Tribute to first Scots female film director
Scotland’s first female film director is being celebrated with a major retrospective of her work.
Orcadian Margaret Tait was a distinguished poet, writer and film-maker, who made history as the first female Scots director of a feature-length film – Blue Black Permanent, starring Celie Imrie.
A nationwide tribute is being organised by the British Film Institute to mark the centenary of her birth next month.
“Tait’s unique mix of image, sound, rhythm and poetry reminds us of what cinema is and can be,” said an institute spokesperson.
Tait was born in Kirkwall in November 1918 and later moved to Edinburgh to study medicine, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in India and the Far East during the Second World War.
She later moved to Rome to study film and made her first short movie, One Is One, in Italy in 1951.
In 1954 she returned to Scotland, settling in Edinburgh and founding Ancona Films, eventually making more than 30 shorts, mostly about everyday life in the city.
She moved back to her beloved Orkneys in 1973 and worked as a locum to fund her film work.
Rhythm and Poetry – The Films of Margaret Tait – is at selected cinemas around the country from October 29.
An MSP has accused a health board of “the biggest stitch-up in history” before the site of a new £ 600 million hospital is chosen.
Alex Ne i l says NHS Lanarkshire’s public consultation over where to site the replacement for Monklands Hospital was rigged in favour of a site at Gartcosh, near Coatbridge.
He and MP Neil Grey believe an appraisal process to decide between Gartcosh, another site at Glenmavis or remaining at Monklands – was filled with health author ity staff to produce the desired result.
They say almost two thirds of the “stakeholders” whose views were sought work for either the health board, the Scottish Ambulance Service or other related groups.
They claim just one patient who took part in the controversial scoring process lived in the catchment area.
Meanwhile, fruit and veg magnate Ronnie Bartlett, who offered the Glenmavis site for free, has accused the health board of “tarnishing” his land in its report by overestimating clean-up costs.
Former Health Secretary Alex Neil said: “It’s clear the health board had already made their mind up that they
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