Calum Noah was inspired, as with most of my films, by a rummage in the School of Scottish Studies Archives, where I found a Skye story claiming that Noah’s son Calum invented the sword dance when the ark hit dry land, and pointing out that this proves unequivocally that Noah was a Gaelic speaker.
Instead of basing this film around the sound recording as I had with others, I worked with scriptwriter Mairead Ross to rework it in two versions: Gaelic and English. Award-winning concertina-player Simon Thoumire composed the lovely, bouncy soundtrack.
Calum Noah was commissioned by BBC ALBA, and funded by Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig and Scottish Screen National Lottery. It was first broadcast on the BBC in 2007.