A TRIO of young filmmakers have reached a milestone in creating a short film inspired by the untold stories of working-class women who gutted herring on Scotland’s east coast.
What initially started as a graduate film for director and writer Duncan Forbes, producer Alana Robertson and writer Angus Rodger has soon become a passion project which the trio aims to launch independently.
Titled Guttin' Quines, the fictional short film tells the story from the perspective of a newly married fishwife from the 1920s who has started working as a herring gutter at a dock in a small Scottish town due to her mother-in-law's insistence.
The film aims to showcase the tough environment and the hard work women from across Scotland’s east coast had to endure during the time as it focuses on the relationship between the fishwife, Jeannie, and her mother-in-law, Maggie.
Guttin' Quines was inspired by the trio's own family heritage, as both Forbes and Robertson spoke about their grannies who spoke fondly about the experiences of women working on the docks.
They both explained it is part of Scotland’s heritage that is rarely portrayed in modern media.
“It came to us that it would be interesting to try and represent a part of history that isn't normally looked at,” Forbes told The National.
The 21-year-old added: “When it does get looked at, it specifically focuses on the men at sea, and not really the hard-working women on the coast.
“We want to represent and kind of honor these hard-working women that are so important to not only Scotland’s history but to our personal heritage.”
Forbes (below left) went on to explain that when he was researching for the film, he realised there was a severe lack of working-class representation and so much of Scotland’s industrial history hasn’t been thoroughly explored and celebrated.
Robertson said that everyone in her family are fishermen so when she was presented with the idea of the film she was instantly “hooked” and knew she just had to make the film.
She explained that when she visited her granny in Moray and told her about the film she was “buzzing” about it.
She then asked her granny if she could help trace her own family’s ties to the industry throughout the generations.
“Within two weeks I had a full folder just full of photos, family trees, like there's The Salmon Bothy in Portsoy, there's like pictures of my great great grandparents in there,” she said.
“I just had so many familial ties to this project where I just knew this was a film I just had to make.”
Robertson added: “As a filmmaker, I love telling stories where there's women at the heart of the story, and it's letting them explore themselves and be free.
“I just knew that with this story, we could have an opportunity to represent women and this part of history in Scotland that's so forgotten.”
The 21-year-old said that Scotland is often glorified in mainstream shows like Outlander but for her films like Guttin' Quines contain a “little pocket of history” to be preserved throughout time.
She stressed that it is important for her to capture her grandparents's generation’s history through film as she not only hopes it will help preserve a part of Scotland’s rich industrial history but also connect younger generations with their own heritage.
The three filmmakers have managed to hit a significant milestone in their project as they have raised almost £5000 in funding.
Although the film is part of their graduate project, where all three are students at Edinburgh Napier University, they plan on screening their film along Scotland’s east coast fishing communities.
Forbes explained the funding is to go primarily towards production costs, like paying actors and booking filming locations, as the university doesn’t provide any financial cover.
Filming is planned throughout January at Pittenweem Harbour in Fife as the trio aims to be as historically accurate as possible, ranging from costume design to getting the area's accent and dialect down.
Robertson said getting all the historic details is at the center of everything they are doing currently as it “has to be believable to make it realism, it has to seem like you are getting transported back to that world”.
She explained that they have had to make adjustments after looking at archived material to make sure they are getting it “right”.
One example Robertson gave was with the costume design as initially they had cotton and white aprons but after doing more research, they found out that in the 1920s women wore brown leather aprons instead.
“It's the little things like that make such a difference, and people will pick up on it, especially people from fishing communities,” Robertson said.
Another key detail is the accents and dialect as Forbes explained Scottish characters in film typically have a generic Scots accent which is usually from the west or central belt.
“If there's ever like a Scottish character in a film, they'll just get an actor from like Glasgow, and they'll just be like, yeah, that’s Scotland,” he said.
“This is a really staunchly east coast film and what's really important to us is having a proper east coast accent that someone from Scotland can listen to and not be bothered by thinking like, well that accent's not quite right.”
The trio are aiming to premier Guttin' Quines in May and have hopes to do a tour of screenings in the following months across coastal communities.
You can watch the trailer for the film on the crowdfunder here as well as donate.
