OKRE Funds -The Fish That Never Swam Goes to Edinburgh Pitch

The Fish That Never Swam is a documentary film in development that explores health inequality in Glasgow through the lens of Glaswegian working class filmmaker Kirsty MacKay. It was awarded OKRE Fund development funding in 2022. 

Over two years we get to know four Glaswegians whose stories illustrate the findings of Scottish researchers that people in Glasgow are dying younger than the UK average. This is a story of trauma — on a large scale experience across a city, by the individual, and passed down through generations – told by someone from their community. 

It first began as a photography project by filmmaker, photographer and activist Kirsty Mackay, in response to a report from Glasgow Centre for Population Health which revealed that Scotland had 5,000 more people die each year than should be the case, compared to England and Wales. This excess mortality is particularly pronounced in Glasgow.  

OKRE supported this film through the OKRE Fund because she was a local artist and film maker telling an important story and bringing her own lived experience of Glasgow to the project. Kirsty also fully collaborated and with researchers and community in the research and development. 

Kirsty said: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this funding from OKRE. It has elevated the film’s development. I now have more agency than ever as a filmmaker and storyteller.” 

The Fish That Never Swam drew the attention of the OKRE Funding because:  

• Through collaboration with researchers and those with lived experience, it is shifting perception that are currently affecting communities in Glasgow 
• It centres the lived experience of both the filmmaker and the community