Professor Virginia Heath’s new film ‘Lift Share’ premieres at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Lift Share, a short drama film directed by Sheffield Hallam University Professor of Film Virginia Heath, had great success at its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last month on Wednesday 27 June.

The film was made with support from Creative Scotland, BFI.NETWORK, Scottish Film Talent Network, An Comhairle (Western Isles Council), Faction North, Kolik Films and the Art & Design Research Centre (ADRC) at Sheffield Hallam University.

In Lift Share, two strangers meet through an online lift share website: a young Romanian woman in desperate search of a child that was forcibly taken from her and a Scottish musician returning to the Isle of Harris to face up to the death of his violent, estranged father.  As they drive through the Scottish Highlands, the film moves between present and future time frames as each character imagines what they might do when they reach the Outer Hebrides.  Alone with their fears, the haunting beauty of the remote Islands helps them find escape from their past pain. The comfort that only strangers can bring enables them to share a moment of hope for the future.

Professor Virginia Heath is a Professor of Film in the Art and Design Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, and is a writer, film-maker and researcher. Virginia has written and directed several award winning films and her films are screened at international film festivals including Berlin, Cannes, The Hamptons, New York, Vancouver, St Petersburg. Virginia’s projects include My Dangerous Loverboy (2009)  a powerful multi-platform project addressing human-trafficking and sexual-exploitation which formed the basis of an outstanding Impact Case Study  for Unit of Assessment 34: Art & Design (History, Theory & Practice) in REF2014, and From Scotland with Love (2014) a feature-length poetic documentary combining archive footage and original music composition which received a BAFTA Scotland nomination.