Hebridean teenager goes global with film debut made after lockdown drama classes

A Hebridean teenager’s professional acting debut in a short film made on her home island during the pandemic has become a global sensation.

Franesca Taylor Coleman has made her professional acting debut in Danni the Champion.

Festivals in Tokyo, Venice, Chicago and Bondi Beach are among the events to show Danni the Champion, which 17-year-old Francesca Coleman Taylor filmed on Lewis just weeks after attending online acting classes during lockdown.

She plays a teenager frustrated with the slow pace of island life who is determined to take to the roads in her brother's car with Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting on its stereo.The nine-minute, which was filmed in and around Stornoway and in the Uig area, was part of a series of short films commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland all of its planned level events in 2020 had to be called off.

The film, written by Iain Finlay Macleod and directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis, has been viewed nearly 50,000 times since it premiered online in September.

However it has now been snapped up by the Tokyo International Short Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival in Michigan, the Montreal International Film Festival, the Short to the Point Film Festival in Romania, the Chicago Indie Film Awards, the Venice Shorts Film Fest and Flickerfest on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Taylor Coleman, who had previously performed with the Stornoway Thespians, started a drama course at Dundee College after filming Danni the Champion.

She won the part in the film, which features both English and Gaelic, after attending online drama classes which were run by Cameron-Lewis last summer.

The actress, who cites David Tennant as a major inspiration, said: “I’ve always like acting from when I was a kid – I was very much a drama queen from a young age and it’s always been a dream of mine.

“But I only really started thinking of it as a possible career when I was 16. I’d only done a pantomime and a one-act play before Laura asked me to audition for this part.

"I was extremely shocked, nervous and very excited to get it. I learned so much, especially because it was my first time on camera. It was very different to being on staged, but was a great experience.

“I had no idea it would end up having an audience outside Scotland. The whole project only happened because of lockdown, which is weird, but I’m really glad it did. It showed how theatre can continue despite the current circumstances.”

Francesca Coleman Taylor stars in Danni the Champion, which was made on the Isle of Lewis during the pandemic.

NTS artistic director Jackie Wylie said: “Laura Cameron-Lewis and Francesca Coleman Taylor took Iain Finlay Macleod’s dazzling script and created nine minutes of brilliant theatrical drama.

"The film tells an exhilarating story of teenage island life as well as shining a light on theatrical talent in the Western Isles, which we are thrilled is now being shared with the rest of the world.

Cameron-Lewis said: “I’m really thrilled to see such a great response to the film. It was such a meaningful piece for us, so it’s great to see it taking off like this. It excites me so much to think of Australians on Bondi Beach right now, looking in on Stornoway harbour.

“It’s an honour to be selected and to know that for an international audience there’s an interest in experiencing the language and life of a young Gael in the Hebrides.”

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