In Plain Sight Part 1: In Erms of Clay

by Heather E Andrews

Full work is 7:09 min.

‘In Erms of Clay’ is a film within a film and is 1 of 4 films that take place within a semi-autobiographical, live sound and moving image piece called in ‘In Plain Sight’. 

The story is based on the true events of the Foot and Mouth Crisis of 2001 in Dumfries and Galloway, told though the eyes of a teenage girl, Fraoch, whose journey through diagnosis of epilepsy takes place within the walls of the closure of an adolescent unit in the South of Scotland. A Southern Scots gothic tale, it explores a time when to be neurodivergent was considered to be disturbed. The film presents a poetic piece written in East Ayrshire Scots, where Fraoch converses with a horse spirit named Storm, where she is presented with visions of the future Foot and Mouth crisis only when she experiences seizures, which allows her to connect with her "second sight", the ability to predict the future. 

With cinematography from Julia Parks and Lucas Kao, the film takes the form of both a 16mm piece alongside the live scoring and sound design created for the film, revealing the sound, foley and score artistry very rarely performed in front of an audience. The film includes a haunting score written and performed by the late musician and artist Beldina Odenyo.