Margaret Tait
In Aurand’s signature diaristic form, roses in bloom, farm animals, Orkney landscapes, and scenes of the late filmmaker Margaret Tait having tea are rendered through expressive Bolex movements as well as the director’s active camera, and punctuated by abstract swaths of saturated and shifting colors. The film is an homage to Tait, whom Aurand visited in Orkney.
Every time the task of drawing a circle is performed, it results in a unique shape, a slightly different 'version' than the previous and next attempt. BEFORE WORDS is loosely based on Margaret Tait's unrealised script VIDEO POEMS FOR THE 90s. The video is an attempt at following a set of simple instructions, to observe through another artist's words and ideas in order to arrive at something personal.
A set of three 'film poems' composed around the theme of the garden - the central one featuring hand scratched animated drawings. Margaret Tait described them as follows: 'Round the Garden' - right round and round again, 'Garden Fliers' - flighty cartoon and a stunner of a piano piece and 'Grove' - grave and sonorous.
In 1990s Edinburgh, Barbara Thorburn reflects on memories of her poet mother, Greta, and her tragic death.
Views in and around Kirkwall concentrating on things that have changed. These include a new grammar school building, model yachting on the Peedie Sea, demolition of a building, the 'No Uranium' campaign in Orkney.
A tour around Kirkwall, covering the years 1969 - 1976. Places featured include St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall harbour, Victoria St, Broad St, Kirkwall Grammar School (at School Place), dumping in the Peedie Sea.
"This is a landscape study of an Orkney croft, with the figure of the crofter, Mary Graham Sinclair, very much in the picture. The croft is West Aith, on the edge of a small loch, which almost every passing visitor stops to photograph or draw or paint. I have been filming this beautiful place since 1977, observing many of the human activities which alter and define how it looks." Margaret Tait
Amateur tale about a company boss and his wife who turn up late for a dinner party hosted by an ambitious young salesman of his company and his wife. After their car breaks down they have to change a wheel in the rain, arriving soaking wet, where their young hosts dry them out and give them a nice meal.
The streets of Kirkwall, Orkney come to a standstill as the "Down the Gates" and the "Up the Gates" battle it out in this traditional Norse ball game. Margaret Tait records the sights and sounds of this game 1954 - 1980, the commentary featuring interview with Ba' winners, music and poetry.
Excavation of the Broch at Bu of Cairston by John Hedges in 1978. The broch is located in Stromness, Orkney.
Part 3 of Margaret Tait's 'Aspects of Kirkwall', covering special events in the town. These include the Orkney Agricultural Society County Show, boat race, and Remembrance Parade at St. Magnus Cathedral.
Margaret Tait documents her house, studio and garden in Buttquoy, Orkney as the seasons pass. She had lived there from the age of seven and often returned. At the time of filming, the house was about to be taken back by the council - this film is an effective 'goodbye'. Margaret Tait said it 'was meant to define a place, or the feeling of being in one place, with the sense this gives one, not of restriction but of the infinite variations available.'
"The film was conceived as a coda to a longer (colour) film, Place of Work, made in the same year. It covers the time of finally emptying a long-time family home, with its personal memories and connection with some of my own work. Fragments of verse, along with young children's voices released into the emptying rooms and staircases, and an ersatz 'pop' music track, clarify the familiar and the alien in the situation." Margaret Tait
'Titles within the film are: Numen of the Boughs, Old Boots, Speed Bonny Boat, Lapping Water, Incense, Aha, Brave New World, Things, Terra Firma. A poem started in words is continued in images - Part of another poem as an addition to the picture - Some images formed by direct-on-film animation - Others 'found' by the camera" - MT
Margaret Tait's impression of the interior of her studio premises in Rose Street, Edinburgh. The film consists of slow pans around her studio focussing on the walls and artwork there - presumably as she is about to leave. There is also some footage of construction work on flats on Rose Street.
Second of the 'Aspects of Kirkwall' films about the changing face of Kirkwall over the years. Filmed in 1974, it features the primary school, various shops, St. Magnus Cathedral under scaffolding and general views of the area including land fill in the 'Peedie Sea'.
"Made in Edinburghs Rose Street, On the Mountain incorporates the whole of a previous film (Rose Street, 1956), including the leader and the titles. The original was shot in black and white, and the negative was lost, and for this reason Tait had the idea of preserving the film by framing it complete in colour , in a contrasted look at the same street in 1974. On the Mountain records and preserves the change. The camera broods and recognises the dustcart . Changed is too gentle a word, the street has ben ripped apart by the developers. An ugly modern precinct has emerged with shabby boutiques and plastic food. The back lane where the children played hopscotch reveals a gap site, a decaying Princess Street, with thumping machines and concrete." – Tamara Krikorian
Brightly coloured animated figures dance to the traditional tune 'John MacFadyen', as played by the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society in this hand painted piece by Margaret Tait.
Margaret Tait described this title as 'An eightsome reel played by Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society, recorded in about 1955 - 1956, later transferred to 35mm optical stock with clear picture and gradually painted over the years. Eights of different things - figures, antlers, or sometimes just blobs in tartan colours - dance their way through the figure of the reel.
"Starting with a six-line script which just noted down a kind of event to occur, and recur, my aim was to construct a film with its own logic, its own correspondences within itself, and its own echoes and rhymes and comparisons, all through close exploration of the everyday, the commonplace, in the city of Edinburgh." - MT
A palindrome created on film. Features interaction between a couple with the recurring line 'Madam I'm Adam'.
The first in a series of films for the Rural Cinema Scheme in the Orkneys, it records the return to the island of Wyre of Neil Flaws, a farmer, and his family at a time when the drift from the northern isles of the Orkneys was of concern to some Orcadians.
The minutiae of daily life on Edinburgh's Rose Street in the fifties is presented in this impressionistic documentary piece.
General shots of Edinburgh City Centre taken by film-maker Margaret Tait, focussing on the Royal Mile, Holyrood House and Princes Street Gardens.
A short piece of film recording general views of Edinburgh's Princes Street in the 1950s.
A film interpretation of the poem 'The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo' by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Margaret Tait speaks the poem throughout the film.
Starting from its source, this film tells the story of the Orquil Burn, Orkney.
A short piece of film recording general views of Edinburgh's Royal Mile in the 1950s.
This film poem evokes childhood happiness on the island of Orkney. Footage includes wildflower meadows, toddlers playing in garden, friends fishing together and images of the sea.
The 'Ga' of the title refers to the film maker's mother. The film gathers together this elderly lady's everyday actions to offer an abstract insight into her life. Margaret Tait described this film as follows: 'My mother seemed a good subject for a portrait, (she was there), and I thought it offered a chance to do a sort of 'abstract film', in the sense that it didn't have what you might call 'the grammar of film'. It's mostly discontinuous shots linked just by subject, in one case by colour, only rarely by movement'.
"Carlo and Rafaella are going to Rome for the first time. They have specially planned a journey they must make so that they can have a whole day together alone".. . so starts this film following the (mis)fortunes of these two young lovers. [Presumably made when Margaret Tait was a student at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematographia, Rome]
Perugia and its Italian University for foreign students.
Interiors of Margaret Tait's room when she stayed at 21 Via Ancona, Rome, Italy. Brief shots of her belongings (shoes, films, teacup) and then views of the street as seen from a balcony window.
The three portrait sketches of the title are called 'Claudia', 'Fernando Birri' and 'Saulat Rahman'. Presumably made when Margaret Tait was a student at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematographia, Rome.
Made as a promotional film for the new nationalised health services, it looks at a number of hospitals throughout central Scotland including the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Ballochmyle, Strathcathro and Killearn hospitals; their medical staff at work and the services the hospitals provide.
Views of some of the main pavilions and exhibits of the Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, including shots of Don and margaret McLachlan and their family on a visit - also includes brief shots of an informal visit by Paul Robeson.
