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Newsletter Archive
Newsletter January 2009
Happy new year!
I hope you enjoyed the holidays and are in good spirits at the beginning of another year. I hope you’ve also been enjoying the programmes on BBC ALBA. You can see BBC ALBA on Freesat 110 and Sky 168, and remember that you can catch many of the programmes again on the iPlayer if you’ve missed them first time round.
In this newsletter there’s information about the FilmG competition, about the new Film ’s Craic festival and about forthcoming programmes on BBC ALBA, and we have an interview with Ruth MacKenzie, our channel editor.
Keep an eye on www.bbcalba.co.uk and www.mgalba.com for BBC ALBA programme information and for the latest news about other events and activities. And if you have any questions or want to contact us, we’d love to hear from you.
Le dùrachd,
Dòmhnall Caimbeul
Àrd Oifigear MG ALBA
FilmG
It’s the season for film awards, but who cares about Oscars and the Golden Globes when there are new awards for Gaelic films? The FilmG awards ceremony will be taking place at Eden Court, Inverness, on Friday 06 February 2009.
There are only two days left if you want to vote online for your favourite films, so you’d better hurry because voting closes on Wednesday 14 January. The films on the FilmG website have already been viewed more than 13,000 times. Don’t miss your chance to vote at www.filmg.co.uk
The film with the most online votes will win the “People’s Choice” award and a cash prize of £2,000, and the makers of the best films in the competition will get the chance to develop films to broadcast standard. Two FilmG finalists have also been entered for the BAFTA Scotland “new talent” awards. Find out more about this at www.baftascotland.co.uk. We’d like to thank Scottish Screen, 4 Talent and Hi-Arts for their help in advertising the competition.
Film ’s Craic
MG ALBA is the primary sponsor of a new film festival, Film ’s Craic, run by the Ceòl ’s Craic club at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, from 22 to 24 January as part of the international Celtic Connections festival. Come along and see the best of Gaelic films and TV programmes and hear from well-known film-makers. Find out more here.
On the small screen
There’s nothing better on a cold, dark night than settling down for an evening in front of the television, and there’s plenty to keep you entertained over the next few weeks on BBC ALBA. Our documentary series, Trùsadh, continues this week with Caismeachd, in which Babs MacGregor investigates the link between protest and democracy and talks to Tommy Sheridan about something a little more serious than the antics in the Big Brother house. A new series, Cuibhlichean an Fhortain (Wheels of Fortune), pits one team against another as they compete to fix up old cars and sell them at auction, and Donald Morrison will be chatting to teacher, artist and language expert Colin Spencer in Thuige Seo.
Remember that you can get information about the schedule and latest news stories at www.bbcalba.co.uk and www.mgalba.com, and that many programmes are also available to watch again at iPlayer.
Getting to know … Ruth MacKenzie
Continuing our series of interviews with MG ALBA staff, this month we meet Ruth MacKenzie, channel editor. Ruth is 24 and comes from Stornoway.
How did you come to work in broadcasting?
I began by studying TV Operations and Production at college for two years. I then worked as an assistant lighting designer for The ABC and Carling Academy in Glasgow. In September 2006 I began a volunteer placement with the Gaelic Media Service (as MG ALBA was then called) through Project Scotland. I did that for nine months after which I was hired on a freelance basis as studio technician. After about seven months, I applied for the position of editor, and started in my current role last February.
Tell us about your job at MG ALBA.
My job entails the daily editing of Dè tha Dol, re-editing archive programmes and also promos. I love my job especially working on the promos because it’s something new all the time and it allows me to get pretty creative. It’s great and supportive team to be part of and this is a very exciting time for us all.