This lecture will examine the two-way relationship between the arts, particularly film, and the concept of Scottish 'national identity' questioning, primarily, whether creativity is hampered by the search for a definition of 'Scottishness' and the debate over how the nation represents itself.

Film is not only a product of shared notions of nationhood: it also helps in establishing them, and feeds them thereafter. The image of 'Scottishness' portrayed onscreen is therefore a complicated creation: does film channel express existing traits and tropes, or does it construct them? And how does this ambiguity relate to a more general instability in Scottish national identity?

As Scottish arts funding is reconfigured, with film being absorbed along with other art forms into the remit of Creative Scotland, these questions will be fed into an analysis of how the Scottish film scene might now choose to define and develop itself.