film
The Land Does Not Agree
A five-film documentary arc
Each film examines a landscape where a human system of control — a survey, a grid, a drainage scheme, a map — meets the terrain it was imposed upon. The films are forensic in method, architectural in eye. No narration. No commentary. The landscape speaks for itself.
film 1 of 5 — in production
The Highlands — Roy's Grid, 1747
the film
In 1747, William Roy arrived in the Scottish Highlands with a theodolite and turned a rebellious, ungovernable landscape into a flat drawing the Crown could control. This film retraces that survey — 250km by bicycle over five days, navigating by paper only. No GPS. The friction of navigating by map is the subject matter made physical.
The film follows Roy's grid across three phases: the historical act of imposition, its ongoing legacy in the infrastructure of the present, and the implication for anyone moving through the landscape now. It ends at Rannoch Station, where the GPS switches back on and finds no memory of the previous four days.
methodology
Shot on two cameras simultaneously throughout. A Leica on tripod produces static landscape frames — the cartographer's eye, precise and still. An iPhone handheld produces the body's experience of moving through the same terrain. The grid format — four portrait cells in a landscape frame, white seams visible — applies to the Leica material. The iPhone footage runs in its own register. Both are decided on location, in front of the subject. The landscape determines it.
status
Pre-production. Shoot April 27 – May 1 2026, Aviemore to Rannoch Station. Post-production summer 2026. Festival submission autumn 2026.