for the SSA exhibition. However, it must also be noted that there is far more space and opportunity to provide a large amount of textual information for each of the Mediatheque titles. Another important factor is that film is used for very different purposes within each project. For the most part film is used as a framing device itself within the SSA exhibition. It is used for evidentiary purposes to be back up the overall narrative and focus of the exhibition. This can be

127 Alison Strauss, ‘Rab C. Nesbitt title description’, BFI Mediatheque. Scottish Reels Page 6. Paragraph 2 (accessed 24 March 2015). 128 Ibid. 129 Mason, 205. 130 Simon Ward, ‘The Cheviot, The Stag and Black, Black Oil title description’, BFI Mediatheque. Scottish Reels Page 2. Paragraph 2 (accessed 24 March 2015). 43 seen in particular when it comes to the ‘cinema-going’ thread of the exhibition, as a large number of titles have been selected to demonstrate large crowds in attendance at cinema screenings in Scotland, or to document cinema architecture of the past. Examples of a similar technique can also be seen in the current summer exhibition at the National Library of Scotland which focuses on the theme of Scottish food131. The NLS seeks to integrate the SSA collection as part of its overall holdings and often uses film with this same evidentiary function. As a result, there is little textual framing to provide information on the actual content of the films. Only basic information such as the title and year of the film are provided for most content used. Another important factor in the internal framing of this exhibition is the use of dispositif 132. A selection of cinema advertising clips were included in this exhibition and the way they were framed is important. They were shown in a cinema style setting, suggesting that the experience of cinema going and the nostalgia of this was what was the intended focus here rather than the content of the films themselves.

There are of course other ways in which an exhibition can be framed besides textually, and also outwith the primary content of the event itself. The term ‘paracuratorial’133 has been used to refer to the now common practice of programming additional, thematically related events in addition to a main exhibition in order to provide context. I would argue that the work of promoting an event could be included in this ‘paracuratorial’ activity as it is something external to the main content that can still have a major impact on the way an exhibition is experienced and read. Both of these projects were launch events and as such were heavily promoted by the curators of the event in the press and through promotional materials. For the SSA event in particular advertising played a key role. All of these elements show us how national context can impact on the way an event is framed. For example, with the BFI project we can observe that the focus is fundamentally on how this project fits into a wider programme of unlocking British film heritage. Simon McCallum, curator of the Mediatheque project, commented that, ‘the decision was taken early on in the planning stages that the Mediatheque’s curatorial focus would be on reclaiming a sense of our own heritage through films and television programmes that shed light on Britain and its role in the world’134. It is important to understand that the ‘Scottish Reels’ collection fits into a

131 ‘NLS Lifting the Lid’, http://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/food-and-drink (accessed 1 September 2015). 132 A theoretical term originally used by Michel Foucault and adapted to to film theory to mean generally the settings or conditions in which a film is viewed. 133 See ‘Response IV: The Paracuratorial’, The Exhibitionist 4 (2011): 66-77. 134 Simon McCallum, ‘BFI Mediatheque: Welcome to the Great British Film and Television Show’, The Art Book 15.1 (2008): 70. 44 wider programme of curating British moving image heritage. Another factor that McCallum highlights, and one which is important to keep in mind when contrasting with the SSA case study, is the purpose of the event. The curators of the BFI project are primarily concerned with British national heritage and using the Mediatheque as an educational tool. McCallum writes, ‘We hope to build a portrait of Britain and its inhabitants across the history of film and television, selecting titles because they are important or interesting in this respect rather than claiming them as high art’135. The purpose of the BFI project is far broader than that of the SSA, with the intention to provide a varied overview of British heritage. It is interesting to consider this idea of ‘high art’ as this is another distinguishing feature between these two cases. The SSA project is more openly celebratory about Scottish heritage and its selections are based on a remit of promoting Scottish film achievements. The BFI project is designed to be far more extensive and covers more of the ‘hit-or- miss’ elements of Scottish film history.

Overall, there is something of the ‘transitional’ mode of interpretation in the way the BFI project deals with Scottish film heritage. To recap, Willemen describes this mode as adhering to a ‘traditional scholarly approach’ that involves ‘‘chronicling trends and formulating historical narratives, while avoiding, to some extent at least, legitimising or instrumentalising positions’136. Mediatheque curator Simon McCallum is quoted as saying, ‘Every time we open a new Mediatheque we always try to launch a particular collection relevant to the area, so Scottish Reels is representing 100 years of Scottish film’137. There is very much an academic overview to the Scottish reel collection, informed it would seem by much of the literature on Scottish film and television. The titles chosen cover many of the prominent eras and notable of areas of film and television made in Scotland and those that depict the country. The curators recognise that with this attempt they can only realistically cover so much, ‘it’s a big task trying to represent a whole country on the screen. We’re never going to cover all corners of Scotland so we are trying to get a flavour of how Scotland is being recognised across that period’138.

There are different issues in play when it comes to the way in which the SSA exhibition is promoted and discussed by its curators. Tourism plays a major role here. The SSA exhibition was launched to

135 Ibid. 136 Willemen, 39. 137 Gillian Provan, ‘Olympia revamp continues with opening of Scotland’s first BFI Mediatheque’, STV News, 22 February 2013, http://news.stv.tv/west-central/214951-bfi-mediatheque-opens-in-old-olympia-cinema-at-bridgeton- library/ (accessed 1 June 2014). 138 Ibid. 45 coincide with the release of Disney’s Brave; a Hollywood animated feature film set in the Scottish Highlands that draws heavily upon Scottish myth and legend. The inclusion of this material is referred to in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner in a press release for the event, ‘Material is also included from this summer's eagerly awaited Disney Pixar movie 'Brave' which is set in medieval Scotland to bring things bang up to date’139. Scotland has a long history of capitalising on its stereotypes, a topic explored in the 1995 book Scotland - the Brand, ‘there is no shortage of myth- making icons with which to imagine Scotland. The importance of tourism, and around it, the heritage industry, gives commercial expression to national identity’140. Of course, the SSA exhibition was not designed to capitalise monetarily but rather in terms of popularity and attracting a larger audience. This creates something of a ‘paradox’ for curators as ‘blockbuster exhibitions that attract the highest number of visitors are often the most conventional in presentation’141. This is certainly true of this exhibition which sought to attract a broadly popular audience and as such the focus on Scottish film heritage and culture is filtered through a Hollywood tinted lens. The exhibition took place during the month of August and there seems to have been a drive to capitalise on the increased footfall from the Edinburgh International Festival which attracts visitors from all over the world each year.

This Hollywood influence is not just seen with references to Brave, but also in the event’s advertising campaign. Posters were made featuring ‘scotified’ versions of popular Hollywood movie quotes. The popularity of these adverts led to social media interest where online users created their own versions of these humorous posters. The success of the campaign is credited by the advertisers to the public’s love of the Scots language and their unique sense of humour. This encompasses two very good examples of national specificity with references to Scots language and the perceived unique quality of the Scottish sense of humour. This can also be seen in the title of the exhibition itself ‘Going to the Pictures’ with the use of culturally specific terminologies designed to set the Scotland experience apart from other nationalities. The description of the event found on the NLS website reads, ‘the exhibition charts the changing pattern of 'going to the pictures' — that's 'cinema-going' in Scotland, in case you're not sure’142.

139‘NLS Cinema Exhibition Press Release’, 12 June 2012, http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2012/06/cinema-exhibition- opens (accessed 12 May 2014). 140 David McCrone, Angela Morris and Richard Kiely. Scotland - the Brand: The Making of Scottish Heritage (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995): 197. 141 Susie West. Ed. Understanding Heritage in Practice (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010): 160. 142 ‘NLS Exhibitions Description’, http://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/cinema (accessed 23 May 2015) 46 Fig.1. Examples of advertising used for SSA exhibition.

The lore of Scottish cinema-going is at the forefront of this exhibition and this is another example of how the exhibition aims to reach the broadest possible audience. This area of Scottish cinema studies is fairly well trodden143 and since it focuses on nostalgia it reaches a large proportion of the intended audience. One review of the exhibition stated, ‘our country’s own productions over the years have perhaps been hit-and-miss, but the Scottish people, it would seem, have always been fascinated by the glow of the silver screen and tempted to see its latest offerings’144. Again, national specificity comes into play here with the framing of the topic of cinema attendance in Scotland as being something specific and unique to the nation.

It was established at the beginning of this chapter that both archives were founded amidst preoccupations with nationalist issues, and with a mission to represent the nation and national life. Also, for both archives the label of ‘national’ is debated. It may be more accurate to call the BFI a state archive, given that is a state institution aligned with Britain. The SSA is often referred to as regional, but firmly declares itself as a national archive, aligned with the nation of Scotland. This chapter has considered the content and framing of each project, and the role of national context in the way each approached the subject of Scottish film heritage. From this analysis this

143 See Janet McBain. Pictures Past: Recollections of Scottish Cinemas and Cinema-Going (Glasgow: Wherewithal Books, 1985); Andrew Martin. Going to the Pictures: Scottish Memories of Cinema (Edinburgh: NMSE Publishing Ltd, 2000); Trevor Griffiths. The Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland, 1896-1950 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012). There was also another prominent exhibition held on this topic as part of the 2014 Glasgow Film Festival: ‘Jeely Jars and Seeing Stars: Glasgow’s Love Affair with the Movies’, Mitchell Library Glasgow, 12-28 February 2014. 144 David Rush. ‘Feature: Going to the Pictures, Scotland at the Cinema Exhibition’, Strathclyde Telegraph, 10 April 2013, http://www.strathclydetelegraph.com/2013/04/feature-going-to-the-pictures-scotland-at-the-cinema-exhibition/ (accessed 25 May 2014). 47 thesis concludes that the BFI case study was programmed from a ‘transitional’ mode of interpretation. There are several examples where the emphasis has been first and foremost on areas of British national specificity, with Scottish examples chosen to fit this criteria. This can be seen in the selection of titles such as The 39 Steps and Madeleine; films from high profile auteurs of British cinema that are chosen because they feature depictions of Scotland, and conveniently work as examples of British national specificity too. Also, television titles (particularly plays and dramas) feature heavily in this project due to the canonical importance of telefilms in British film history. A final example is the prominence of titles focusing on industry (in feature film, documentary and actuality material); an easy way of situating Scotland within a larger framework of British life. Maryann Gomes, former curator of the North West Film Archive145 commented on a similar issue regarding specifically the BFI’s home movies collection, stating, ‘the national archive only selected examples of North West life that informed British national history’146. The main issue with this ‘transitional’ approach is that, as Willemen explains, the framing is such that ‘the object of study resists the interpretive framework projected upon it’147. This is due mainly to the historiographical nature of this mode of interpretation. The ‘Scottish Reels’ collection seeks to situate Scotland not just within a British context of film history, but also assumes that the history of Scottish film can be traced in the same way; adhering to the same ebbs and flows of the development of British film culture. When compared with the SSA exhibition it becomes apparent where these acts of resistance occur. The SSA project is heavily concentrated on areas of Scottish national specificity. As has already been explored in this chapter in the analysis of amateur and experimental film, this only applies to those titles which are also explicitly concerned with the national and national life. Examples of this are found in the exhibition’s focus on cinema-going in Scotland, the emphasis on the ‘Films of Scotland’ documentaries, and in the advertising of the event which celebrates the Scots language. The focus on Hollywood and feature films is still somewhat puzzling within this context. Apart from the practical reasons of programming a broad event, with popular and tourist appeal, the inclusion of this aspect speaks to something of the ‘schizophrenic’ nature of Scottish national culture. Janet McBain refers to the material in the wider SSA archive as, ‘very much not the British film making industry - not the feature film industry, not glamorous, not perhaps exciting, the sexy films, but reflecting more the Scottish tradition of film-making which is in documentary

145 Region film archive for the North West of England. 146 Maryann Gomes,‘Working People, Topical Films and Home Movies:The Case of the North West Film Archive’, in Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories. Eds. Karen I. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmerman (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008): 236. 147 Willemen, 39. 48 and education films’ (98). There appears to be an attempt in this exhibition to both assert a unique representation of Scottish film culture, but also to justify its inclusion in a wider, more traditional idea of national heritage and film canons.

49 Conclusion

The ‘British’ in British museum then, can be said to be many things: specious, volatile, and perhaps even entirely obsolete, but never incontestable. This particular example, as well as the surrounding political events that have generated such intense debate on national identity within the UK, have further reinforced the fact that abstract, yet entirely banal148, concepts like ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ are in no way definable. Yet in the work of the film archive, where classifying and regulating are such integral parts of daily work, collection policies and mission statements demand that these terms and their vague connotations be adhered to. It is this paradox that this thesis has grappled with in one form or another. What I expected to find by comparing these two case studies was two very different considerations of Scottish film heritage as a result of these different national contexts. I also expected to find that each project would be a reflection of the different collecting scopes of each archive; with the BFI focused more on feature film and television and the SSA displaying more non-fiction material. The differences I have discovered between these projects are far more subtle than I originally anticipated. On the surface, each archive has approached the topic of Scottish film heritage in a fairly similar way. The key to understanding the subtleties of each project has been to pay close attention to the overall tone of each project and to consider the national context that each took place within. This thesis has dealt with two different, yet interlinked, points. The main part focused on the subject of national context and specifically how two national archives, both responsible for Scottish film heritage, approach the task of curating projects dedicated to this. The second, auxiliary component of this thesis has been to ask broader questions about the role of the national within the work of film archives today. I will now lay out the main conclusions this thesis has reached regarding these points, referring to some of the key issues explored so far.

In order to explore this main component I first had to grapple with what is meant exactly by ‘Scottish’ and ‘British’ contexts. As outlined in Chapter One in a quote from Paul Willemen, this thesis regards the term ‘British’ as being concerned with the state of Britain and, as a result of historical factors and various processes of condensation, therefore more accurately aligned with English nationalism. These ideas informed my consideration of the national context that the BFI case study was curated from within. Although Willemen states that the term ‘Scottish’ denotes an

148 See Michael Billig. Banal Nationalism. London: SAGE Publications, 1995. 50 identification with the nation of Scotland, it is in fact not as straightforward as this. Due to its status as a ‘stateless’ nation there are other factors to consider. This thesis has therefore subscribed to the view that the SSA exhibition was curated not from within a Scottish national context, but something more akin to a ‘sub-national’ context which acknowledges the place of Scotland within Britain. Whilst this thesis continues to consider national context as the most important factor in comparing these projects, the issue of institutional context in a much broader sense has become apparent also. The SSA exhibition took place in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, further cementing the project’s preoccupation with promoting ‘Scottishness’. The BFI project on the other hand was initiated within a wider programme of providing access to British film heritage. As a result this particular project has implications of tokenism surrounding it; as if the project’s purpose was to fulfil a quota regarding representation of ‘regional’ areas. Indeed, there are very few examples of projects where the BFI has focused solely on Scottish film, as it is more common to find examples of Scottish film heritage included in projects as a contribution to a larger picture of Britain as a whole.

With these ideas of national context established this thesis then turned to the subject of how the material used in each project was framed. As I have already expressed, the differences are more subtle than originally anticipated as many of the same titles are included in each project, but the tone and approach used by each archive is markedly different. The same can said in cases where certain titles or genres are neglected. An example of the same material being used can most readily be found in the category of feature film. Despite being outwith the collecting scope of the SSA, many feature film titles are included in its exhibition, several of which depict Scotland ‘from the outside’. Even though the BFI project contains many of these same titles, the effect of these inclusions is different when national context is considered. These include films more often described as classics of British cinema, rather than of Scottish. These tiles are chosen because they feature depictions of Scotland, but also work as examples of British national specificity too. They are therefore in keeping with the Mediatheque project’s overall aim to ‘reclaim’ British film heritage. In the case of the SSA exhibition, there are several other factors such as tourism and an intent to attract a broad, popular audience to consider. Continuing with the example of feature film, this thesis explored the subtle inferences that can be made when certain titles are neglected. The BFI project features titles like Shipyard Sally, which can easily be situated within British film history because the plot revolves around Scotland’s industrial role in the British empire. There are no examples of feature films such as this in the SSA

51 exhibition, presumably because the much more nationally specific genre of sponsored and documentary film contains many example of this, and further more these are considered to be examples of the ‘real’ Scotland and its industrial history. In addition to analysis of each archive’s selection choices, this thesis also focused on issues of framing and how this process is influenced by national context. The SSA exhibition uses prime examples of national specificity. The use of Scots language in its advertising, as well as culturally specific terms in the very title of the exhibition, are signs that this exhibition is trying to assert examples of Scottish national specificity in order to project an idea of Scottish film heritage as unique. At the same time however, it emphasises elements of its culture that are acknowledged as dealing in myth and stereotype. The BFI ‘Scottish Reels’ collection is framed very much in line with the ‘projectivist’ mode of understanding with continual references to ‘south of border’ and attempts to translate distinctive areas of Scottish film culture for English audiences. National context is important and it can affect the selection process as well as the curatorial act itself. In this particular case, given the complexities of the terms ‘British’ and ‘Scottish’, the differences are subtle and often paradoxical. The way these particular projects can be read depends very much on different considerations of these terms, and how that affects what is taken as national context. The way these archives consider their own roles is important to understanding this too. The BFI considers itself responsible for national heritage but it might be more accurately termed as state archive. The SSA is often labelled as regional (as in a region of Britain), but bristles at this categorisation as it considers itself responsible for national heritage of Scotland.

The conclusions this thesis has drawn regarding the subject of national context provide an opportunity to consider the wider subject of film preservation and its ties to the national. Janet McBain writes, ‘history has benefitted from what are now archival collections of moving images that provide testimony and evidence of the real Scotland in the film century - in contrast to the external stereotypical fictional screen representation of Scottishness that audiences have almost come to expect’149. This observation reflects an issue within film archiving and heritage provision that this thesis has made efforts to confront. History may indeed benefit from the more diverse collecting practices that are now in operation in archives, but is is questionable whether this benefit is being felt in the way that film heritage is made accessible, and in the ways it is promoted by archives as a reflection of their institutions. As this thesis has explored the SSA exhibition deals in many of the stereotypes that McBain is alluding to. Chapter Two considered studies of canon

149 McBain, ‘Preserving the Tait Collection’, 102. 52 formation and how ideas of national heritage are established. The ideas explored here can help to explain why this may be the case. In his analysis of amateur film in the archive Ryan Shand comments, ‘it is interesting that it is difficult to turn local knowledges into national or international histories without the aid of national bodies’150. As this thesis has demonstrated national bodies are very much complicit in canon building, but also informed by existing ones. The archives covered in the case studies have a responsibility to ‘Scottish’ or ‘British’ heritage, but the issue is that this ‘heritage’ must also be recognisable to the public. Those areas of film (this thesis has used amateur and experimental film as examples) that do not fit traditional canons are not always deemed suitable for this purpose. There is therefore something of a paradox at the heart of curating, exhibiting and making accessible film heritage within these national and institutional contexts. It is difficult for more localised forms of film heritage to become a part of national heritage canons without the help of these institutions. However, these genres often present a challenge to the national in that they are far more idiosyncratic and, whilst they can often be described as nationally specific, they do not always ruminate on issues of national identity like more conventional forms of national cinema do. This can impose limitations on what the archive chooses to promote as representative of their institutions and the national context within which they work. These issues may be, on the whole, most relevant for these case studies but they provide an opportunity to consider the field of film preservation more broadly.

The influence of the national is not necessarily a negative thing. It is a practical way for archives to organise their collections when they present them to the public, but as this thesis has explored this often leaves little room for some of the more idiosyncratic areas of film heritage. This can often lead to, as has been explored throughout this thesis, instances of stereotypes and preoccupations with areas of heritage that have been circulated and exploited so much that they begin to lose their original connection to the nation. This thesis concludes that, ideally, each archive should strive to avoid this by shifting the way they promote and curate their collections. In the case of the BFI a transition towards Willemen’s third mode of interpretation provides a way to deal with ‘regions’ of the UK in way that does not simply follow the methods employed for representing British film heritage. This method would also apply to other areas of the UK considered to have a strong cultural autonomy such as Wales and Cornwall for example. This process of ‘creative understanding’ involves a position of

150 Shand, 252. 53 ‘double outsideness’, i.e., considering British culture as ‘other’ as well as Scottish. Scottish film heritage would then be considered on its own terms and not forced into a ill-fitting British framework. Of course, as this thesis has explored, it can be argued that the even the SSA event does not entirely consider Scottish film heritage on its own terms. Instead of morphing its collection in attempt to fit pre-existing ideas of national cinema, the SSA should do more to embrace its alternative canon. There is a continual preoccupation within Scotland regarding the absence of an established, functional film industry. This issue is of the present and the future. When it comes to Scotland’s film past there is no need for this narrow focus. With so many indigenous areas of film culture, it is not necessary to adhere to established templates of national cinema more suitable for other countries.

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58 APPENDIX A: SSA Exhibition Showreel Titles List Cinema is Born

A visit to a Bioscope booth, 1908 Dramatic reconstruction of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, 1895 Gordon Highlanders marching through Aberdeen, 1899 Glasgow Trams, 1902 MacNab’s visit to London, 1905 Drama about the life of Robert the Bruce, 1911 Bo’ness Fair, 1912 Soldiers arriving at Campeltown during First World War, 1914 ‘Mairi: Romance of a Highland Maiden’ Early Scottish story film, 1912 ‘Auld Robin Gray’, 1910

Golden Silents: Cinema in the 1920s

Grosvenor Cinema, Byres Road, Glasgow, c.1925 St Kilda - Britain’s Loneliest Isle, 1923 Vera Reynold, Regent Picture House, Glasgow, 1926 Sir Harry Lauder, Regent Picture House, Glasgow, 1928 Lochgelly old age pensioners outing, 1928 Biscuit making at Macfarlane Langs, Glasgow, 1928 Nobel explosives factory sports day, Ardeer, 1928

Talkie Heyday: Cinema in the 1930s

Ritz Cinema, Edinburgh, 1929 Scotland’s first talkie cinema Queuing for ‘The Show Boat’ at La Scala Cinema, Paisley, 1929 ‘Sunny Days’, 1931 Scotland’s first talkie Laurel & Hardy visit Edinburgh, 1932 Harry Kemp, Regal Cinema, Saltcoats, 1933 ‘Night Mail’, 1936 ‘Wealth of a Nationa’, 1938 Films of Scotland documentary ‘The Children’s Story, 1938 Films of Scotland documentary Green’s Playhouse, Dundee, 1936 Anna Neagle visits Inverness, c.1937

On the Home Front: Cinema in the 1940s

Air Raid precaution training film, Glasgow, c. 1940 Cally House, wartime evacuation school, 1942 Warwork News no.19: The Other Man’s Job, 1943 Cinema information film, 1943 Ministry of Information Food Flashes, 1940s ‘Waverley Steps’, post war propaganda film, 1948

Wide Screens and Spectacle: Cinema in the 1950s and 60s

Edinburgh International Festival, 1955 Seawards the Great Ships, 1960 (Oscar 1961 Best Live Action Short Film Over the Sea to Skye, 1961 The Big Mill, Ravenscraig, 1963

Local Heroes and Falling Audiences: Cinema in the 1970s and 80s

‘Glasgow 1980’, 1971 ‘The Boat’ - Chic Murray, 1975 ‘The Grand Match’ Lake of Menteith, 1979 ‘Sean Connery’s Edinburgh’, 1982

59 SCOTTISH REELS Film Listings

39 Steps, The (1935) ARP: A Reminder for Peacetime Directed by Alfred Hitchcock [c1939-40] (1939) A boy’s own adventure from London to Directed by Frank Marshall A household preparing for the black-out, (Running time 87 mins) using petrol coupons and an air-raid shelter. Absolutely (1989) (Running time 23 mins) (Series 1 Episode 6) (C4 tx26/06/89) Directed by Philip Chilvers Aspects of Kirkwall: Episode from the Pythonesque C4 comedy Some Changes (1981) sketch show created by a mostly Scottish Directed by Margaret Tait cast and crew. (Running time 37mins) Margaret Tait’s portrait of her hometown in Orkney. Ae Fond Kiss (2004) (Running time 20 mins) Directed by Ken Loach Bill Douglas Trilogy [1972-78] A post 9/11 cross-cultural romance is the focus of Ken Loach’s award-winning (1972) Directed by Bill Douglas (Running time 100 mins) Bill Douglas’s bleak, brilliant, Ardrossan Sports Gala (1925) (Running time 175 mins) 1920s boxing action on the North Ayrshire coast. Blue Black Permanent (1992) (Running time 3 mins) Directed by Margaret Tait Around the Town: memories of her Orcadian poet mother. A Trip Down the Clyde (1921) (Running time 84 mins) A visit to the Dumbarton Rock and Rothesay shipyards. (Running time 2 mins) Bowler and the Bunnet, The Crystal Spirit, The: Orwell on (1967) Jura (tx20/12/1983) (1983) Directed by Sean Connery Directed by John Glenister stylish and opinionated piece on the Orwell’s life on the remote Scottish island where he completed ‘Nineteen Eighty- (Running time 36 mins) Four’. (Running time 90 mins) Brave Don’t Cry, The (1952) Directed by Philip Leacock Culloden (BBC tx15/12/1964) (1964) Drama-documentary about a Scottish Directed by Peter Watkins mining rescue team, based on the Mock-documentary of the 1746 Battle of Knockshinnoch disaster. Culloden seen from the perspective of a TV (Running time 90 mins) crew. (Running time 70 mins) Carla’s Song [Director’s Cut] (1996) Cumbernauld, Town for Directed by Ken Loach Tomorrow (1970) Director’s cut of Ken Loach’s cross-cultural Directed by Robin Crichton love story, tracing the relationship between Colourful 1970s promo for the post-war Scottish ‘utopia’ and its infamous town refugee. centre. [Scottish Screen Archive title] (Running time 106 mins) (Running time 8 mins)

Charades (Play for Today) Down to the Sea In Trucks (tx13/12/77) (1977) (1947) Directed by Rod Graham Directed by Ralph McCormick The Lady of the Manor becomes The importance of rail transport in the increasingly intimidated by her maid in shipbuilding industry. this female take on Harold Pinter’s ‘The (Running time 18 mins) Servant.’ (Running time 55 mins) Drifters (1929) Directed by John Grierson Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, The (tx06/06/1974) (1974) Directed by John MacKenzie Lowestoft and Yarmouth. A radical history of Scotland in 90 minutes. (Running time 60 mins) (Running time 90 mins) Face of Britain, The (1935) Coasts of Clyde, The (1958) Directed by Paul Rotha Directed by James Ritchie How industrialisation has shaped and changed our landscape. into one: British Transport Films’ nostalgic (Running time 18 mins) ode to the Scottish landscape. (Running time 20 mins) Gallivant (1996) I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) Directed by Andrew Kotting Directed by Michael Powell/Emeric A tour of Britain’s coastline, with the Pressburger director’s grandmother and daughter in Metaphysical love story starring Wendy tow. (Running time 100 mins) Hebrides. (Running time 92 mins) George Bennie Railplane System of Transport (1930) I’m British But… (1989) Directed by Gurinder Chadha innovative railplane and track system near Britain beats to the sound of Bhangra and (Running time 25 mins) (Running time 30 mins)

Glasgow Belongs to Me (1965) Just A Boy’s Game (Play for Directed by Edward McConnell Today) (tx08/11/79) (1979) An affectionate sketch of life in a great city, Directed by John MacKenzie man’. McQuillan - from the director of ‘The Long (Running time 20 mins) (Running time 75 mins) Gregory’s Girl (1980) Directed by Bill Forsyth Just Another Saturday (Play for Affectionate Scottish high school comedy Today) (tx13/03/75) (1975) about an amiable loser in love. Directed by John MacKenzie (Running time 88 mins) One young man’s long day as participant and bystander in the Protestant Orange day Heart is Highland, The (1952) Directed by John Taylor (Running time 75 mins) Discover the life and landscapes of the Scottish Highlands, its romantic and Kill the Day (1997) dramatic past Directed by Lynne Ramsay (Running time 20 mins) Hitchcock on Grierson professional short. (Scottish TV tx01/01/65) (1965) (Running time 18 mins) The Master of Suspense pays homage to the Father of Documentary. Kilties are Coming, The (1951) (Running time 45 mins) Directed by Robert Jordan Hill Hugh MacDiarmid: variety act who can turn their hand to No Fellow Travellers (1972) singing, dancing and comedy. (Running time 45 mins) Directed by Oscar Marzaroli Made to commemorate the 80th birthday of the late Hugh MacDiarmid, the poet speaks about his life and work. (Running time 26 mins) Local Hero (1983) Mining Review 7th Year No.12 Directed by Bill Forsyth (1954) Residents of an idyllic Scottish coastal Ballet dancing miners and the crowning of village see dollar signs when a US oil company tries to move in. Plean Colliery] (Running time 111 mins) (Running time 10 mins)

Lockerbie: A Night My Name Is Joe (1998) Remembered (C4 tx29/11/98)(1998) Directed by Ken Loach Directed by Michael Grigsby Class and cultures collide in Ken Loach’s The terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103 - killing 270 people and devastating a Mullan. community. (Running time 101 mins) (Running time 60 mins) Nervous Energy (Screen Two M&K 186: Jamaica Street, tx02/12/95) (1995) Glasgow (1901) Directed by Jean Stewart A breathtaking glimpse of city life on the cusp of the Edwardian era. visit his family and friends, but when (Running time 3 mins) things do not go as planned his lover comes to patch things up. M&K 695-698: Boys Brigade (Running time 105 mins) Inspection at Yorkhill, Glasgow New Town (BBC4 tx14/02/09)(2009) (1906) Directed by Young recruits take part in the Edinburgh’s exclusive quarter. (Running time 10 mins) (Running time 60 mins)

M&K 90: Workforce of Scott and Nine Dalmuir West: A Record of Co Shipyard Greenock (1901) the Last Weekend of the Glasgow Trams (1962) (Running time 2 mins) Directed by Kevin Brownlow The route of the No. 9 service to Dalmuir on Machair (tx06/01/93) (1993) 1962. (Running time 13 mins) Hebrides. (Running time 25 mins) On the Tracks of the Wild Otter Madeleine (1949) (The World About Us, BBC2 tx25/12/82) Directed by David Lean (1982) New restoration of David Lean’s true-crime Directed by Hugh Miles The lives of otters: surveillance in the intriguingly icy Ann Todd. Shetland Isles. (Running time 114 mins) (Running time 50 mins) Orkney (Play for Today) Red Ensign (1934) (tx13/05/71) (1971) Directed by Michael Powell Directed by James MacTaggart A visionary shipbuilder strives to rescue Three beautiful, bleak tales from the the British shipping industry in Michael Orkney Islands. (Running time 90 mins) (Running time 69 mins)

Orphans (1997) Red Road (2006) Directed by Peter Mullan Directed by Andrea Arnold Four siblings gather for their mother’s the ominous setting for Andrea Arnold’s winning debut feature. gripping debut feature. (Running time 101 mins) (Running time 90 mins)

Pacemakers: Ross Belch (1970) Rugged Island: A Shetland Portrait of a shipbuilding maverick. Lyric, The (1933) (Running time 14 mins) Directed by Jenny Brown (Gilbertson) The story of a young couple torn between Pakistani People in Scotland the choice of emigration to Australia or [c1960s] (1960) remaining to work their croft in Shetland. (Running time 54 mins) Directed by Mario Ford News footage of the daily life of the Scotch and Wry in the early 1960s. (BBC Scotland tx06/04/79) (1979) (Running time 8 mins) Directed by Gordon Menzies A Scottish comedy sketch show that Portrait of Ga (1952) became a national Hogmanay institution. Directed by Margaret Tait (Running time 30 mins) My mother lives in the windy Orkney Scotland for Fitness (1938) Margaret Tait. Directed by Brian Salt (Running time 4 mins) Scots burn the calories. [Scottish Screen Archive title] Rab C. Nesbitt - ‘Country’ (Running time 12 mins) (Series 2 Episode 1 tx14/05/92)(1992) Directed by Colin Gilbert Sean Connery’s Edinburgh (1982) takes a trip to the country. Directed by Murray Grigor (Running time 30 mins) The screen legend conducts a personal tour of the city that shaped him. Ratcatcher (1999) (Running time 28 mins) Directed by Lynne Ramsay Seawards the Great Ships (1960) beautiful tale of adolescence set in 1970s Directed by Hilary Harris Stunning, Oscar-winning documentary (Running time 90 mins) celebrating Scotland’s shipping industry. (Running time 29 mins) Secret of the Loch, The (1934) St. Kilda – Britain’s Loneliest Directed by Milton Rosmer Isle (1928) (Running time 73 mins) containing scenes of the Western Isles and island life of the crofters on St Kilda. Shallow Grave (1994) [Scottish Screen Archive title] Directed by Danny Boyle (Running time 17 mins) A corpse and a case full of cash bring out the worst in three friends in Danny Boyle’s Steel Goes to Sea (1941) directorial debut. Directed by John E. Lewis (Running time 89 mins) “Hitler is a B******” - Shipbuilding at the height of WWII. Ship, The (1990) (Running time 15 mins) Directed by Bill Bryden, Derek Bailey Powerful production of Bill Bryden’s Sweet Sixteen (2002) Directed by Ken Loach Ken Loach’s hard-hitting portrait of a (Running time 100 mins) Scottish teenager coping with drugs and poverty. Shipyard Sally (1939) (Running time 106 mins) Directed by Monty Banks (tx21/01/80) Take the High Road rescue of unemployed shipbuilders. (1980) (Running time 79 mins) A business executive threatens the peace Something for the Boys (House (Running time 20 mins) on the Hill) (tx01/08/81) (1981) An illicit gay bar changes the life of a Tartans of the Scottish Clans nervous Scottish soldier when an American (1906) Directed by G.A. Smith (Running time 42 mins) the great Scottish icon. Songs of Scotland (1963) (Running time 2 mins) Directed by Laurence Henson, Edward McConnell Tocher, The; A Film Ballet by Traditional songs of Scotland are sung Lotte Reiniger (1938) against a backdrop of Scottish scenery. (Running time 15 mins) Directed by Lotte Reiniger The ‘wee folk’ help a man woo his true love Sorley Maclean’s Island (1974) (Running time 5 mins) Directed by Douglas Eadie Treasure Island (1935) poetry and discusses his work with fellow writer Iain Crichton Smith. Children queuing for a special performance (Running time 22 mins) of “Treasure Island” at the Playhouse Cinema, Inverness. (Running time 2 mins) UCS1 (1971) Whisky Galore! (1949) Directed by Alexander Mackendrick shipyard workers. (Running time 20 mins) whisky smuggling in the Hebrides. (Running time 81 mins) Waverley Steps (1948) Directed by John Eldridge Wicker Man, The (1973) Dramatised documentary about the Directed by Robin Hardy inhabitants of Edinburgh during the course Pagan rites on a Scottish isle in the original of a single day. cult favourite. (Running time 30 mins) (Running time 86 mins) West Coast Otters (Wild) (BBC tx19/10/05) (2005) It’s ‘mother knows best’ for a young (Running time 10 mins)