“IT’S not what people think it’s going to be. It’s not news reporting I’m doing, it’s storytelling.”
And while Jane McAllister’s story is an intensely personal one, she hopes it can resonate with people across Scotland.
The award-winning film-maker is hoping to take her newest project, a study of activists during the 2014 independence referendum campaign told through the lens of her father’s story, on a tour of cinemas across Scotland.
“It’s really emotional for people,” McAllister told The National. “Especially people who put a lot into it, and it really needs a conversation.
“This is about people who live here. That campaign, ok it was intense and some people didn’t enjoy it, but a lot of people really loved it. You can see that people had meaning in their life and they felt like they had agency.
“Now, I think a lot of people feel that things just get done to us, there’s nothing we can do about it. People being engaged in changing their lives is a really important part of being a human and that was a moment where it was exciting.”
But for the conversation around the film to be as wide-ranging and inclusive as McAllister would like, there is the issue of funding.
Much of the work that has gone into “To See Ourselves” has been done on-tick, or without expectation of compensation. But with the project all but finished, the unavoidable question of money has arisen – not least due to the fees charged by film festivals to consider entrants.
To that end, a fundraiser has been launched – which closes on May 26.
Filmed while she was pregnant with her second daughter (who was born just three days after the 2014 indyref vote), the project focuses on McAllister’s father Fraser.
A well-known face in his local area, Fraser poured his heart into campaigning during the run-up to the first indyref, when he was an SNP councillor. He had been a librarian, but was made redundant in the early years of austerity.
“In terms of storytelling, I think it is missing especially in a lot of the news that people consume now. It’s so black and white, so polarised,” McAllister said.
“What this does is humanise [it]. It makes you understand why my Dad is the way he is. Why he became an activist.
“He had a similar journey to a lot of people. He was involved in the Labour party, really supported Labour.
“He was heavily involved in [the campaign for devolution] and it was Labour that brought that round, but … independence became more and more obviously the only way we could have democracy.”
McAllister said that the film weaves high ideals such as true democracy through the more normal stories of “the everyday”.
She went on: “I liked the mundanity of life contrasting with the ideal. What he’s reaching for, the dream, and what happens when you’re trying to get there. Even unfurling a banner becomes this ridiculous farce. The way that life trips you up when you’re trying to do something really important.
“My dad (below) was so in the heart of his local campaign. His activities outside, he brings them in [to the home]. He’s printing things, my mum’s despairing because she’s not seeing him. For two years he’s been out most nights on stalls. He’s on the phone talking about it during dinner.”
McAllister has previously won awards for her work making short films, which also focused on life around her.
The Registrars looks at her mum’s work life, Sporran Makers her own previous job, and Caretaker for the Lord the battle to save a church in her former neighbourhood in Glasgow’s east end.
Caretaker for the Lord won best short documentary award at both Full Frame and the Chicago International Film Festival, and all three are currently available to view for free on New Licht – the website of her Greenock-based production company.
But at 110 minutes, To See Ourselves, named in reference to the famous Rabbie Burns line, is McAllister’s first full-length feature.
She has hopes of taking it on a tour of Scotland, with screenings planned for Oban and Inverness, and others in the works for elsewhere. It may also get a showing at Edinburgh’s film festival.
But to help make it all happen, McAllister has been forced to turn to crowdfunding, something she has never done before.
“What I never wanted to do was just release this online to the crowd of people that will watch it and for it to have no wider impact,” she said. “You want it to have something that elevates it, so that people all across Scotland get some curiosity about it.
"If we can cross that line into the consciousness of people on – I hate talking about sides – but people who weren’t sure [about independence], if they watch this at least they’ll see, this is not a threatening movement.
"This is a movement that has a moral cause, that believes it’s the right thing. Maybe it’s not going to change their minds, but maybe they’ll be more open to listening."
You can contribute to the fundraiser for To See Ourselves here.
You can visit New Licht’s website and view McAllister’s previous films here.
