IT'S hard to say which would be the toughest job – making a film about the world of sound through the experience of a deaf percussionist or organising the live outside broadcast of the capital's annual Hogmanay celebrations.
Luckily, Edinburgh-based producer Leslie Hills thrives on a challenge. Those two projects neatly illustrate the two poles of her work – esoteric, artistic documentaries and the populist good times of Scotland's biggest party.
Touch the Sound, the
film about world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, is to return to the city on Tuesday, five years after its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Dame Evelyn herself will be introducing the screening.
The award-winning film returns as part of the Made in Edinburgh festival at the Filmhouse, an eclectic selection of work created in the city or by people based here. Other highlights include work by animation studio Ko Lik, episodes of Rebus and the Bill Douglas Trilogy – My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home.
Leslie, 63, who is based in the New Town and chairs the Filmhouse board, says: "What's interesting is the only thing most of it's got in common is that it's made in Edinburgh. There's a wide range of things, as you'd expect, but I think what's so interesting about it is that one sometimes comes up against the perception that if you come from Scotland you will be making films about haggis and that's not represented here at all."
Touch the Sound is included in the festival because Leslie and production company Skyline are based here. "Touch the Sound was filmed in New York, San Diego, Japan and near Evelyn Glennie's home in Aberdeenshire," she says. "We held together the various places that she played with a sequence that we filmed at Dormagen in Germany, which brought together Evelyn and guitarist Fred Frith in a disused sugar factory with lots of light coming in and pigeons fluttering around. We brought them into this space and that was the first time they'd met. It was a huge gamble."
The gamble clearly paid off. The screening will also be the launch of the DVD of the film, followed by a Q&A with Leslie and Evelyn. Leslie says: "She was a joy to work with, absolutely lovely. She knows her own worth and she works with us to make a good film.
"Evelyn will be answering questions but she lip reads. It's not always easy in a big theatre where it's dark so I'll be hosting. She's very, very good at this kind of thing."
The film was her second collaboration with German director Thomas Riedelsheimer – they have also made films on artists Andy Goldsworthy and Alison Watt and begin shooting their fourth piece together in Paris next month. Breathing Earth will focus on Japanese sculptor Susumu Shingu.
Leslie explains: "He works with the wind. His work combines really high-tech elements with sculpture, and he has this concept of an artistic and creative community which sustains itself through the energy which can be derived from the sculptures."
The tranquil subject is a far cry from the manic task of producing the outside broadcasts at Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations.
She says: "It was particularly interesting at the millennium. I was having a huge amount of trouble because there were frequencies all over the city, there were so many cameras, and I thought, 'This is going to be a disaster'. But my brilliant outside broadcast supervisor took it all off the mains and put it on batteries and for some reason that fixed it.
"It's been 15 years now and it's 24 hours of my life when you never really know quite what's going to happen. What was really enjoyable was The Proclaimers and watching people's faces as they were singing 500 Miles with them."
She moved to the capital in 1966 from Glasgow, and asked if the city is now home, replies "ish". Her collaborations with Riedelsheimer outside the city have been fruitful not only because of the "joy" of working with him, but because they bring access to the wealthier film funds of Germany.
She thinks there is a vibrant Scottish screen industry, but not necessarily one that does – or should – try to stand alone. She says: "I think a lot of people had to go away for many years but they want to stay here and they try to stay here. I always say I'm based in Scotland because I can't remember the last time I made something that was only made in Scotland. You can't do it."
Stepping out of the UK also helps her step away from the current obsession with fly-on-the-wall documentaries, exemplified by the 1997 series Driving School, which highlighted the efforts of Welsh cleaner Maureen Rees to pass her test on the seventh attempt.
Leslie says: "I was brought up in a different time, when you didn't humiliate people. I remember talking to my partner and saying, 'What if we did something about people learning to drive?' He said, 'What if they failed? It would humiliate them.' So we didn't do it – and that was my credo."
• Touching the Sound will be screened at the Filmhouse, Lothian Road, on Tuesday at 6pm
