Filmmaker off to US for screening of his work

CORSTORPHINE to California is a long way to go for a budding screenwriter that hadn't visited a theatre till his 30s.

• Inspired: Alistair Rutherford's film Eight Words, above, is just six minutes long

Alistair Rutherford, 52, is jetting off to Silicone Valley to see his first short film make its second US festival screening of the year.

He is taking Eight Words to the Poppy Jasper Film Festival, in the city of Morgan Hill around 60 miles south of San Francisco.

He's also on the verge of seeing his first full-length feature, a sci-fi film on the perils of global warming, get a full reading at a Canadian screenwriting competition.

His six-minute film Eight Words, which focuses on a woman's struggle to write a message to her husband about a miscarriage in just eight words, was the only British short at the New York International Film Festival in August.

However, it was screened without the presence of its cash-strapped creator, who was unable to raise the money to attend the festival.

He said: "I've been a full time screenwriter for three years now, but there's not much money in it unfortunately.

"I was gutted that I couldn't go to New York, but thankfully this time round I have received a grant from Creative Scotland to allow me to attend the Poppy Jasper Film Festival.

"I don't even know how well the film was received in New York, but this time round I'll be able to canvass some reaction."

Mr Rutherford, who was born in Leith, explained the story behind the script. He said: "I have a friend who works on submarines who told me how, owing to security, his wife could only send him an eight-word message every six months and that he could not reply. The film's based on this."

His feature length sci-fi script, entitled Backflip, received a first act reading at the Wildsound Feature Screenplay Contest in Toronto in mid-October, and has now been shortlisted to potentially receive a full reading online next month.

Alistair heard his first script aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, and penned a 30-minute play for BBC Radio Scotland which aired on Hogmany.

He also has a string of plays under his belt at the Leith Festival including Homecoming and An Island Between Heaven and Earth, which featured at the festival three years running.