The original negatives of Da Makkin o’a keshie were discovered in 1970 in a chicken shed on the Shetland Islands. The old stack of film had been stagnating under the chicken droppings for over 40 years.

Jenny Brown had chosen this original location to keep her highly flammable nitrate-based negatives cool. Time, humidity and mildew took their toll on the collection. When the Scottish Screen Archive became aware of the discovery in 1979, it immediately decided to make backup copies (from positives).

Brown (1902 -1990) is also known by the name of Jenny Gilbertson. She found her calling in film with an amateur piece on the Loch Lomond. A teacher by trade, she used her films primarily for the classroom. During a visit with friends, she discovered the barren landscapes of the Shetland Islands. In 1930, the young woman returned with a 16mm camera to film life on the island. In 12 months, she filmed, edited and produced A Crofter’s Life in Shetland. This first film caught the attention of John Grierson, a pioneer of documentary film-making in England. He encouraged her to return to the Shetlands to shoot more films in 35mm. She produced five new short, single-reel films, which were purchased by Grierson for the GPO Film Library.

Da makkin o’a keshie is one of them. Jenny Brown enjoyed a threefold career as film director, writer for radio and teacher. In 1970, she travelled to Canada to shoot several films on life in the Arctic. At the age of 76, she made Jenny’s Arctic Diary, a film about her year living in an Inuit community. Jenny Brown described her creative process as a “one-woman job”. From the script to sound, to lighting and production, she controlled every image. Her work resounds with a special quality, especially since her subjects fully accepted her presence. She has left her mark on 20th-century ethnographic film.

The original music for this film was composed by Antonio Coppola in 2008.