Coigach in Ross-shire features in new short film from Community Land Scotland about community land ownership
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COMMUNITY landowners in Coigach are among those who feature in a new film exploring the experiences of communities during the Covid pandemic – and ideas for a better post-pandemic future.
The short film, which is one of two that Community Land Scotland will premiere this week, explore community land ownership and were produced in partnership with the locals and artists in residence.
Over the past 12 months Community Land Scotland has been running a number of collaborative projects with artists to tell community landowners’ stories. The films will be shown as part of the Reel to Real film programme, coordinated by arts-based community organisation, The Stove Network.
CLS has also been working on four projects with artists over the past year, which have produced a wealth of other materials including music, photos, a mural, walking sticks, podcasts and even bronze casts of peat. A touring exhibition of these items is expected later in the year, but the film launch on March 25 will provide a taster of what is to come.
The film, from podcast, theatre and filmmaker, Alasdair Satchel, draws from the “Owning Our Future” project which placed creative people into five community landowners – including Coigach Community Development Company in Wester Ross – to capture testimony from communities about their Covid experiences and to help them reimagine a better post-pandemic future.
"One strong message that emerged from this project was a desire amongst communities for more democratically owned assets, particularly greenspace," said a spokesman for CLS. "Another cross-cutting theme was that community landowners are often the first organisation people look to in a crisis, for anything from mental health support to the coordination of food deliveries. Many are now reflecting how they can support their communities in the long-term from this position of trust."
A second film, “Stories of Radical Landownership” with artists Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant, was part of the Artists and Community Landowners project delivered in partnership by Community Land Scotland and the Stove Network. It tells the story of three very different community landowners everywhere from the central belt to Outer Hebrides.
Both films premiere at 7pm on Thursday.
This project was funded through the National Lottery Community Fund’s Emerging Futures Fund project. Linsay Chalmers, Community Land Scotland development manager, said: “Here at Community Land Scotland, we hear so many powerful stories about the transformational of community landownership. In the past year, this has been heightened as our members have pulled all the stops out to support communities through Covid. When we started these creative projects, we thought that the pandemic was going to throw a spanner in the works, but in some ways, it’s been the perfect time to capture people’s stories.”
Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant said: “We’ve been amazed by how many incredible people we have met from the various community trusts across Scotland. Everyone we have spoken to has been open and honest about their experiences and ambitions for the future of landownership in Scotland.
"We are very grateful to have been awarded this opportunity and, although creating the work has been challenging during the pandemic, we have enjoyed learning about and capturing stories of radical landownership from many different communities and generations across the country.”
One community landowner, SWMID, was involved in both projects. Morven Gibson, SWMID General Manager said: “We really appreciated being part of these projects and were amazed at what the artists managed to achieve despite the constraints of a global pandemic. The conversations and stories from people which resulted will strongly influence how we move forward post-Covid.”
Following the films, a panel discussion will be held with Saskia Coulson, Colin Tennant, Alasdair Satchel, Morven Gibson and Linsay Chalmers.
For more information about the films, visit https://thestove.org/event/owning-our-future-film-shorts/.
