Filmmakers in running for award with moving documentary on Scotland's longest-serving post office worker

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A pair of Ayr-based filmmaking graduates have shared they are “honoured and shocked” to be in the running for the top award for their moving documentary.Niall Morison MacRae and Tabita Knoblauch, from UWS’ MA Filmmaking course, have been nominated for the Best Postgraduate Factual prize, at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Student Awards, for the documentary ‘And So It Was’.The emotional short film tells the story of Niall’s gran Norah Morison - the longest-serving post office worker in Scottish history- as she reflects on what’s to come in her remaining years in her home village of Achmore on the Isle of Lewis, following the loss of her sister.Niall said both he and fellow filmmaker Tabita are “honoured and a little bit shocked” to be nominated for the title.He said: “To be nominated for a film so personal - a film about my gran, my family, our grief and the village that I grew up in - is incredibly touching.“I often thought that the audience for this film wouldn’t extend beyond myself, the island or Scotland at most, but this nomination is the first sign that perhaps that isn’t the case.“It adds a whole new dimension to what it means to all of us, and I’m delighted that this film is starting to resonate with other people.”Fellow UWS filmmaking graduates and students are also celebrating high-profile national successes.Ryan Pollock’s graduation film, Bluebird, was selected for the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) of Art and Architecture’s 197th annual exhibition, where it lifted the prestigious Latimer Award.It has also been nominated for Best Short Film (19 or over) at the Film the House Awards.Bluebird, shot on location in Wishaw, tells the story of an unfulfilled litter picker, who is searching for meaning in his life.