Enlighten Up!

Do you exist? If you do, do you know who you are? If so, can you be sure you really know anything?! Robert Florence and Iain Connell have some burning questions for you that will change the way you see the world.  Through their unique brand of absurd comedy, Florence and Connell teach viewers just what it takes to think philosophically. This 30-minute special unlocks the big questions through mind-bending sketches and animations, using real world examples and contemporary culture.

For the answers we look 300 years ago to a group of upstart Scots. They came up with some crazy ideas- and changed the way we think about everything from happiness to what makes you, you! Florence and Connell tackle a big philosophical question in each sketch using the theories of the Scottish Enlightenment. 

Broadcast on BBC1 Scotland, and BBC Learning.

Clips online at here.

1911: Review of the Year

1911 card.jpg

Hopscotch Films were commissioned by BBC Learning to create a unique window into what life was like one hundred years ago. With a mix of archive, animation and specially shot footage, we tell the story of six amazing events from the perspective of the witnesses. These are the stories you would be reading about in the newspapers one hundred years ago:

Bombing Raids in Libya:  Italian forces attack Libya in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.  They drop bombs from small planes in the world’s first air raid.

Industrial Unrest in Glasgow: Women protest against a cut in wages and ten thousand workers strike at the Singer factory.

Armed Gang in shootout with the Police: Home Secretary Winston Churchill watches as police and army battle a gang of jewel thieves.

Art Theft in Paris: the Mona Lisa  is stolen from the Louvre.  It’s so famous it’s unsellable, the police suspect it’s a prank by the modernists.

The Conquest of the South Pole: Admunsun triumphs over Scott in a tale of adversity and heroism.

Street Protests for Democracy : Suffragettes storm parliament and smash windows demanding the vote.

Produced by; John Archer, Carolynne Sinclair Kidd

Directed by: Clara Glynn, Dhivya Chetty, Ewan Morrison, Joseph Briffa, Aileen Ritchie

Asylum (2011)

A co-production with the Bureau and Imagine Pictures, Asylum was made with the support of Creative Scotland and Film 4. It is currently beginning it’s festival life and has been selected for Hamburg, Grimstad and Edinburgh film festivals.

Asylum from Hopscotch Films on Vimeo.

Writer/Director: Joern Utkilen  

Producer: Carolynne Sinclair Kidd & Matthieu de Braconier

For news and updates on Asylum click news

Little Red Hoodie (2009)

Could be the EIFF’s most controversial film The Herald

Little Red Hoodie from Hopscotch Films on Vimeo.

 

A co-production with Imagine Pictures, Joern Utkilen’s thought- provoking take on an old fairy tale was made for Film 4 and the UKFC under the Cinema Extreme banner. It played at over 20 festivals worldwide including Palm Springs and Rotterdam, and received a Special Mention at Cork and Regensburger, and a best screenplay award at Grimstad in Norway. It was also nominated for a Scottish Bafta in the best short film category, and was sold to Arte in Germany and Canal + in France.

Writer/Director: Joern Utkilen

Producer: Carolynne Sinclair Kidd

Unscrew (2003)

Blackly comedic, a macabre twist on an Ian McEwan’esque fantasy. The Independent

A short drama for the BBC and Scottish Screen starring Douglas Henshall and Emma Fielding. It was selected for the following film festivals: Edinburgh, London, New York, Palm Springs, Manchester, Hull, Grenada, Barcelona and Berlin. It won Clara Glynn, its writer/director, a prize at the Grenada Film Festival and was a runner-up for the Jim Poole Award for best Scottish short film and short-listed for a BAFTA short film award and a Scottish BAFTA

Director/Writer Clara Glynn

Producer Carolynne Sinclair Kidd