BBC News / 25 June 2013
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]new documentary casts a light on the life and work of Megan Boyd who gained a reputation as one of the world’s best makers of fishing flies.
Fishing fly Megan Boyd made her fishing flies in a tin-roofed shed in Sutherland
The way in which the film Kiss the Water came about is almost as intriguing as the woman herself.
US director Eric Steel, who had never been to Scotland or fly-fished, found himself drawn to both while reading an obituary in the New York Times in December 2001.
Youngest of three children born in England in 1915 and moved to the Highlands sporting estate with her family when she was still young.
Her father worked for the estate. One his colleagues, gamekeeper Bob Trussler, taught her how to tie fishing flies
Later, from a shed at her home, she sold her flies to local fishermen
Steel, who at the time had been a producer on films such as Angela’s Ashes, Bringing Out the Dead and Shaft, became fascinated by the story of an English-born woman who, from a tin-roofed shed in the Highlands, created delicate fishing flies from fur and feathers.
Megan Boyd’s flies were sought after by anglers in the UK and America and used by Prince Charles, a regular visitor to Sutherland, where she lived most of her life in a small cottage at Kintradwell, near Brora.
While she crafted for up to 16 hours a day at her creations Ms Boyd refused to go fishing, telling friends that she would not be able to bring herself to kill a salmon.
Romantic ideas of the woman working alone at her art in a tiny Highland cottage kept its hooks in Steel through various projects.
His debut documentary, The Bridge, which explored suicides at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, was filmed during 2004 and released two years later.
Eric Steel Steel had never been to Scotland or fly fished before making the documentary.
Steel was also a producer on 2009’s Julie & Julia, a comedy drama starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.
The director eventually returned to the newspaper clipping about Ms Boyd and travelled to Sutherland where he interviewed people who had known her well.
The result of those interviews was Kiss the Water.
To read complete story click here […]
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Here’s another interesting link about the movie and Eric Steel […]
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