Output details

We Are Northern Lights

98 min. documentary

We Are Northern Lights is the outcome of a practice-based research project entitled Northern Lights. The Northern Lights project set out to discover how questions of Scottish identity and citizenship might be communicated by members of the general public through the medium of documentary filmmaking.

In particular, the project sought to engage members of the public often unable or disinclined to respond to such questions. This was achieved by running a series of filmmaking workshops with targeted communities; including those from deprived areas, those with mental and physical disabilities, those from black and ethnic minorities, those who live in rural areas and those members of the community over the age of 65.

In total 55 filmmaking workshops were delivered during the three-month submission period. The result of this, and the open call for submissions to the general public, generated over 300 hours of documentary footage that was then edited down over 6 months to create the 98 minute feature documentary, We Are Northern Lights.

Whilst individually the footage from participants is of interest, once unified within the feature film, there is undoubtedly a representation of Scottish identity and culture the likes of which has never been seen before.

Following from the insights of post-structuralist theorists for whom identity remains a fluid and ever evolving concept, except, as the work of Michel Foucault has so clearly demonstrated, when the state imposes identities upon individuals or groups, the project sought to create a framework whereby individuals could express themselves through creative practice rather than find themselves restricted by the limitations of textual or bureaucratic definitions.

The benefits of the project are therefore twofold; both in terms of research output and considerable ongoing social impact. The film is the first ever Scottish documentary to receive a theatrical release from the Cineworld cinema chain.