Through the FAODAIL | FOUND archive film project, a fascinating collection of previously unseen Kodachrome 8mm archive film of everyday life on the Isle of Berneray, in the Sound of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland through the 60s and 70s was digitised earlier this year.
The collection of over 5 hours of film reveals a poignant reminder of the need for islanders, especially women, to have to leave the island of their birth to get an education, work, and live. On the cusp of a period of huge change in island life, the effects of this outward migration over generations can be seen in the resultant cultural and linguistic loss.
UistFilm, part of Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, is hoping to produce a documentary feature on this subject using the archive film with interviews of those who left, those who stayed and those who yearn to return.
Andy Mackinnon
Arts Manager & Uist Film Director
