Film set to tell female samba band’s stories
Capturing Beat That’s 30-year legacy on screen
Women drummers from around Stirling who have played with samba band Beat That are being invited to reminisce on its 30year history.
Beat That samba band, Scotland’s first and longest running samba band, was set up following a workshop held in March 1993 in Stirling for International Women’s Day.
However, the band closed down at the end of 2021 when its musical director of three decades, Erin Scrutton, hung up her whistle.
Now A Quiet Revolution, a Scottish charity is planning to capture the band’s ‘ herstory’ on film, and is holding a ‘ Discovery’ session at Macrobert Arts Centre on April 24 from 1-4pm to get a sense of the range of the band’s stories to help determine how to approach filming.
The first stage - the Discovery phase - is funded by Stirling Council’s
Community Pride Fund, A Quiet Revolution and Macrobert Arts Centre. The charity is applying to Year of Stories for funding to run a second session at the end of July with women drummers from across Scotland.
“The storytelling, film and archive project aims to capture the unique and untold 30-year story of the women’s samba movement in Scotland exploring its legacy and impact on Scotland’s cultural heritage,” said the charity’s chair Jane Alcorn, who was one of the founders of Beat That.
“Th r ough women d r ummers’ stories, we’ll share and pass down a unique slice of contemporary culture. We imagine the story will challenge perceptions of women, celebrate diversity and model positive images of women, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. It will promote creative ageing.
“Macrobert Arts Centre have invited us to screen the film - if we get funding for it - at their annual Docufest in 2023, marking the 30year anniversary of samba bursting onto the streets of Scotland.”
The charity’s chair, CEO and three trustees have been members of Stirling’s Beat That, Scotland’s longest-running women’s samba band. Trustee Erin is the composer/performer/ teacher/musical director who ignited the women’s samba revolution in Scotland 30 years ago and led Beat That for three decades.
Overseeing the commission f or t he charity is trustee Murdoch Rodgers, a multi- awardwinning ethnographer and documentary film-maker (BBC Panorama).
For more details email: team@ aquietrevolution. org.