On the Black Hill is a 1987 film directed by Andrew Grieve, based upon the novel of the same name by Bruce Chatwin.Although Bruce Chatwin initially considered his novel about 80 years of rural family life in the Welsh border country unfilmable, he changed his mind when he saw how keen director Andrew Grieve was to make it and they went together to see some of the places and meet some of the people that Chatwin had been inspired by. Chatwin told Grieve to use the book for his film and make it his own.