Rebel Main
SCREEN BANDITA PRESENTS: REBEL LANDSCAPES
An evening of film and folklore
The Rebel Landscapes programme has been drawn from the Scottish Screen Archive's extensive collection and we have chosen to screen short films that explore themes relating specifically to folklore. Local traditions, dances, crafts, fishing, crofting and music all feature, as does the landscape. But as well as the unquestionable beauty of Scottish vistas, we wanted to represent the flip- side of the coin: the brutality of natural processes and the trials faced by the rural dwellers who struggled to draw a living from the land.
We wanted to avoid the blind reverence and nostalgia that is endemic to most archive-themed events, and have challenged our musical collaborators to create soundtracks that would not just jauntily accompany the films, but actively interact with the images to tease out a particular strand of meaning or follow a wild, unexpected tangent.
We have decided to project the programme from archival 16mm prints, believing that the aesthetic inherent in actual reels of film offers a very tangible and direct sense of connection with the people and places etched into the faded celluloid. We very much hope this dynamic fusion of ideas, themes and visuals will also provoke reflection on the part of the viewer.
The event is a 'tip of the hat' to folklore in all of its many manifestations, but crucially it is a celebration of the forgotten faces and unspoken lives of 'ordinary' people, whose existences and ways now appear alien, distant and utterly extraordinary. It is an opportunity for a contemporary audience to bring their enthusiasm to the continuation of the strong, sturdy legacy of Scottish folklore, archival film and the rebellious, rambunctious music of the people.
poster by
Eleni Kalorkoti
TICKETS HERE
Date: 10th September 2011
Time: 19.00 (doors)
Venue: St Paul's Church, Leith, Edinburgh
£5 Entry BYOB
OUR MUSICIANS SPEAK !
OR IN PERSON FROM
LEANORA AND LYDIA
Musicians Speak
AR
In December 2010 I was approached by an acquaintance, Nathan Salsburg of Louisvilly, Kentucky who works at the Centre for Cultural Equity, about making a compilation drawn from Alan Lomax's 1950's recordings from Scotland. As a musician whose work has, over the years, drawn in various ways upon the musical traditions and cultural history of the country in which he lives, I jumped at the chance. The process involved listening to some 25 hours of material - songs, tales, charms, rhymes, tunes and more - recorded by Lomax from all over Scotland and selecting 45 minutes of material for a CD/LP release (the resultant compilation, "Whaur the Pig Gaed on the Spree: Scottish Recordings by Alan Lomax 1951-'57" will be released in November 2011 on Twos & Fews/Drag City Records).Two of Lomax's recording sessions in Scotland (in Edinburgh and Aberdeen) focussed on children's songs, rhymes and games. Some of the Edinburgh recordings featured on the original soundtrack of 'The Singing Street'. For my own new soundtrack, I intend to draw again upon these archival recordings, among other sources, including some previously unreleased recordings such as interviews with schoolgirl Margaret (Peggy) Hunter McGillivray and her teacher (whose name does not appear to have been recorded). In addition to these archive recordings of song and speech, the soundtrack will incorporate freshly-created musical elements. At the point of writing, the soundtrack only exists putatively in my imagination; it will be realised over the coming weeks for the premiere at Screen Bandita's Rebel Landscapes event.
Alasdair Roberts, Glasgow, 10th August 2011.
WK
When watching my selected film Crofters of Wester Ross I was surprised by the editing which is rather choppy and frenetic, giving the film a hyperkinetic, modernistic quality quite at odds with the pace of life being portrayed. My plan is to produce a slower and more meditative soundtrack to counter this.
I hope to pay a visit to the School of Scottish Studies sound archive and forage in the collection of Wester Ross lore to see if I can find anything interesting and relevant to the areas in the film. In particular if there are any interviews with crofters Im thinking of incorporating such material into the soundtrack in some way.
The film was made in 1939. The clearances were in the past, though not too distant a memory. Loch Kishorn, one of the areas featured in the film, was transformed in the 70s by vast construction sites for the oil industry, but this too would fall into decline. One can survey the moments in time captured on this film with a Janus face, looking to the past and the future and I hope to convey this in some way with my soundtrack.
RSJ
Isles of the West is a beautful short film, a fleeting document of tapering ties between nature and culture, the character of the filmstock lending a flickering, failing and warm glow to the piece.
I wanted to reflect this through a folk guitar instrumental which nods and doffs its cap to the usual sources of Scottish inspiration, underpinned by the uncertain, somnambulant creaks and drones the film inspires.
TYLER
Cath and Phil are watching the land and the sea and the people and the work.
What can we add to it?
How can we enhance it as you watch it?
What are our connections?
Hopefully that will be clearer in the eighteen minutes we have with you.
ALASDAIR ROBERTS
WOUNDED KNEE
ROB ST JOHN
CATH AND PHIL TYLER
< REBEL LANDSCAPES
