Kiss The Water was released in UK Cinemas in January 2014.

‘Haunting and Meditative’ – ★★★★ Time Out, Trevor Johnston

‘Make sure this strange little film isn’t one you let get away’ –  ★★★★ The Observer, Mark Kermode

Megan Boyd spent her life alone in a tiny cottage on the northern coast of Scotland. Without electricity or running water, her days were spent tirelessly devoted to creating the most extraordinarily beautiful fishing flies. Stunning miniature works of art in themselves, they proved absolutely lethal to the Atlantic salmon. Directed by Eric Steel (THE BRIDGE), Kiss The Water is a BBC Scotland feature documentary which explores Megan Boyd’s eccentric life and her work which drew distinguished fishermen from all over the world to her cottage door in Scotland. Woven seamlessly throughout the live-action, Em Cooper’s oil-painted animation brings Megan’s inner world to life, and the mystery which surrounds this reclusive woman begins to feel like a fairy tale.

“It’s this new film’s genius that its “loneliness of the artist” theme extends from the main human subject – Scottish spinster Megan Boyd, who lived in a solitary rural cottage crafting “flies” so beautiful they looked like mini-rainbows and caught not just salmon but also the eye and purse of Prince Charles – to the anglers themselves, reminiscing to camera on their solipsistic art. Gorgeous animation sequences, in Munch-like swirls of colour by Em Cooper, punctuate the subdued yet elegiac tone.”

–  ★★★★ The Financial Times, Nigel Andrews

“The mythology that surrounded (Boyd) comes alive in a film that serves as much as an oral history of a dying art as it does a portrait of a singular talent … There’s an odd kind of magic in every frame”

– ★★★★ The Times, Wendy Ide

“A gem-like documentary”

– ★★★★ The Telegraph, Robbie Collin

“The stunningly wistful and lovingly integrated animation by Em Cooper, gives director Eric Steel a further textural perspective, one that both honors and illuminates it’s subject and achieves a natural fit for this lyrical subject.”

– Wonders in the Dark, Top 10 Films of Tribeca 2013, Sam Juliano

Film Festivals

Tribeca Film Festival, NYC, 2013

Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2013

Vancouver International Film Festival, 2013

Hamptons International Film Festival, 2013

Animation Director: Em Cooper, Animation Producer: Sue Loughlin. Assistant animators: Sharon Liu and Veselina Dashinova.

running time
80 mins