The FAODAIL | FOUND Outer Hebrides Film Archive project was initiated by UistFilm at Taigh Chearsabhagh in 2015.
Beatha nan Eilean is a 60 minute compilation of mostly freshly found and digitised archive, featuring film of various Caledonian MacBrayne’s ferries across the west coast of Scotland, linking to our museum exhibition Where the Sea Meets the Road.
You can watch Beatha nan Eilean for free in Gallery 2, from 1st October to 24th December, Monday to Saturday, from 10 am – 4 pm.
Up until as late as 1979, very little, if any, film created in or about the Outer Hebrides available in the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive was made from anything other than an outsiders’ perspective. This lack of an indigenous viewpoint led, at best, to an uninformed, and often romanticised or patronising, representation of island life.
The FAODAIL | FOUND project seeks to address this imbalance and so far has digitised, through crowdfunding, over 25 hours of 8mm home movies.
The 8mm film – colour and earlier B&W, from the 30s to the 80s – has been superbly digitised entirely through crowdfunding. The archive is a unique and important documentation of social history that has been gaining recognition through documentaries produced by UistFilm such as Dùthchas and the Faodail – Found Film.
Do you know of any collections of film reels potentially including footage of the Outer Hebrides? If so, we would be interested to discuss inclusion in the FAODAIL | FOUND archive.
This Beatha nan Eilean archive compilation will form the basis of a new documentary of the same name to be broadcast on BBC ALBA later in 2025. We are delighted to offer a special preview screening of this documentary, in Gallery 2 on Friday 19th December, 3pm. All welcome, to book your free ticket visit: Preview screening – Faodail | Found: Beatha nan Eilean.
Many thanks to MG ALBA for their continued support of the FAODAIL | FOUND Outer Hebrides Film Archive project.
We are increasing access to the FAODAIL | FOUND archive with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding funds from the National Lottery.
For more information, contact: andy@uistfilm.org
Ongoing Digitisation Crowdfunder: www.gofundme.com/f/FAODAIL-archive-film-digitisation
