There And Never Again

These commissioned short films from international talents, Scotland-based artists and filmmakers celebrate the life, legacy and approach of Scotland’s filmmaking pioneer Margaret Tait (1918-1999) on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Curated by Sarah Neely.

Program

Three Portrait Sketches
c. 1951
Regi: Margaret Tait
16mm overført til digital
6min

Early experiments in portraiture.

The Forest of Everything
2019
Regi: Richy Carey & Wendy Kirkup
HD video
5min

Influenced by Margaret Tait’s Aerial (1974), Kirkup, Carey and thir children played with the materials around them; light, water, air, earth and trees.

Never The Same
2019
Regi: Morag Mckinnon
SD video
7min

A document of the last visit to her grandmother’s house before she moved in to a retirement home.

A Spoon
2019
Regi: Peter Todd
16mm overført til digital
2,5min

Images gathered into a film. Images from earlier works and some new.

The Bravest Boat
2019
Regi: Ali Smith & Sarah Wood
HD video
10min

In the light and the dark of the 21st century, this film celebrates the legacy of Margaret Tait’s time in postwar Italy and the origin of her filmic vision.

On Returning (1989–2019)
2019
Regi: Matt Hulse
Super 8mm overført til digital
4min

Rephotographing a scene, shot for shot a previous film, revisiting the same location (Isle of Mull).

You With Your Fresh Thoughts
2019
Regi: Mark Cousins
HD video
2min

A moment on Rose St, Edinburgh, where Margaret Tait used to live.

Shoe Leather
2019.
Regi: Alexander Storey Gordon
HD video
6min

Created in response to Margaret Tait’s film My Room.

Allegory of the shivering light
2019
Regi: Catherine Street
HD video
5min

An abstract poetry-film made in response to Margaret Tait’s poem Light.

Houses (for Margaret)
2019
Regi: Luke Fowler
16mm
5min

Filmed in Tait’s native Orkney, Fowler creates a record of her life and work through images of her past dwellings, filming locations and notebooks.

Glimpses from a Visit to Orkney in Summer 1995
2019
Regi: Ute Aurand
HD Video
4min

Garden Pieces
1998
Regi: Margaret Tait
16mm
11,5min

Tait’s last film.