The Herald has picked out The Hermit of Treig as one of the best Scottish films of 2022 alongside Charlotte Wells' Aftersun and Hassan Nazers' Winners. 

"For this fascinating documentary about solitude and, ultimately, friendship, Oban-based restaurateur-turned-filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie turns her camera on Ken Smith, the hermit of the title, who has lived off-grid lived for years in a log cabin in Lochaber. The filming period was lengthy and took in the period of Covid lockdowns – not that they affected Smith much – so it was only this year that MacKenzie’s film finally saw the light of day in its finished form, winning the Audience Award at the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival in March."

Check out the trailer below

After winning the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival, The Hermit of Treig has scooped the Best Single Documentary award at the 2022 Scottish Baftas.

Producer Naomi Spiro and Director Lizzie McKenzie gave charming acceptance speeches which you can view here

The hybrid documentary animated feature A Cat Called Dom, which I edited, has won the Powell & Pressburger Award for Best Film at the 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Considering the competition, it was quite a surprise, and the positive reactions to the film have been really great to read and hear. 


This is what the jury had to say about the film:

“It’s better to miss Naples than to hit Margate” was Powell & Pressburger’s motto, suggesting the imagination, daring, risk taking and wit that marked their films. Their special collaboration was also grounded in deeply human stories and the belief that life can be magic.

For these reasons the jury are pleased to award The Powell & Pressburger Award for Best Feature to Will Anderson & Ainslie Henderson’s A Cat Called Dom."

Accepting the award, directors Anderson and Henderson said:

​“To screen our first feature at EIFF was an honor… but to take away the first Powell & Pressburger Award is just so special. A Cat Called Dom is a film about embracing failure… after EIFF it now feels much more like a success.”

The Hermit of Treig won the audience voting award at the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival, out of seven films nominated. 

​Director Lizzie MacKenzie said: “Wow wow wow! As if it wasn’t an honour enough as a Highland lassie to premier my first film at Glasgow Film Festival, winning the audience award is just magic.I’m so chuffed that Ken has charmed the audiences much like he charmed me during our first ever encounter that sparked his whole thing off. Now for the long hike into the woods to break the news over a glass of birch wine! From all Team Hermit, a massive thanks.”

The Hermit of Treig releases to cinemas on March 25th, and the broadcast version is available on BBC iPlayer. 

​I co-edited the film with Ling Lee. ​

Dan Deacon has released his stellar soundtrack for Time Trial with a limited edition vinyl, available here. It's a fantastic piece of work and I can vividly remember the excitement in the editing suite when we received the first tracks to hear everything come together so perfectly in tandem with the images. 

Relix describes it as "a study in expressing human fragility and fallibility with machines, like the best of Brian Eno’s ambient works". 

Accompanying the release, I edited a music video for the track 'The Breakaway', which was a blast to work on and an interesting way of reshaping footage I'd grown accustomed to into something new and exciting. It also happens to be the first music video I've ever worked on.

Very pleased to announce that Time Trial, the David Millar cycling documentary I edited, will premiere in competition at IDFA in November. It'll screen in the Royal Theatre Carré on Sunday, November 19th to an audience of 1,500.

Following the screening there will be a talk/Q&A with director Finlay Pretsell and David Millar himself, which will also feature the great Jørgen Leth (who has written a poem specifically for the occasion.)

Check it out and keep yourself updated at the IDFA website or @TimeTrialFilm on Twitter.

The trailer for the film will come out in about a week, featuring first on the Global Cycling Network before going wider.



Rob Burnett made his first break interning for David Letterman in 1985. Working his way up to head writer of Late Show with David Letterman in 1992, he eventually became executive producer. After more than twenty years in television comedy and multiple Emmys, he's on his way to the same success in film, writing and directing the charming and funny Sundance closing-night hit - and now Netflix Original film - The Fundamentals of Caring.


Based on the novel by Johnathan Evison, The Fundamentals of Caring stars Paul Rudd as Ben, a father grieving his tragically lost son, who, in desperation, dives into caregiving for Trevor, played by Craig Roberts, a teenager with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
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I sat down with Rob Burnett at the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival, where the film had its European premiere, to ask him about working with Rudd and Roberts, making death and disability funny, and why he chose Netflix to distribute the film.




Read more at The 405 here

Name: John Lake. Profession: Doctor of Medicine. Destination: Some Laotian prison, maybe. Film: Jamie M Dagg's frantic thriller River | Arthouse head-trip History's Future tells the story of one man's brain-damage and capitalism's moral-damage
 
Morally complex mumble-chase and an enigmatic experimental trip inside a damaged mind in two films from my seventh day at EIFF 2016 [read more at The 405]

Bloody revenge becomes as difficult as spelling Aberystwyth in great Welsh-language thriller The Library Suicides

Hollywood tragedy Kevin Smith insults Canadians, critics and his own child with horror-comedy that is neither scary nor funny in Yoga Hosers 

Didn't think I'd see a film worse than Macbeth Unhinged at EIFF. So, congratulations to Kevin Smith, I guess. Quite the achievement.

Read more at The 405 here

Two films reviewed from the Best of British strand of EIFF 2016

A break-up shake-up comedy that makes you think about every bad relationship you ever had in Brakes

A Welshman, a Scotsman, and an Irish Manic Pixie Dream Girl take a trip to find the punchline to that joke, in the endearing but clumsy drama Moon Dogs

Read more here at The 405