Virginia Heath / Director & Writer
I write and direct both documentary and drama films including the acclaimed, BAFTA nominated, feature documentary From Scotland With Love and Berlinale award winning drama, Relativity.
Cigar Box Blues – The Makers of a Revolution recently screened on BBC1 & BBC4 and in international film festivals such as Woodstock, Nashville, Albuquerque (Honourable Mention).
My directorial vision focuses on sexuality, gender, identity and empowering marginalised voices from my documentary, Songs From The Golden City (Channel 4 TV), about black South African jazz legends fighting for justice; to the interplay of sex, power and different perspectives on the truth in Relativity (Berlinale); to my award-winning drama Lift Share, where two strangers help each other to discover their inner compulsions, demons and dreams (Edinburgh International Film Festival; Underwire; Copenhagen Film Festival ‘Best Drama Short’).
I directed the acclaimed , BAFTA nominated From Scotland With Love (75’), which screened at international film festivals such as Edinburgh, Vancouver, Chicago, Dublin, New Zealand; toured with live performances of the score to sold out audiences; and has aired on the BBC ten times to date.
My current film project Mae West: Boxer in a Corset (in development) was selected for the ‘Inside Out International Finance Forum’, Toronto.
A bold hybrid documentary, the film reflects my passion for playing with genre. The film delves deep into Hollywood comedy star Mae West's personal empathy with Queer and African American Cultures in 1920s America, and celebrates why her controversial, ground-breaking work as a playwright, inspires artists and audiences today.
The project is supported in development by Screen Scotland, Getty Images, Autlook FilmSales, City University New York and the Art Design & Media Research Centre.
Left: “Mae West is capable of holding multiple truths”