A YouTube documentary made in Finland about its educational excellence, sauna culture, history of occupation, equality & sisu (courage)
WHAT YOUR MONEY DOES
This documentary has hopefully already raised around £5k. If we can raise another £8k we can make it happen, start filming in September 2025, show the film around Scotland and put it online by Christmas - with special early access to donors. I'll also use some cash to make another film in Scotland about Highland fuel poverty in glens full of commercial wind farms, sub stations and pylons. Why can't Scots benefit from our own energy assets? This film will be made with young Edinburgh-based filmmaker Katy Kilgour who filmed and edited the May 2025 film Applecross; Energy rich, power poor. https://youtu.be/J0kUgdms368
WHY FINLAND?
Do we know enough about the world's most successful societies? I dont think so.The Nordics are the happiest, most sustainable, most equal, democratic, literate societies on earth, yet remain remarkable mostly for their high beer prices. What a travesty.
So, I've spent more than a decade running the policy group Nordic Horizons, writing book and paper articles, making podcasts and films to let countries in the doldrums (like the UK) see how we might get onto a Nordic path.
NORDIC TRACK RECORD
I've made 30-60 minute documentaries about Norway, Faroes, Iceland, Estonia and Denmark (with 1.6 million views). Now seems a good time to add Finland to the list.
For Scots like myself (based in Fife, Scotland) and young filmmaker Gavin Hanigan - based in Helsinki, there are huge parallels between the two nationalities. Finland quietly excels in education - something Scotland was once renowned for. The Finns like the Scots sometimes lack confidence, but their way of life is more equal, digital, cooperative, equal and relaxed than almost anywhere else on earth. Finns are quirky.
LIBRARY LOVERS
They celebrated the country's 100th birthday as an independent state by opening a new …. library. OK, it is state of the art, more of a concert hall with books and all kinds of artists and musicians performing inside. But still quite unique.
SATISFACTION IS HAPPINESS
The Finns have been the UN's happiest country in the world for 7 years running - and that's not about because they have big belly laughs or even smile a lot. It's about the satisfaction of having an equal society that really works. In a recent test of world capitals, the people of Helsinki were more likely to hand in a dropped wallet than anywhere else.
So in the dog-eat-dog, adversarial days of Donald Trump, I'd guess the world might want to know more about the happy, equal, educated but slightly awkward Finns.
This project successfully funded on 1st August 2025