Julie follows Oscar slot with HebCelt screening

AFTER a primetime Oscar TV ad slot for North singer Julie Fowlis’ song from upcoming movie Brave’s soundtrack, there’s news of her own movie’s screening at the HebCelt Festival in July.

At the festival on July 14, the North Uist singer - now living in Dingwall - will show her hour-long film Heisgeir.

With a musical soundtrack, the film is based on the history, people and landscape of the uninhabited Monach Islands.

It’s set to be a busy few months for Julie who is due to give birth to her second child in the next few weeks, but plans to be back performing in May.

Heisgeir will screen at the HebCelt just three weeks after the Pixar/Disney film Brave premieres in Hollywood on June 22.

Set in Scotland, 3D animated movie Brave features a feisty heroine Merida voiced by Kelly Macdonald with supporting roles for other Scottish stars including Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane and Elgin’s Kevin McKidd.

Julie’s song Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A’ Chuain (My Love Is On The High Seas) - from her first album Mar a tha mo chridhe - features both on the soundtrack and in the full-length trailer for the film.

One of the first to be inducted into the HebCelt Hall of Fame, Julie is an ambassador for the event, and will perform at An Lanntair on the final day of the four-day festival.

She said: “HebCelt is a highlight of the year for me. It’s a great place to come back to, especially as the piece we are doing is very much an island project and a little bit different to what we have done before.

“I’m delighted to be bringing it to HebCelt and looking forward to presenting ourselves in a different way this year.

“It’s very exciting but also nerve-wracking to do something so different to what we usually do at HebCelt.”

Julie’s great great grandmother was from Heisgeir and stories from former residents, including Lachie Morrison, a member of the last family to live there, help tell the story.

The work also features musicians Éamon Doorley, Duncan Chisholm and Ross Martin and, was commissioned for last year’s Blas festival.

The project was backed by the national Gaelic development body Bòrd na Gàidhlig, while Creative Scotland is helping take the show to HebCelt as well as to festivals in Gigha, Skye and Uist in 2012.

Julie explained her interest in Heisgeir: “When you look out from the west coast of North Uist you can see it and I wanted to learn more about it.”

Though Heisgeir started as a music-based work with some film, Julie revealed it quickly changed.

“Rather than me tell the stories second hand, I really wanted the audience to hear them the way I heard them.

“As the film was so powerful it became apparent very early on that it would become a film-based project first and foremost.

“We recorded and listened to people and that just seemed to be a very natural way to bring all that together.”

Julie will also be showing her film at the Gigha Music Festival on July 1 and at the Skye Festival on July 17.

For full details of HebCelt, go to www.hebceltfest.com and for more on Julie and her other events, head for www.juliefowlis.com