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National Library of Scotland

Biography of 'Scottish Screen Collection'

Publicly funded film collection

In April 1997, the Scottish Film Council, Scottish Screen Locations, Scottish Broadcast and Film Training and the Scottish Film Production Fund merged to form the non-departmental government body Scottish Screen. Creating a ‘one stop shop’ for the screen industries was important and built on the momentum of success stories such as Braveheart (1995), Rob Roy (1995) and Trainspotting (1996). Scottish Screen had an ambitious remit - concerned with cultural and educational access to screen heritage as well as the business and resourcing of film-making in Scotland.

As the parent body of the Scottish Screen Archive, Scottish Screen had an obligation to preserve films funded from the public purse, particularly relevant now distribution of Lottery funds was its responsibility. Although funding arrangements existed between its predecessor bodies and other organisations (eg. broadcasters), Scottish Screen also introduced a clause in production agreements that provided for a copy of the finished work to be deposited for archival preservation.

In 2007, the Scottish Screen Archive transferred to the National Library of Scotland, and with it, the responsibility to continue collecting film, video and born digital work. Scottish Screen transferred their former distribution collection and back catalogue to the Archive, much of which was earlier work not covered by the new arrangements. This diverse collection of modern Scottish film production now promises to grow in partnership with Creative Scotland from 2010 and far into Scotland’s digital future.

The collection contains creative and factual documentary, experimental artists film, video dance, animation, comedy, horror, drama …. They include films made by people of all ages, some featuring Scottish actors ‘before they were famous’, and there are plenty of lesser-known titles to explore, eg. THE EVANESCENT HERB GARDEN OF DEATH (1993)

Dating from the early 1980s onwards, such works have generally been made through a variety of funding and training initiatives. Scottish Screen and its predecessor bodies ran such schemes in collaboration with partners, ensuring vital broadcast and theatrical exposure for new filmmaking talent.

First Reels (1991 - 1999), in collaboration with Scottish Television, offered small financial incentives (£50 - £2000) but more importantly, hands-on experience and exposure. The scheme proved a springboard to greater things for talent such as Peter Mullan, David Tennant and Hannah Robinson, yet supported community groups (Pilton Video, Castlemilk Elderly Forum), individual animators, dancers, students and video artists. Prime Cuts (1996 - 1998) followed, encouraging innovative films on 16mm between 5 – 7 min, from documentary to experimental. Graduates of this scheme include acclaimed video dance artist, Katrina McPherson and directors Morag MacKinnon, Justin Molotnikov and Elly M. Taylor. Tartan Shorts (1993 - 1996), Tartan Smalls (2002 - 2005) and the Gaelic language Geur Ghearr (1996 - 1998) - schemes working with with BBC Scotland and Comataidh Craolaidh Gaidhlig - led to short films shown on family television sets across the country, and those same titles distributed to festivals across the world. Amongst this collection is the Oscar-winning FRANZ KAFKA'S IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1993), This Scotland (2002 - 2005) and New Found Land (2000 - 2004) are examples of schemes co-funded by STV and Grampian that produced a variety of productions with longer running times of up to 25 min and a strong emphasis on quality documentary.

Around 2002, a slight shift away from shorts to predominantly Scottish-funded features as well as international co-productions is evident. These range from the hard-hitting 16 YEARS OF ALCOHOL (2003), to the lighthearted STONE OF DESTINY (2008). SEACHD - INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE (2007) is the first feature film in the language of Scottish Gaelic to achieve mainstream cinematic distribution. (The archive holds deposit copies on 35mm as well as HD). International co-productions include SKAGERRAK (2004) and animated THE THREE MUSKETEERS (DE TRE MUSKATERER) (2006).

Aside from the funded schemes, there is much to enjoy. Music video 4 Minute Wonders (2001 - 2003) feature Scottish bands and record labels (Soma, Chemikal Underground). Bridging the Gap (since 2004) remains an intelligent, creative force in Scottish film-making. Scottish Students on Screen (started c. 1999) material ranges from GUID MAN OF BALLENGEICH (2001), made by schoolchildren in Stirlingshire, to COLD TAPE (2000), shown at Tate Britain. Interviews, stills, scripts, and other supporting documentation relating to the films are all kept.

There are just under 700 titles recorded to date. As well as basic content information, much of which has been taken from secondary sources (title, release date, synopsis, director, producer, production company, sponsor), full cast and credits are transcribed directly from viewing the source material. For the first time, the full scope, range and amount of Scottish publicly funded film in the last three decades has been brought together in one searchable set of data – with open public access worldwide.

Due to rights and conditions of deposit, viewings are only offered on National Library of Scotland premises. Requests for a loan, to screen, duplicate or otherwise distribute material in the collection should be directed to Creative Scotland. Permission for such uses will only be given in consultation with rights holders.

This is a work in progress - a constantly evolving collection. The growth of the collection reflects the creativity and talent of those working the screen industries in Scotland. The collection continues to flourish, with new work produced under Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland.

Missing, believed lost?
Gaps in the collection have been identified, and it would be invaluable to find this material and preserve it in the national collection. Representation of earlier work, such as First Reels, is patchy (eg. an interview with the director of a film exists on Betacam SP tape, but the 16mm completed film is nowhere to be seen!) Some films are incomplete or in poor condition and there may still be surviving material somewhere.

Researcher: Ann Cameron

Films associated with 'COCOZZA, Enrico'

Title Release date Film reference Sound Colour Date film record added Date video added Asc Desc
	10 YEARS OF TARTAN SHORTS [7931] Add to my films Compilation of clips from ten years of "Tartan Shorts", the short film scheme run by Scottish Screen and BBC Scotland (1993 - 2001).		1993 sound bwcol
	10.15 FROM KIRKWALL TO LONDON, the [4438] Add to my films A fly on the wall record of the inter island Loganair service.	Onsite only	1996 sound col
	16 YEARS OF ALCOHOL [8154] Add to my films 16 Years of Alcohol is the story's of a man's desperate attempt to free himself, not only from alcoholic addiction, but also to overcome his violent nature, basic mistrust in human nature and ferociously anti-social conduct. Growing up with a father who is himself an excessive womaniser and brute who both fascinated and repelled his son, he turns into a vicious gang leader who beats up friends and enemies alike.		2003 sound col
	1745 [13912] Add to my films When two young black slaves escape into the wilds of 18th century Scotland, they must use all of their courage and strength to survive, unite, and stay free. 1745 highlights a forgotten part of Scotland’s history: while Scotland was fighting for its national freedom in that fateful year, its economy was in large part founded on the booming colonial slave trade. While the majority of slavery happened elsewhere - off-stage, across the Atlantic - there were African slaves here, kept as trophies and pets in the houses of their rich merchant masters. “1745” was inspired by advertisements that writer, Morayo Akandé, discovered for runaway slaves, placed in Scottish newspapers of the time.		2017 sound col
	3 THREE [7908] Add to my films Fantastic film about a graphic designer. [synopsis from BFI database at http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150441081#, last accessed 06/05		1995 sound col
	55 HADDINGTON PLACE [7949] Add to my films The absurdities of everyday life rise to the surface in three overlapping tales of different women visiting No. 55 on one particular morning.		1995 sound col
	'71 [13892] Add to my films Jack O’ Connell (Unbroken, Starred Up) plays a young British squaddie is caught behind enemy lines in bomb-torn Belfast, who has to navigate his way home while avoiding the competing attentions of rival IRA factions, dangerous loyalists and sinister secret agents.		2014 sound col
	A STEP TOO FAR! / BULLY BULLY / BALLISTIC / the making of BULLY BULLY and BALLISTIC [6127] Add to my films These short video productions were devised, crewed and starred young people from community projects across Aberdeen.	Onsite only	1998 sound bwcol
	A TO B TO Y TO Z: A Film in 13 Movements [8005] Add to my films An animated headspin of a journey using time-lapse photography, hand drawn and cut out animation techniques. Travels through the alphabet - this film features the journey from A to B and Y to Z.		1993 sound col
	A=A [7834] Add to my films Music video produced for '4 Minute Wonders' scheme, featuring the track 'A=A' by Cha Cha Cohen. "All Artists are Criminals!" Comic book capers at a secret underground warehouse in Lichtenstein, and featuring a comic book Andy Warhol!		2002 sound col
	ACCIDENTAL ANARCHIST [13940] Add to my films Carne Ross speaks a great truth about today’s world: people are disconnected from government and at the mercy of global corporations. Politicians argue about each other rather than offering up solutions to the world’s challenges – refugees, climate change, consumerism, declining employment. There has to be a better way. A journey from the heart of government and diplomacy to Carne’s exploration of an anarchist state in Rojava,		2017 sound col
	ACCIDENTS [7258] Add to my films At home after school Marko mooches around bored waiting for a call that never comes. Realising that he has been stood-up by his mates, he takes to the beach. A genuine and touching portrait of teenage relationships.		2005 sound col
	ACOUSTIC ROUTES FILM PROMO FEATURING BERT JANSCH [7878] Add to my films Documentary portrait of guitarist Bert Jansch. [Note:- this is film promo. only for a longer programme presented by Billy Connolly] [synopsis from BFI database at http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/483555, last accessed 9/3/2009]		1992 sound col
	ACROSS THE WATERS [7259] Add to my films In 1955, a young woman emigrated from Pakistan to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Fifty years and three generations on, a testing new journey begins.		2004 sound col
	AE FOND KISS [4460] Add to my films Accountancy graduate turned DJ, Casim meets trainee teacher Roisin O'Connor. Sparks fly and families, cultures and personalities collide.		2004 sound col
	AFICIONADO, the [7836] Add to my films An inventive and touching offbeat comedy about a young football fan, his faltering romance, his long stagnant parents and an omnipresent notebook. [synopsis from http://www.aficionadofilms.com/, last accessed 23/2/2009]	Onsite only	2002 sound col
	ALABAMA [7255] Add to my films An energetic farce and a very silly plot involving a pyschotic killer with amnesia, a nurse who wants both her dream man and a ticket to Alabama to find her long-lost father, and a helpless hitman homing in on the killer.		1990 sound col
	ALASDAIR GRAY: A Life in Progress [21485] Add to my films New film record Filmed over the course of 15 years, director Kevin Cameron films artist and writer Alasdair Gray as he creates works of art. [Source - Hopscotch Films]	Onsite only	2013 sound col
	ALIEN RADIO [7822] Add to my films Music video produced for '4 Minute Wonders' scheme, featuring the track 'Alien Radio' by Slam. Scary goings-on in the operating theatre........	Onsite only	2001 sound col
	ALL ABOUT ME [8406] Add to my films There seems to be no end to 11-year-old Melissa's talents, packed as they are into this busy mini-doc.		2008 sound col
	ALL OVER BRAZIL [7274] Add to my films With Scotland in the World Cup in the summer of 1974 everything looks rosy, but thirteen year old Stephen is more into glam rock than football.		2003 sound col
	ALL QUIET ON THE WATERFRONT? [8518] Add to my films A wry look at the proposed £2.5 million re-development and regeneration of the Forth and Clyde Canal by British Waterways, in the late 1980s.	Onsite only	1988 sound col
	AN DROCHAID = THE BRIDGE RISING [13910] Add to my films The epic, feel-good story of a modern rebellion. The campaign against the tolls on the Skye bridge pitted plucky Scottish islanders against the might of the government and the Bank of America, over the building of a privately funded toll bridge which became the only way on or off the island. This film tells an untold, bittersweet story of passion, legal challenge and financial wrangling through the testimony of some of those who took part.	Onsite only	2013 sound col
	ANANT [13900] Add to my films Jharia, India, one of the most dangerous places on earth. This is the home of Anant, an 8 year old boy who scrapes a living picking coal and selling it at the local markets to try and feed himself and his sick mother.		2013 sound col
	AND SO GOODBYE [7260] Add to my films Robin Mitchell finds the 'lost' film that his father produced, uncovering its fascinating story and reuniting his father with the director after sixty years in this moving documentary about the enduring magic of cinema.	Onsite only	2004 sound col
	ANGELOU ON BURNS [7076] Add to my films Dr Maya Angelou, the African American poet and writer, discovered Robert Burns when she was eight. She was poor, Black and mute living in Stamps, Arkansas. In this film she explores the strong parallels that exist in their lives. She meets enthusiastic and fanatical Burnsians, who welcome her to a party in Ayrshire in honour of her visit and Burns' genius.	Onsite only	1996 sound col
	ANIMAME [8505] Add to my films A creative toy for your phone. Split into four unique and separate games. Fiddle, doodle and have fun using your phone's camera and microphone. Blow on your phone, touch your phone, capture your environment.		2006 sound col
	ANIMATOR, the [8134] Add to my films The animator is making his first film in his basement, when he discovers that the character is becoming more real than he is, and has a mind of its own! Plasticine animation.		1993 sound col
	ANNIE ROSS: No One But Me [13886] Add to my films Annie Ross was the red-headed bombshell at the swinging heart of the post-war jazz scene. Raised in Glasgow, her eight-decade career runs from precocious child star - the 'Scottish Shirley Temple' - to indefatigable living legend. In this intimate and revealing ArtWorks Scotland profile, Annie discusses her many lives: Parisian singer in the 1940s, incomparable vocal gymnast in the 1950s and Covent Garden impresario in the 1960s.	Onsite only	2012 sound col
	ANNOTATE [7261] Add to my films An animated journey through the different stages of energy production and consumption.	Onsite only	2003 sound bwcol
	ANNOTATIONS [7842] Add to my films Based on Christophe’s fiction writings, some of which were published in the literary monthly EUROPE, this film is a poetic, humorous portrayal of one man’s heroic attempt to record the minute details of which life is made.		2000 sound bw
	ANTONIA BIRD: FROM EASTENDERS TO HOLLYWOOD [13944] Add to my films The British director Antonia Bird blazed a trail from the radical hotbed of the Royal Court Theatre in the 1970s, via the ground-breaking early days of EastEnders and Casualty in the 80s, all the way to Hollywood in the 90s.		2016 sound col
	ARCADIA [8115] Add to my films In ancient Greece Arcadia was a land of simple pastoral life. This film explores a present day Arcadia represented by a hunting estate deep within the Northern Highlands. But a proposed development of 300-foot wind turbines threaten the estate’s future. The local community is taking a stand.		2009 sound col
	ARCHIVE OF DREAMS [8269] Add to my films Carlo Roda has gleaned thousands of films over the past 30 years. His life’s work now sits in a damp, dusty warehouse while his dreams turn into memories.	Onsite only	2008 sound col
	ARRANGEMENT, the [7267] Add to my films A victim of violence recounts his story in graphic detail.		1998 sound bw
	ARTHUR BALFOUR AND ME [7965] Add to my films How one letter from Britain has affected the life of a young Palestinian woman to this day. [synopsis from "New Films, New Talent: Best of Scottish Shorts 2007]	Onsite only	2007 sound col
	AS FAR AS YOU'VE COME [7283] Add to my films When two friends stumble across a dying man, the discovery has unexpected consequences for one of them in this powerful tale of the nature of chance.	Onsite only	2006 sound col
	ASHES [8086] Add to my films Drama- A young man returns to his birth place in Skye in order to bury his father. He not only has to come to terms with the death of his father but also the problems of inheriting the paternal home.		1989 sound col
	AT 21 [7268] Add to my films Homeless people in the city of New York are asked what they were doing at 21 years of age.		1994 sound bw
	AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE [7280] Add to my films An uptight newspaper sub-editor and his teenage brother organise a Christmas homecoming for their convict father in this surreal tale of cowboys, prison and punctuation in the wild west of Scotland.		2005 sound col
	ATOMISTS, the [7516] Add to my films An extraordinary animated documentary about science and god, from highly acclaimed filmmaker Cameron Duguid.		2004 sound col
	AUF UNSICHTBARER MISSION = MISSION INVISIBLE [8144] Add to my films Documentary about the life of Russian submariners on The Sewerstal, the largest nuclear powered submarine in the world, as it patrols the Barents Sea. [German language, no subtitles]	Onsite only	2001 sound col
	AWA TAE SIE [8178] Add to my films Another film from Jessica Langford's 'Village Views' series, made by pupils from St. Combs, Aberdeenshire.	Onsite only	1998 sound bwcol
	BABY LAZARUS [8188] Add to my films This challenging documentary introduces the work and the ethical concerns of the Intensive Care Nursery at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Centre in New Hampshire.		2000 sound col
	BACK TO THE TOP [7829] Add to my films Music video produced for '4 Minute Wonders' scheme, featuring the track 'Back to the Top' by Open Door. Whirling around on the waltzers to an upbeat tune.		2002 sound col
	BAD BROWN OWL [7284] Add to my films Criminal comedy drama with adventure, intrigue and a spectacular heist. Can new Brownie member Rosie, thwart Bad Brown Owl's dastardly plans and keep the Brownie Law?		2005 sound col
	BALDY McBAIN [7269] Add to my films Colin McBain loses his hair, his voice and his best friend in this touching and unusual film.		2004 sound col
	BANDA EUROPA, la [8559] Add to my films Award winning Scottish composer Jim Sutherland’s dream was to bring together a group of virtuoso and talented musicians from all over Europe, to assemble the unique La Banda Europa. The musicians would play a vast range of unusual instruments, such as the Hurdy Gurdies from France, bagpipes from Scotland and Nicoll Harps from Sweden.	Onsite only	2009 sound col
	BARD'S FARMYARD, the [3467] Add to my films One of a series of ten animation films made by children in small village primary schools in Scotland, also involving the local community. The series was broadcast on Scottish Television and Grampian Television, and distributed on video through schools and libraries.	Onsite only	1997 sound col
	BASS INVADERS [7823] Add to my films Music video produced for '4 Minute Wonders' scheme, featuring the track 'Diabla' by Funk D'Void. An idyllic village in the Scottish highlands is attacked by a giant loudspeaker cone.	Onsite only	2001 sound col