Movies: Scottish Documentary Institute

When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely-seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wild flowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender film essay questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and viol...

Soon after her ‘big break’, Italian actress Nadya Cazan disappeared. Ottica Zero follows Nadya from her rejection of the monetary-based system to find an alternative way of living. It is a journey which takes us from Rome to Venus, where social innov...

A palpably rendered audiovisual essay draws together the distinct sensibilities of filmmakers Peter Mettler (The End of Time) and Emma Davie (I am Breathing) and philosopher David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous) to forge a path into the places wher...

Mentiras is a visually stunning but profoundly unsettling journey through the world’s largest city. Based on one man’s confession to human rights crimes committed with the backing of the Mexican government – it is the story of a troubled conscience a...

At a unique Edinburgh bakery, a community of workers with learning disabilities makes a variety of organic breads for daily delivery to local shops and cafés....

Breathing is about the thin space between life and death. 34-year-old Neil Platt plans his own funeral, muses about the meaning of life and the impossibility of terminating a mobile phone contract. With 5 months left to live, and paralyzed from the n...

In post-revolution Libya, a group of women are brought together by one dream: to play football for their nation. But as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the “Arab Spring” begin to fade, can they realise their dream? And is...

Bill Drummond, once the most notorious man in pop music, now travels around the world baking cakes, building beds and shining shoes as part of a twelve year World Tour which is his final art project. This film follows him as he does his work in India...

Cunenk grew up as a girl trapped in a boy’s body. She could not wait to leave her village and become a performer....

A woman grieving for the loss of her husband finds solace in the world of psychic mediums....

Untung and Nesti really love their 6 year old son who has autism. Their daily life becomes more challenging because both of their parents are disabled, but their love and passion is truly heartwarming....

April loves music, dancing, trampolining and swimming, but with sensory difficulties faces challenges in the search for independence as her 16th birthday approaches....

An examination of the high male suicide rates in the poorest areas of Scotland....

Fitting explores the relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist, by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg. It asks what it means for to create an extension to someone else’s body, and the impact t...

A filmmaker explores a neurological condition she has been diagnosed with and its relationship with an incident in her past....

In the Basque town of Altsasu, the beds of seven young men lie empty. As the town celebrates its annual festival, Altsasu follows Igone as she copes with the imprisonment of her son Jokin and six others, convicted in a case which has been widely cond...

A portrait of the planned community of Surprise, Arizona....

A wind turbine development threatens a hunting estate in the Scottish Highlands....

This rare and intimate portrait explores a young woman’s perspective about living with albinism – a condition which has often made her an outsider – who is determined to lead a normal life....

Work. Eat. Sleep. And back to work. For a long time skippers in the North East of Scotland could not find locals to work on their fishing vessels. That was until Filipino fishermen started coming to town for work. Both nationalities strive to shorten...