With the re-broadcaast of Faodail on BBC Alba on Dec 31 2025, here’s the story of a series of artworks inspired by the film and its predecessor. The film is available on the BBC iPlayer after broadcast and is currently on Youtube (in 4 parts).
Here, Berneray-based artist Yasmin Davidson talks about finding the inspiration for her recent paintings in two recent Uistfilm projects. Dùthchas collected 8mm film of everyday life on Berneray during the 60s and 70s, coupled with current day interviews with people from the island on what it meant – and still means – to people, especially women, to have to leave the island of their birth to get an education, work, and live. Faodail used archive films taken from the 1930s to the 1980s, plus current day local commentary.
Some of the paintings from the series, which have been shown in exhibtions at Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist and elsewhere:
