|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The film 'St Kilda, Britain's Loneliest Isle' made in the 1920s was commissioned by the steamship company that ran a service between Glasgow, the west coast of Scotland and the island of St Kilda. The film is sophisticated in its production for the time and was intended for release in cinemas in the Glasgow area. The film captures unique images of the lives of this highly remote and isolated community. The film is made even more significant as within two years of its release to cinemas, the people of St Kilda were evacuated and the island became uninhabited. The spartan and isolated existence of the people of the island is highlighted in the film through shots of the long awaited arrival of the supply ship, the men catching birds for food, the women spinning, the harsh terrain, the people’s unfamiliarity with the cameras themselves. The evacuation of the island is an emotive subject in Scotland’s history and the film graphically captures the community and its way of life before it disappeared for ever. Other films in the Scottish Screen Archive collection have also focused on the island of St Kilda, including 'St Kilda its People and Birds' from 1908, films of the evacuation in 1930, and a documentary on the island as a nature reserve in 1967. The Archive holds many films which illustrate life on other island and rural communities of Scotland from different perspectives. These films portray aspects of rural living, such as home and working lives, skills and crafts, the Gaelic language and songs, and the Scottish landscape and wildlife. For example the film 'Eriskay- A Poem of Remote Lives' (1935) illustrates life on a Hebridean island in the 1930s, and 'The Rugged Island' (1933) is set in a crofter community on the Shetland Islands. |
|
