Aileen Ritchie - Details

Biography

The Closer You Get is Scottish director Aileen Ritchie’s feature debut.

After graduating from Glasgow University, she worked as a journalist and began writing for the stage. She was commissioned to work as a director and writer for the Clyde Unity, Traverse and Tron Theater, and became Artistic Director of Clyde Unity in 1990.

Ritchie is a graduate of the NFTS Film Writing course and has written several shorts including Icing on the Cake for BBC Scotland; One Sunday Morning, directed by Manu Kurewa which screened at the 1996 Edinburgh Film Festival; Magwana, a 1998 Cannes Short Film award-winner; and Drifting for Channel 4.

She also wrote and directed the short film Double Nougat for BBC Scotland. Starring Pauline Quirke and produced for the Mind The Gap strand, the film won the Herald Guardian Angle Award at the 1996 Edinburgh Film Festival and subsequently led to Uberto Pasolini approaching her to direct The Closer You Get.