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When Fish Begin to Crawl marks the Flow Country’s UNESCO inscription with a unique cinematic triptych and musical adventure. Co-directed by Morag McKinnon and composer Jim Sutherland, the film layers three moving panels: the forging of galaxies and primordial seas; the Devonian moment when fish first crawled onto land; and the vast, carbon-storing blanket bogs of northern Scotland. 

Jim Sutherland’s richly textured orchestral soundtrack, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, flows seamlessly through every frame, fusing art and science into a single narrative. Sweeping drone footage of mist-laden moors, intimate close-ups of bog flora and fauna, and archival glimpses of ancient waterways converge to dramatise life’s continuity and the urgent call to protect our climate’s foundation. 

When Fish Begin to Crawl is both a hymn to nature’s epic arcs and a stirring vision of hope, reminding us that creativity and collective care are vital to sustaining the fragile balance of our shared home.

🎤 Followed by live Q&A with co-director Morag Mckinnon and co-director/composer Jim Sutherland. 

💬 This film has no spoken words (music only). Post-film Q&A will be live captioned (CART). Learn more about access at the festival →

Directors: Morag Mckinnon and Jim Sutherland | Country: UK | Year: 2024 | Running Time: 65 min | Language: English | Rating: PG

About the filmmakers:

Morag McKinnon is a BAFTA-winning Scottish writer and director whose global perspective stems from her early life in Southeast Asia. Her feature Donkeys (2010) won a Scottish BAFTA, and she co-directed the acclaimed documentary I Am Breathing (2012), earning a BAFTA Scotland Best Director award. Her debut Home (1998) won 16 international prizes. She has also directed for television, including, three episodes of the BAFTA award-winning series Buried, a visceral depiction of life in prison. Morag teaches filmmaking at Edinburgh College of Art and on the Erasmus-funded Kinoeyes programme at Edinburgh Napier University.

Jim Sutherland is an award-winning composer, producer, and artistic director known for inventive, cross-genre work. His film credits include Outlaw King (Netflix) and Brave (Disney). He co-writes with hip-hop artist Darren Loki McGarvey and has collaborated with artists from Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to Jack Bruce, Mumford and Sons, The Shotts and Dykehead Pipe band, The Chieftains, and Billy Bragg. Commissioned works include celebrating Marseilles as European Capital of Culture 2013 and Derry as UK city of Culture 2013. His 36-piece orchestra La Banda Europa unites musicians from across the continent, playing instruments indigenous to their homelands. A “conjurer of the ear” (John Berger), Jim was named Producer of the Year at the 2019 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

With short film:

Chasing Whales

Scottish Premiere. In this experimental short, La Fille Renne travels from fjord-wrapped inlets to the open ocean in search of whales. Shimmering visuals and dreamlike narration collide to explore how our bond with these giants has morphed from song and wonder to industrial hunting, and remind us of the urgency to bear witness.

🎤 Followed by live Q&A with director La Fille Renne.

💬 This film is subtitled. Post-film Q&A will be live captioned (CART). Learn more about access at the festival →

Director: La Fille Renne | Country: France | Year: 2025 | Running Time: 5 min | Language: French with English subtitles | Rating: 12A

About the filmmaker:

La Fille Renne is a non-binary filmmaker, photographer, and tattoo artist from Lyon. Trained in ecology and zooarchaeology, their work explores queerness and sexuality, as well as human–animal relationships in polar and northern coastal cultures threatened by climate change. Their short films, made solo and with collaborators Laure Giappiconi and Elisa Monteil, have screened at Sundance, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and London Short Film Festival. They co-founded Polysème Magazine and published Review argentique, combining analogue photography techniques with political storytelling around landscapes, identity, and non-normative bodies.

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