Five first-time film-makers are to get their first director credit on BBC Scotland docs from indies including Tern TV and Firecrest Productions.
The Emerging Directors initiative is funded by BBC Scotland and Screen Scotland to pair aspiring film-makers, some of whom have worked in other production disciplines, with Scottish indies.
A 3 x 30-minute Tern TV series on gang culture, based on former gang member Graeme Armstrong’s book The Young Team, will hand one episode each to Jo Pagan and Alistair Ferguson.
Pagan had left the industry to focus on her family but found her way back into directing after setting up her own company making corporate shorts and charity films, while Ferguson is a former post-house manager looking after Endemol UK’s Scottish output and a development producer.
Tern is also working with Dr Isa Rao, a neuroscientist who has worked in documentary production since getting her break on Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, on another 3 x 30-minute series, this one set in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Meanwhile, Libby Penman [pictured], whose background is in extreme sports and wildlife shorts, is filming a 30-minute Firecrest doc on male body image insecurities fronted by Love Island star Anton Danyluk.
Storyboard and Specky are co-producing two docs. Neil Sargent is making a 45-minute film about TikTok sea shanty singer Nathan Evans, who scored a UK number one with ‘Wellerman’, while Christine Johnston is directing a 30-minute film following the wife of wrestler Stevie ‘Braveheart’ Ray bidding to become Scotland’s first MMA world champion in a Madison Square Gardens bout.
