It’s In The Blood

“The crofting life for us – meet the TV stars of South Uist. Intimate portrait of an island fighting for its ancient way of life. The film, which combines fascinating archive images with interviews with crofters whose families have tended the land for generations, sheds light on a community straddling the time-honoured methods of their ancestors and a modern landscape of rules and regulations.”

“The series portrays the instincts and wisdom that have always called people to live in close harmony with the land and how they use wits and determination to overcome threats and adapt. “It’s in the blood”, as they say.”

“Wood strikes a good balance between showing people in action doing all of the things that make up crofting today and in-depth interviews with crofters young, middle and old aged telling how it is from their perspective. There is a long tradition of ‘outsiders’ photographing and filming the people of the Outer Hebrides as ‘others’ to be observed and represented as fitting a romantic pre-conceived notion of primitive living in harmony with nature. Wood, conversely, paints a truthful and revealing picture very much from the inside. She uses her skill as a filmmaker to weave together a coherent narrative making liberal use of contemporary techniques such as split screen and drone footage, interspersed with archival material from Margaret Fay Shaw and Dr Kenneth Robertson. It is the voices of the crofters however that come across most strongly and directly in articulating their own story.”

“A beautifully observed, poetical, unsentimental portrait of crofting past, present and future. A precious document of crofting folks relationship with the land. Such a generous film.”