Glasgow Film Festival Writing and Filming the North

Scotland has a contested history and equally complex geography, consisting of a scattered and diverse archipelago surrounding its mainland. Across this varied landscape the debates around Scotland’s identity are wide-ranging and intertwine questions of culture and politics. As Scotland gears up for the year of the referendum on independence these questions have a growing edge, in light of how self-determination will draw from what we know and don’t know about the country as a whole. These are debates that will continue long after the votes are cast and counted. One strand of constant discussion is language and dialect and, as part of Nort Atlantik Drift: A Day of Shetland, our panel discusses the value of using the Sheltandic dialect in literature and on film.