Movie double bill: Sweet Sixteen (2002) + Our Ladies (2019) at Norton Park.

Cinetopia presents this double bill of Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen (2002) and Michael Caton-Jones' Our ladies, as part of our Transmission: Youth Across Generations program, exploring youth culture movements, memory and identity in Britain across the decades.

Curated by two of our young programmers, Vama Urban and Eva Rodrigues.

Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002, 106 mins, cert 18)

Sweet Sixteen is a gritty coming-of-age drama following a Scottish teenager, Liam from Greenock, trying to build a better life for himself and his imprisoned mother, despite having a troubled background and deprived environment. It is a raw, realistic film which leaves the audience with questions surrounding Liam’s morals and intentions, and it’s particularly gripping to see how 15-year-old Liam acts when faced with mature situations such as being involved in street crime. Sweet Sixteen explores how your surroundings and upbringing can shape your identity and your future, without necessarily determining it.

Sweet Sixteen also marked the debut of renowned Scottish actor Martin Compston, who had never previously acted until this film.

This film is programmed by Vama Urban:

My name is Vama and I am currently on a gap year after completing high school. I’ve been increasingly more interested in filmmaking over the past year or so, which I explored by taking part in short courses such as the Young Filmmakers Hub, BFI Academy, and the NFTS x Disney Academy. I’m particularly drawn to storytelling and screenwriting. At the NFTS Academy, I wrote a short script about three kids trying to relive the 70s, which reflects my own love for the 70s-2000s eras. 

“I have an obsession with films set in the 80s/90s/2000s, especially about youth, as it’s so interesting to see how teenagers like me lived but in a different generation. Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to these kinds of films when they’re set in Scotland. Watching Trainspotting (1996) was really interesting as it was set in my own hometown but in the 90s, so it looked familiar yet vastly different to now."

Our Ladies (Michael Caton-Jones, 2019, 100 mins, cert 15)

Set in 1990s Scotland, Our Ladies follows a group of five teenage girls from a Catholic school in Fort William who travel to Edinburgh for a choir competition. Far away from the constraints of school, family and a small-town community, the trip becomes an opportunity to assert their independence and test the boundaries they grew up within. Told over the course of a single day, the film explores the friends’ desires, sexuality, insecurities and ambitions while they navigate expectations inherited from generations before them.

By presenting the characters in all their adolescent contradictions, their petty prejudices and deep tenderness for one another, Michael Caton-Jones shirks any romantic nostalgia of the coming-of-age genre. He grants the girls a boldness that can at times feel heightened or deliberately provocative, though his interpretation offers a fascinating jumping off point for considering how teenage experience is imagined and represented on screen.

This film is programmed by Eva Rodrigues:

Eva, based in Glasgow, recently graduated with an MA degree in Spanish. Having recently made her first documentary short in Barcelona and working with IberoDocs Film Festival last month, she is passionate about continuing to find new ways to weave together her love for languages and cinema. Eva is drawn to films which turn seemingly simple stories into all-consuming realities through powerful visual storytelling.

“With the intention of breaking free from the common notions of nostalgia that often overwhelm engagements with media depicting youth cultures, I hope that this screening of Our Ladies will instead encourage discussions around female friendships, every-day rebellion and restrictive gender norms that we contend with from our teenage years into adulthood. While many coming-of-age films often centre around the experiences of young boys, this film spotlights women’s approach to rebellion in their desires and friendships. It also offers a rare filmic portrayal of young people growing up in Scotland outside the Central Belt, which to me, is important to programme. This eventised screening hopes to prompt answers to questions such as where (or with who) did we find our escape, and how do we continue to break the rules in our adult lives?”

Between both screenings, audiences are invited to share their own stories in response to the themes that connect both films: rebellion, escape and belonging. Through an interactive sound and listening booth, audiences are encouraged to use their voices to reflect on experiences, share songs and contribute their own perspectives across generations to a collective sound archive.

Alongside opportunities to contribute to the Developing Youth Archive, the event offers a space for stories to be heard and connections to emerge across generations. By bringing the two films into conversation through these interactive activities, we aim to create a space where cinema can act as a starting point for wider discussions on youth, identity and the social circumstances that shape us.

Venue information:

Norton Park Conference Centre
57 Albion Rd, Edinburgh EH7 5QY

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This screening is part of Cinetopia’s TRANSMISSION: YOUTH ACROSS GENERATIONS programme, a multi-event programme exploring how youth culture has shaped identity, belonging and collective memory in Britain from the 1980s to the present. TRANSMISSION is part of Rip It Up, supported by Film Hub Scotland as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), made possible by the National Lottery.

Cinetopia is a film events and exhibition company based in Edinburgh with a mission to connect the film industry, foster conversations and produce engaging opportunities for audiences to experience cinema through film screenings, pop-up cinema, workshops, masterclasses and networking events.