A small body of water becomes a space of pure liberation; a muddy Maryhill playground becomes the battleground for a child’s right to imagination; a fluttering butterfly morphs into a rallying cry in protest of Britain’s cruel deportation laws. In each of Tiny Changes’ films, a singular experience takes on a life of its own; accumulating, transforming and revolutionising in meaning over the course of just a few minutes.
In Cameron Nicoll’s archival documentary, The Tyranny of Petty Things, a pilot takes flight through a personal and political turbulent history of HIV. After learning that his dream is dashed by aviation regulations which decree that a person living with HIV cannot train to become a commercial pilot, James refuses to be kept grounded.
Also working deep in the archives is Idrish, Adam Lewis Jacob’s playful and poignant documentary about the eponymous Muhammad Idrish, an anti-deportation campaigner. In re-edited and animated footage from 1980s’ Birmingham, Idrish fights for his right to remain in the UK, becoming a central figure in trade union and anti-racism protests. Skipping ahead to our current moment, Razan Madhoon’s fictional drama, Go Home, advocates against the relentless dehumanisation of asylum seekers in Britain. In the film, a young Palestinian woman takes a small step into an immigration centre and is confronted with indifferent Kafka-esque bureaucracy.
Gentle change manifests within the body and soul of Caitlin McMullan’s love letter to wild swimming. First Step Swim documents the filmmaker’s relationship to her own body, in and out of water which becomes an ever-fluctuating and powerful space. A similar testimony to the bond between the human and non-human can be found in We know a better word than happy, Helen McCrorie’s mud-splattered chronicle of the local community's fight to retain the Children’s Wood in Maryhill. Tiny figures skip, dance and run across the screen; effecting, imagining and constructing new worlds in the most mundane and magical of places.
Katie Goh
This screening has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.
The Scottish Audience Award is sponsored by Film City Glasgow. Audiences will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite to win the Audience Award.
All films captioned for d/Deaf viewers. There will be a BSL-interpreted Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening.
