Hello, I am a Scottish lobster fisherman. I have connections with Leo Sampson Goulding of the Tally Ho project in Port Townsend.

Your environmental and or arts journalist, you might want to give this one some time. This project has been covered by mainstream UK TV. The impact of the documentary-style film about the project has had has not yet been picked up by any UK papers. The project is about the Scottish lobster fishing industry and a practical realistic way to reduce its emissions.

It is early in the festival season and this Scottish-made film has already been recognized with awards from Los Angeles to the UK as well as being screened in cinemas from Tasmania to the Falkland Islands. Closer to home, we also currently have over 750 filled seats from town and village halls alone. As well as this, the opening of three cinema shows between Oban and Campbeltown had over 300 seats filled. Since then, it has been big-screened in multiple locations by the Screen Machine, The Birks, Eden Court Highland Cinema, An Lanntair and five different venues for the Hebrides International Film Festival with respectable turnouts at most screenings. As a word of mouth film, it has now box office reached somewhere about 1,500 turnouts with more venues booked. Very hard to do with an indie film.

IMDb rates it 9.5 and you can see the trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=-Pim87aG2wY.

From what is undeniably a niche but topical subject, you are gently led into a very familiar first world struggle that will resonate with just about everyone watching. By the end it, will give you a full spectrum of emotions, feelings, laughs, inspiration and thoughts. Strangers of all ages, shapes and sizes gather in the foyer after shows talking it through with each other. That doesn’t happen with many films.

This filmumentary reaches parts other bigger production films don’t or can’t. As a documentary, it tells the story it needs to with minimum tech and great visuals. As a story, it develops at a comfortable pace until the viewer finds themselves fully hooked. As a film, it has an innocence that the main stream cannot recreate. That is because it was made with an entire production team of two people and a budget of under $5,000 coupled with the naivety of a young sci-fi director and first-time documentary director. It is also noticeably very Scottish, in not just it’s setting and dialogue, but etched in its manner.

This is surely worth an hour of your time. We would be really interested in your thoughts.

You can watch the film FOC for a limited time through one of the international film festivals that is showcasing it. Link here under documentary shorts https://bigsyn.org/

Thanks!

Hans Unkles

Tayvallich, Argyll