And Then You Win

As I'm typing this, I'm sitting on a flight to Dublin for the Stranger Than Fiction documentary festival. I'm looking down on Scotland, a country which was offered a unique opportunity exactly one week ago and, frankly, bottled it.

As UK mainstream media kept getting accused of their astonishing pro-union bias, I should better declare my own bias before somebody else does.

Scotland has only been my home for a few years. From Germany originally, I've always found this land very welcoming and inspiring — and what an exciting time it has been to be living here! However, I'm lacking any sort of emotional attachment to the British state, tend to look at things at face value and do my own research.

Let it be known there were three main reasons why I favoured Scottish independence myself.

The creative part in me was fascinated by the opportunity to start a new country from scratch, write a modern constitution and let society decide on the core values it wants to stand for. Secondly, I had become very aware of Britain being the 4th most unequal society in the 'developed' world, and if it ultimately takes setting up a new state in order to tackle this, then so be it.

And then there is the insanity and immorality of nuclear weapons, getting rid of which alone would justify Scottish independence as far as I'm concerned. Many years ago, I made a documentary about Trident Ploughshares, a group committed to "citizens' disarmament" of the Trident nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines. Three women from that film went on to receive the Right Livelihood Award (better known as 'Alternative Nobel Prize'). Unfortunately, next to nothing in The Loch Long Monster is out of date, so I recently made it available online. Here's a clip from it (and you can also support your independent filmmaker by renting the film right in this player).

Throughout my work, I've always been fascinated by people who dedicate their lives to achieving change, just like the women in my current project, And Then You Win. Which is also why I haven't filmed with any folk advocating the status quo for Scotland (not to mention Better Together's apparent unwillingness to engage with anybody outside the main domestic news media).

So that's me and my bias. That said, I promise I won't be uncritical, and hope you can still trust me on this journey.

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