Here students, teachers, parents and members of the public can search for, view, analyse and discuss over fifteen hours of historical film clips from the Scottish Screen Archive. You can also make use of the wide variety of educational resouces that have been created by school teachers from across Scotland to accompany each clip, as well as our topic specific feature resources.

Educational users should log-in to access additional site functionality.

Once you are logged in to the site, students, teachers and other educational users can download higher resolution clips for creative reuse, such as the creation of moving image essays, documentaries, art films, music and other cross-curricular projects.  

Please see our Terms of Use for guidance on using the films.

Glow users

Glow users can log-in using their Glow username and password by following the link to the Glow log-in area on the right hand side of this page.

Non-Glow users

If you do not have a Glow account but are subscribed to Scran then log-in with your Scran username and password. The Scran log-in is located on the right hand side of this page immediately below the Glow log-in.

Non-Glow and non-Scran users

If you do not have either a Glow or a Scran account, you can contact us to register your interest. Please state your full name, the establishment where you work and your works e-mail address. It would also be helpful if you tell us your context of interest. We will then validate and verify your access request. Coming soon will be an online registration form but, in the meantime, feel free to drop us an e-mail.

Why we built this resource

First and foremost, Scotland on Screen is about putting important historical texts online, providing students with a rear-view mirror on our society over the past century. This will help us find out where we came from, where we are today and where we are going in the future, as Scots and as members of a global society.

With a few exceptions, these films were all made in Scotland and date from 1895 to the 1980s. Most of the films in this collection are documentaries of one form or another, though you will also find short dramas, animations, adverts, news items and public information films. 

Scotland on Screen is also about 21st Century Literacy

21st Century Literacy means introducing young people to the language of moving images from an early age and encouraging them to investigate how these rich, multi-layered texts are constructed. This is not only an important subject of discussion in itself, it is also about helping young people to decode modern screen-dominated media, to understand complex narratives, and to fire their imaginations about the creative possibilities of all forms of storytelling.

Scotland on Screen is a partnership project between Scottish Screen, National Library of Scotland and Learning and Teaching Scotland.