Hi there!

I'm Gemma. Welcome to my little space on the Edinburgh College of Art Digital Graduate Show 2021. I am a 2021 design graduate in Film and TV with a need to tell stories. I am a huge people person who lives for hearing stories and understanding how different people see the world we live in. 

Born and bred in a little village in Aberdeenshire, I flew the nest at 18 to study film and television at the Edinburgh College of Art. Working in the film industry has taught me many valuable lessons, and means working to tight deadlines, coping under pressure and meeting new people is second nature to me. During my student years, I have worked professionally and been commissioned by businesses in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, helping me evolve both in my personal life and my business.

While graduating as a filmmaker, I am a professional photographer specialising in weddings and portraits. I am happiest with a camera in my hand and capturing the true essence of whoever is in front of my lens!

Profile of Gemma Keith
Project description

It's certainly not been the easiest year to make a graduation film, but it is for this exact reason that I chose to create a film reflecting on the year the world was hit by a global pandemic. The year the world stopped.

The Human Collective: 2020 is a short film created to try and encapsulate the highs and lows of the last year. It aims to help people make sense of any thoughts, feelings and events we have all experienced, and to show that we are all more connected in how we feel than we may realise.

On this page, you will find two films created completely in isolation. From the gathering of entries right through to the edit and the score, everything was done solo. It was certainly a challenge but one which I am extremely proud of.

The Human Collective: 2020 [Info Video]
The Human Collective: 2020 [Info Video]

This short information video was created to reach as many people as possible and encourage them to send submissions to myself for the film. The main goal of this film was to share it as far and as wide as possible, to gather a diverse range of responses from people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, etc. 

The Human Collective: 2020
The Human Collective: 2020

The Human Collective: 2020 set out to record the times we were living in. This was a big year which wasn’t making a lot of sense to anyone. I felt it was my duty to do my bit to try and help people make sense of it all, and to realise that all of the different emotions and feelings that had come up throughout the year were being felt on a universal level; that we were all feeling a lot of the same things.

While the film doesn’t include my voice directly, it has an over-arching narrative that describes my belief in this idea that we can all still find hope and silver-linings, no matter what is thrown at us. I hope it serves as a reminder to everyone that no one is ever alone in their thoughts or their feelings, and that even though we all have different beliefs and different opinions on life’s big questions, we are all connected to each other, and I think that it a really beautiful thing to hold on to, especially in uncertain times like these.

Film and Television - BA (Hons)
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