Glasgow Doors

Series of short documentary films for Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival.

Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival is an annual event celebrating the city’s architecture, culture and heritage. Mambo Video were commissioned to produce a series of three films to feature as part of 2020’s online-focused festival programme.

Each year at Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival the general public are invited to a huge variety of buildings, both old and new, to experience a fascinating programme of events, all for free. The festival is organised by Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, a charity that works to rescue, restore and rehabilitate historic buildings at risk across the city. The festival is their biggest event of the year and 2020 was to mark the 31st festival to date.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic inevitably meant that their 2020 festival would need to be re-imagined. Determined to keep the doors open, the festival shifted its focus to a digital programme of events including: short films, audio trails, live-streamed tours, webinars, 3d visualisations and virtuals tours.

We were approached to create a trio of documentary shorts which features three of Glasgow’s most iconic structural landmarks: the Finnieston Crane, Glasgow University’s Gilbert Scott building and the Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross. It really was a privilege to get a chance to stand on the top of these structures and to glimpse some rarely seen views of the city.