By Another Hand
S U B S I G I L L O
By Another Hand is a genuine archival notation. It appears in manuscript catalogues when a document was completed or altered by someone other than its named author. Suppression, substitution, recovered truth — the phrase carries all three.
Our films are long-form, cinematic documentaries on British and Scottish history, with particular emphasis on the Regency, the Georgian and Victorian courts, Tudor Scotland, and the Jacobite era. Each is built outward from a single primary source — a letter that was meant to be burned, testimony that was sealed, a record completed by another hand.
The official record is provisional here.
From archive to published film
Five steps. Four to six months for each film.
- I.
Identification
We begin with a single document — a letter, a ledger entry, a sealed deposition — that contradicts or complicates the standard account. The document, not the topic, opens the investigation.
- II.
Verification
Provenance, hand, dating, and chain of custody. We work with archivists, palaeographers, and, where necessary, conservators. Nothing proceeds without provenance.
- III.
Reading in context
The document is placed inside its own century. We read what surrounds it — correspondence, court records, household accounts, the periodical press — until the meaning of the original becomes specific.
- IV.
Companion essay
Before the film is scripted, a long-form essay is written for the journal. The essay carries the citations. The film does not need to.
- V.
The film
Twenty-eight to thirty-five minutes. No actors. No dramatisation. The argument is made in voice and in text on screen. The sources are listed at the end.
On namelessness
By Another Hand is produced by a small group of historians and writers working under seal. We do not put faces or names to the channel. The credibility of the work is its citations, not its personalities.
For correspondence, press, or licensing enquiries, write to press@byanotherhand.com.
The films are free. The work is not.
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