Review of 1911 in words and pictures

Hopscotch Films have been 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

Watching Scotland (working title)

Seven part documentary series for BBC Scotland

To coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of broadcasting in Scotland in 2012, this smart, informative, amusing series will examine the best moments in the rich history of Scottish programme-making. But this is no list show. We will join the dots to build up a comprehensive picture of Scottish television and Scottish society over the last sixty years. We will explore how drama and comedy genres develop over time, how representations of Scotland alter through documentary and how sport has helped shape our culture.

The first Television broadcast in Scotland was made on the fourteenth of March 1952 from the Kirk O’ Shotts transmitter in Lanarkshire. Those who were able to tune in were treated to “Television comes to Scotland,” a formal ceremony complete with speeches the BBC’s controller in London described as dreadful, a television dullness and most depressing. Television in Scotland has come on leaps and bounds since those first tentative steps: Scottish producers and broadcasters have amassed international awards and this seven-part series aims to celebrate and examine those successes and  the creative ways in which Scotland has been portrayed on the small screen.

Presented by Greg Hemphill

Directors: John Archer, Clara Glynn, Brian Ross

Producer: John Archer

The Incomers

In development with Creative Scotland 

A relationship drama bound up in anglo-scottish politics

Written by Alan Bissett

Produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd

Don

Feature film in development with Film 4. A Hopscotch Films/ The Bureau co-production

Don is a comedy loosely based on the story of Don Juan, written and Directed by Joern Utkilen.

[Other Hopscotch/Joern Utkilen collaborations include The Asylum, and Little Red Hoodie.]

 Produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd & Matthieu de Braconier

Boy Racers

Feature film in development with Creative Scotland 

A fast and furious coming of age tale set in small town Scotland. Written by John Rooney from the novel by Alan Bissett.

A Hopscotch Films/ Channel X co-production

Produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd, Alan Marke and Jim Reid

[More about the novel here]