Exploring Scotland’s rural life through lens
A cinema event exploring Scotland’s rural life through local archive film will begin a tour of Scotland with the first screening taking place at the Screen Machine in Brodick next Friday, July 22.
Inspired by the vibrant culture of the Highland and Islands Film Guild in the 1940s, which brought films to often isolated rural communities, Made On Our Land will feature a host of celluloid gems from the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image archive.
The films include 1960s holidaymakers on a road trip around Islay, British propaganda films on effective Scottish land use during the Second World War, and a post-war plea dissuading Highlanders from leaving for the city.
Screenings will include films local to each venue introduced by curator and director Shona Thomson and complemented by a post-show ‘blether’ with filmmakers, historians and archivists.
Ms Thomson said: ‘I love the strong tradition of rural cinema-going that started with the Highlands and Islands Film Guild 70 years ago and continues today.
It is an honour to be celebrating that tradition by showing films from the 1930s to the 1980s that have a relevance to the modern rural audiences now served by the Screen Machine and Film Mobile network. From Drew Wright and Hamish Brown’s live audio-visual performance on rural depopulation in Lochinver, to a 1961 BBC documentary about the controversial rocket range on Benbecula, Made on Our Land is an opportunity to watch, share and discuss rarely seen archive films that address issues still at large in a politically charged Scotland.’
The organising group, A Kind of Seeing, specialises in programming and delivering commissions across cinema, live music and sound art with a focus on shared heritage.
Tickets for the screening on July 22 are available at www.screenmachine.co.uk/brodick.