Meet the New Producers

Our New Producers Scheme is a training opportunity for people who’d like to better understand how to produce film events for audiences in Scotland.

The programme aims to increase the number of underrepresented people working for cinemas and festivals within Scotland, including those marginalised due to race, gender, sexuality, age, class, and disability. This comes from a recognition that these identities are not adequately represented within the Scottish screen industry.

The four New Producers have each been assigned a placement at participating organisations Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival and The Pyramid at Anderston.

Applicants didn’t need any previous film experience; just a passion for cinema and an interest in working in the industry.

We asked each of the New Producers to introduce themselves and the projects that they are working on:

Callum Bell (they/them) – The Pyramid at Anderston

“I am a writer from Glasgow. I recently moved back here to my home city after a year studying for my philosophy undergrad in Kyoto, Japan, and another year spent helping run the Universal Hall arts venue at Findhorn Ecovillage in Moray. Being back in Glasgow feels like a return to Kansas. The colourful experiences I had away were invaluable, but it’s cosy to be back with my roots and my family. In the past I’ve completed a Journalism HND, and worked on various film and theatre projects. I also do media work for Theatre of the 7 Directions and Moviola Productions Scotland.

Cinema has always been a primary passion of mine. I write screenplays in my own time, and wish to develop this into a career of its own eventually. In the meantime, I much enjoyed opportunities in the past from GMAC and Universal Hall to screen films to community audiences. I jumped at the chance to develop this further at my current stage of life in Glasgow. I want to provide cinema experiences to people that will stick with them and cause positive change. I want to provide people chances to see films that they might not otherwise have seen, top quality cinema that can inspire their hearts and minds.

I’m most excited to witness The Pyramid’s ongoing cinema development plan, which is fascinating so far. It wasn’t long ago (2019) that The Pyramid was bought-out by the local community from the Church of Scotland. In a few years, the hope is that it’ll be securely on Glasgow’s cinema map, offering unique experiences.”

Callum has produced the Pyramid’s current programme of events, including screenings of Ukrainian comedy Luxembourg, Luxembourg and The Boy & the Heron. Plus, they will host the opening of The Alasdair Gray Travelling Archive, alongside a Q&A and screening of Poor Things, on Saturday 17 February, and welcome Aardman Senior Model Maker, Jim Parkyn, for a model-making workshops and screening of Mallachd An Fhir-Rabaide/Curse of the Were-Rabbit in Scots Gaelic on Saturday 24 February. They will also host an International Women’s Day screening of Priscilla.

Esmé Babineaux (they/them) – Alchemy Film and Arts

“I’m a performer, director, and facilitator based in the Scottish Borders. I predominantly work in theatre and have been acting professionally for over a decade, but have recently taken a dramatic tumble into the world of film and curation! I have no formal training or education, and working class experiences are at the forefront of both my curatorial interests and wider practice (and life). I’m also interested in work focusing on queerness, disability, rurality, and the intersections between them.

This type of work interests me, but isn’t something I have a lot of experience in, so to have access to a program like this is a big deal for me. The skills gained by being a New Producer will be transferable not only to a lot of areas of the sector that I’d like to grow in, but I specifically want to better have the ability to serve the arts in the rural community I’ve grown up in. I don’t want to run off to a city because there are more opportunities there, I want to nurture an artistic space which against all odds has survived and nurtured me. I specifically wanted to work with Alchemy Film and Arts because of that focus they put on community and accessibility. I first worked with Alchemy as a participant in some of their creative outreach programs, so I’m very aware of the impact and reach they have. They bring the arts into a space which doesn’t get much support or attention, and I’m proud to be working with an organisation whose values and ethics align so well with my own.

I’m going to be working on Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, a unique celebration of experimental film and Alchemy’s flagship event. The team works very collaboratively to organise the festival, so I feel very lucky to be able to work on and learn about a diverse range of topics surrounding producing. The festival is an inspiring and exhilarating environment to be in, and it’s a privilege to be part of the process of bringing such a well respected event to life!”

The fourteenth edition of Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival will take place 2 – 5 May 2024.

Frieda Ford (she/her) – Glasgow Short Film Festival

“I am an Edinburgh based film artist, facilitator and freelance organiser of things. I have screened worked nationally and internationally and was selected for the Glasgow Short Film Festival Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize (2023). Graduating from Edinburgh College of Art (2020), I was on the EMBASSY Gallery committee (2020/22), programming arts and film events in a non-hierarchical committee of four. I have facilitated filmmaking workshops with National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Jupiter Artland, Collective Gallery and County Cork National Space Centre with a particular love for green screening and tin foil costumes. I am interested in filmmaking as a naturally collaborative medium that can give learner agency and voice to those from marginalised backgrounds.

I applied for this role to be a part of and learn from the systems that deliver film festivals, from outset to the festival itself. I am interested in learning from the workings of a festival that is warm, accessible, established and interesting. I am passionate about facilitation and practical delivery but I hope that this role pushes me further towards the organisational side of socially engaged film work.

While working as a trainee producer at GSFF I will be making film more accessible to more people. I am co-ordinating the schools outreach programme for primary and secondary students across Glasgow and I am assisting with other outreach programmes, bringing GSFF to wider audiences who would may not otherwise be able to experience the festival. I have also created and launched The Young Writers Project, a brand new writing opportunity designed to de mystify the industry and provide writing opportunities for young people. Those aged 16 to 25 can apply here. I am very much looking forward to meeting many new people working in and around film and, of course, the festival itself!”

Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024 will open on Wednesday 20th March and run until Sunday 24th March. The Opening Gala will feature six never before seen 8mm shorts made by Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas, alongside lifelong friend and collaborator, Peter Jewell. The full GSFF24 programme will be unveiled on the 20th February.