Here’s the story of a series of artworks inspired by the Faodail film and its predecessor Dùthchas. 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: Beatha nan Eilean uses archive film of the Outer Hebrides from the 1930s to the 1980s, charting changing ways of life in the islands and exploring social history – family life, crofting, travel as well as the natural environment.
Both the Faodail and Dùthchas films are available on the BBC iPlayer during January 2026.
There are also 4 shorter films discussing the cultural value of the archive films on Youtube.
Some of the paintings from the series, which have been shown in exhibtions at Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist and elsewhere:
