Imagine a cinematic nonfiction ghost story, a mystery and an evocative personal tale.
Handsome and gallant, with a ready smile, eighty-year-old Donald Angus MacLean invites us to discover the truth about ghosts on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. A man of the church and a lover of women, he takes us on a journey full of spectres, ghost cars, premonitions and the “second sight”. The film is also a personal story of his daily rituals and his poetic musings on life and death which reveal his love for his late wife, Nina. Rich in humour, Second Sight features the last generation of a Scottish Gaelic oral tradition who grew up without TV and electricity, extraordinary characters who are no longer with us. Haunting landscapes and soundscapes as pure as nature reveal a magic, real isle full of spine-tingling ghost stories and unforgettable islanders.
Running time: 51 minuntes
Format: 16mm and Digital, 5.1 Sound Sound
Genre: Documentary
Language: English and Gaelic
Produced by Second Sight Pictures
© 2008 Second Sight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
- Second Sight **** John Griffin, Montreal Gazette, October 11, 2007
Alison McAlpine’s glorious hour-long tribute to the great characters and laid-back way of life on the remote Scottish Isle of Skye has a misty-twisty Gaelic quality uniquely appropriate to the subject of ghosts. Thanks to introductions by vital 80-year-old Donald Angus MacLean, we meet a group of individuals who claim to have had personal contact with those beyond the pale… Read More
- Second Sight: Hot Docs 2008 Festival Highlights Philip Marchand, Toronto Star
A quietly beautiful study of old men in the Isle of Skye telling stories of uncanny phenomena such as a “ghost car” …The windswept landscape, the play of sunlight and shadow, and the evocative score in itself creates a mood conducive to second sight.
- Second Sight, Rating 9/10 Brooke Smith, Toronto Screen Shots
Through the wit and charm of near-80 Donald Angus MacLean, filmmaker Alison McAlpine explores the oral tradition in northern Scotland on the Isle of Skye. Donald “Angie” is quite a character, an entertaining rogue with an eye for the ladies and an ear for a good story. A former preacher, Donald drives around the town in his red car (his name written across the trunk), his dog in the passenger seat, visiting a few of the island’s even more entertaining characters… Read More
- “Ones to Watch” at Hotdocs 2008 Guy Dixon, The Globe and Mail
One of the three films recommended by Guy Dixon
- Very Hot Docs: Hot Docs festival’s excellent film experiences Ben Kempas, DOX, Documentary Film Magazine
Second Sight is a film about loss and death. In its own magical way, the film captures many old men telling us about encounters with ghosts…The film evolves into a powerful poem…a beautifully-crafted visual layer of landscapes and journeys…
- Second Sight **** Ross Miller, BlogCritics Magazine
…Although the film follows Donald (one of the most endearing cinematic characters – real or fictional – to grace the screen in ages) as he talks to various people about ghostly visions, that’s not what’s at the heart of the film. It’s really about the nature of life and how the end of it is inevitable…a beautifully told tale…from the claims of ghostly visions down to the intimate daily routine of an old charmer who would make a routine trip to the shop a fascinating watch…with beautiful, elegant landscapes and peppered with the interesting characters that Donald comes across, this is a gloriously encapsulating motion picture told with admiration and love for the place in which it’s set.
- Mill Valley Film Festival: Second Sight Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
For residents of the remote Isle of Skye, seeing dead people isn’t all that extraordinary. At least that’s the implication of this delightful documentary by Canadian Alison McAlpine…The filmmaker mixes footage of the gorgeous and haunted Skye landscape with supernatural lore gleefully recounted by the island’s older inhabitants, such as the octogenarian ex-preacher Donald Angus MacLean, who introduces us to some of his equally idiosyncratic friends… Read More
- Second Sight (TVOntario, 10pm on Human Edge) John Doyle, Globe and Mail, November 11, 2008
…a gloriously good, gorgeous documentary… It’s about storytellers, ghosts, apparitions and the haunting, haunted landscape… It’s stunningly good. Read More
- DOCUMENTARIES: SECOND SIGHT Henrietta Walmark, Globe and Mail, October 31, 2008
Alison McAlpine’s gorgeously introspective film, as wispy yet persistent as the mists hugging glens and moors, is the perfect autumn tale. With charmingly whimsical Donald Angus MacLean holding court, Second Sight is a story of ghosts, longing and leave-taking that is as potent as the primordial Isle of Skye… Read More
- Slamdance winners announced Michael Jones, Variety
…The jury also singled out Alison McAlpine’s docu “Second Sight”…Special Jury Mention (for Documentary Features).
- Second Sight *** (out of four) Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail
The mist-heavy hills of the Isle of Skye and the ghosts that haunt them provide the sights and stories in this dark, cinematic docu-poem about death. Magically capturing what feels like the last ember of a vibrant culture, the film focuses on the eccentric, engaging Don Angie MacLean, a self-styled ghost-story collector and widower with a fetish for filing cabinets. With original music by John Gzowski, performed by the Madawaska String Quartet. Screened with the short Ex-Voto For Three Souls (Mexico). Cumberland, Apr. 18, 7 p.m.; Royal, Apr. 27, 7 p.m.
- Ghost Stories… the 3rd Annual Guth Gafa Film Festival Danielle DiGiacomo, IndiePix Weblog
…A work of languid and patient beauty, the film is about elderly men who live on the Isle of Skye in Scotland… Though ostensibly, the hook is that all of these men have “second sight” (the ability to see ghosts), it is a much larger meditation on dying – corporally, culturally, and linguistically. It was an unexpectedly beautiful and emotional film, with lessons about letting time take itself, rather than grabbing it and hijacking it for oneself.
- Hot Docs Guide: Second Sight*** Guy Dixon, The Globe and Mail
The film is as much a meditation on aging and the passage of time as a glimpse into the ghost stories of Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye. Our guide is an 80-year-old widower and preacher, whose idiosyncratic ways match those of other old folks in the area, who tell their wide-eyed stories as if they happened yesterday…There’s the astonishment in their faces, the lovely cadence in their words… like the apparitions they profess to have witnessed, the people of Skye stay with you for days after watching the film.
- Second Sight Transcends Simple Ghost Stories. Poet’s First Film. John Griffin, Montreal Gazette
An intimate documentary set on Scotland’s magnificent, mysterious Isle of Skye… it’s about ghosts. More specifically, it’s about the passing of the last generation raised in Gaelic without TV or electricity and entertained on long North Atlantic nights by oral tales passed down over centuries. Even more specifically, it’s about those people whose “second sight” allows them to cross from the world of the seen to the spirit world, people introduced to McAlpine by one man, an outsized character of 80 years named Donald Angus MacLean. It is a grand tale, told with restraint and love, and set against some of the most rugged, awesome and phenomena-friendly landscape on Earth…
- SECOND SIGHT is a beautifully made film Jan Rofekamp, Films Transit
SECOND SIGHT is a beautifully made film with great wisdom, integrity and profoundness. It is also a living proof of the necessity of recording oral history. A timeless film.
- SECOND SIGHT is cinematic storytelling Naomi Boxer, TVO Documentaries
SECOND SIGHT is cinematic storytelling in its most elegant, quirky and profound form. It moves you and stays with you.
In Memory of
Donald Angus MacLean
(Dòmnhall Angaidh MacGilleathain)
Lachlan Mac an tòisich
Iain Moireasdan
Iain Ailig MacFhionghain
Effie Nicillinnein
Iain Mac Anndrais
And With:
Lachlan Mac Gilliosa
Frang and Peigi Wood
John McDiarmid
Hamish Murray
Liondsaidh Màiri Chaimbeul
Màiri Anna NicFhionghain
Lachlan Robasdan
Seonag NicAnndrais
Ronnie Muir
Chrissie Coran
Ceit NicDhiarmaid
and the people of the Isle of Skye
Executive Producers
PETER WINTONICK
JOHN WALKER
Cinematographers
JOHN WALKER
KIM DERKO
Additional Cinematography/Camera Assistant
JEREMY LYALL
Editor
ALISON McALPINE
Videography
ALISON McALPINE
Additional Videography
JEREMY LYALL, KIM DERKO, EMMA DAVIE
Composer
JOHN GZOWSKI
Sound Editors
GARRETT KERR
JOHN GZOWSKI
Re-Recording Mixers
LOU SOLAKOFSKI
KIRK LYNDS
Special Thanks
EMMA DAVIE
DOINA POPESCU
TORMOD MacGILLIOSA
ALEXANDRA ROCKINGHAM GILL
GEETA SONDHI
TIM MOODY
Foley Artist
STEVE HAMMOND
Location Sound Recordings
ALISON McALPINE
STEVE McNAMEE
Mix Assistant/Operator
MANDY LEY
On-Line Editors
ED RAFFERTY
FRANK BIASI
Colourist
ARLENE MOEKLER
Graphic Design
MANFRED NAESCHER
Production Managers
CHRIS CURRIE
EMMA DAVIE
Translations
OIGHRIG KEOGH
CAIRISTIONA PRIMROSE
SARAH A NICFHIONGHUIN
PATRICIA DAIGNEALT
Consulting Producer
MARTIN HARBURY
Additional Editing
DAVID MURRAY
Legal Counsel
TOBY LANG
Film and Video Post Facility
EYESPOST GROUP
Audio Post Facility
TATTERSALL SOUND AND PICTURE
Produced and Directed by
ALISON MCALPINE
Thank you
Cairistiona Primrose
Oighrig Keogh
M & D MacLeod Ltd
Jim Hardie
Al Macuilis; Fearless Films
Amoghavira Dharmacari
Lou Solakofski and Kirk Lynds
Peter Mettler
Peggy Gale
Liondsaidh Màiri Chaimbeul
Joanne Rourke
Kemp Archibald
Andy Binnington
Jennifer Baichwal
Nick de Pencier
Roland Schlimme
David Wharensby
Peter Gibson
Goethe Institut Toronto
Iain MacLeod
Steve Munro
Long and McQuade
Louis Kramer
David Lee
Bronek Korda
Iain MacAuley
John Morrison
Original music recorded by John Gzowski
with the
Madawaska String Quartet
Sarah Fraser Raff
Rebecca van der Post
Anna Redekop
Amy Laing
Gaelic Psalm singing by
Donald MacSween, Scotland
Tech Consulting/Assistant Editing
Michael Bonini; Tim Hagen
Carbon Computing; Avril Jacobson
Ian Morehead;; John Sanders
Jim Blockland; Peter Sabat
Thank you
Seirbheis Nam Meabhanan Gaidhlig
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Té Bheag Gaelic Whisky
Apple Canada- Edited with Final Cut Pro
Kodak Canada
LACIE Canada
Produced with the Financial Participation of
Canada Council for the Arts;
HIE Skye and Wester Ross ;
Ontario Arts Council for the Arts;
TV Ontario
Produced by
Second Sight pictures inc
Produced with the support of
Necessary Illusions Productions
A Canada/Scotland production
DOLBY DIGITAL
©second sight pictures inc 2008
The Ghostman of Skye
In 2009, Commissioning editor Nick Mirsky commissioned this forty-minute version of Second Sight.
Synopsis: The Isle of Skye is marked out by its beauty, and by reports of ghosts. With deceased wife Nina fresh in his mind, Donald Angus Maclean collects the island’s ghost stories.
Reviews
- Pick of the day and Critics Choice, The Sunday Times, John Dugdale, October 25 2009
- Pick of the day, The Daily Mail, 31 October 2009
- David Chater’s choices, The Times, 31 October 2009
- Pick of the day, The Guardian, 31 October 2009
- Pick of the day, The Independent, 31 October 2009
- What to Watch, The Daily Telegraph, 31 October, 2009
- The Weekend’s Television: Wonderland, Sat BBC2- Independent, Rob Sharp, 02 November, 2009
- Fright night The Herald- 25 October, 2009
An Dà Shealladh
In 2005, BBC ALBA (Scotland) commissioned this 30-minute Gaelic version of Second Sight.
In this archive documentary Dol Angaidh MacLean, a retired missionary and storyteller, explores tales of ghosts and second sight. We hear of a dark shape taking up the road, the drowning of a child foreseen just hours before it happened, lights and visions and the ghost car of Skye.
Directed by Alison McAlpine
Videography and Sound in Gaelic: Alison McAlpine
Full Credits: see Second Sight
