Jen Skinner: Festival Director
Meet Sea Change Film Festival director, Screen Argyll Programme Manager – and Tiree resident – Jen Skinner. Jen is all about bringing people together through film, especially in rural communities with no cinema nearby. She is also passionate about powering all women and non-binary people who are still under-represented in our screen industries.
A life-long lover of film, Jen has over 25 years’ experience in film exhibition – including managing Hebden Bridge Picture House and developing the film education programme at the National Media Museum. Jen and her family relocated to the Isle of Tiree a decade ago, from where Jen now heads up film, festival and education programming at Screen Argyll.
Jen and the Screen Argyll team share the magic of movies year round through workshops with schools and community cinema screenings across Argyll and the Isles. She programmes the annual Sea Change Film Festival inviting film fans, makers, exhibitors and distributors alike to the Isle of Tiree to experience films, explore ideas, develop skills and discover landscapes together.
How did it all begin?
Jen believes we are stronger together and has dedicated her life to creating fruitful connections and collaborations, whether in her own local community or the wider sector. In December 2015, Jen started Screen Tiree which became a community cinema in September 2016.
“I’ve always loved Tiree and I’ve always loved cinema. So it was amazing to be able to bring those two things together in my work. We had the opportunity to relocate my family to my grandparents’ house on Tiree. My husband Jack’s also an animation and film practitioner. So once here, we continued working freelance and began to grow Screen Tiree. At first we focussed our offer here on the island – mainly through the support of Into Film, which helped us develop our screen exhibition and education work.”
Screen Argyll grew from the success of Screen Tiree, and now supports and nurtures cinema and film activity across Argyll and Bute. The team at Screen Argyll are themselves based in island or rural places, deeply understanding and caring about the communities they live and work in. Screen Argyll uses film to connect remote communities and helps rural venues to engage with the widest audiences they can.
“We now support a network of cinemas across Argyll and the Isles, run education programmes and produce a festival and development lab.”
Reaching even farther, as an Industry Advisor for the Independent CinemaOffice’s FAN Training Development Group Jen helps other organisations to develop and engage audiences for film.
As well as her passion and advocacy for film, Jen is a co-founder of Tiree Makery – an artist-led social enterprise which delivers creative activity in their workshop and gallery space. She also sits on the steering group for CHArts (Culture Heritage & Arts), a charity fostering collaborative working, creating events and supporting small creative business across Argyll and the Isles.
Why Sea Change?
Jen set up Sea Change in 2019 to take positive action against the consistent underrepresentation of women in screen industries by showcasing films made by – and making space for professional development of – women in film. Jen also recognised a similar underrepresentation in Tiree, home to one of the last remaining Gaelic, native-speaking communities, and a community often considered remote (by other people, not the islanders). Sea Change was created as a celebration of finding community in both the things that unite us and that might make us unique.
Sea Change is Scotland’s only annual festival dedicated to powering women and non-binary people in film. The annual festival and biannual development lab not only introduce audiences to new films, but also build community through the talks, walks, swims, meals and space shared in Tiree’s extraordinary environment.
“By showing different lives on screen, sharing ideas or just escaping, it’s such a magical thing to do on our beautiful island.”
With Sea Change, Jen wants to give people space to experience film differently – where they can walk out of a screening an into an infinite horizon or share a sea dip and chat with people they might normally never meet.
“There’s something about being in the water and under a big sky. You talk more openly in the water and share.”
Through Sea Change’s biannual development Lab, Jen and a steering group of Lab Alumni create a dedicated space for women and non-binary people in the screen industries to develop professionally and personally. Jen created the Lab in response to a need for women and non-binary people working in our screen industries to coalesce.
“I could see a gap in the industry where women need to be supported across exhibition, distribution and production.”
Sea Change Development Lab has gone on to gain respect and success, now with a regular waiting list for places. Recent participants reflected that:
• “The Lab was an extraordinary learning and development experience that provided me with connection, clarity and confidence all of which will stay with me forever.”
• “Sea Change was a truly magical experience and the best CPD I’ve ever participated in, thanks to the team for making it inclusive & fun!”
• “A perfect mix of self-development and being grounded in nature thanks to swimming in the sea, foraging seaweed and observe the sun setting.”
Sea Change brings world class films and filmmakers from across the globe to Tiree each September. Throughout the year, a touring programme of festival films visits community cinemas in other island and rural communities Online sessions offer women and non-binary people space to learn and connect.