Start of a Race, end of a show, etc.

Start of a Race, end of a show, etc.

1976 · 3 min

Footage of a yacht race and a (Highland?) Show in Kirkwall, as filmed by Margaret Tait. [this is possibly incomplete footage from her 'Aspects of Kirkwall' series?] See also Additional Information file at 11/1/455. Paper Archives 4/5/119, 4/11/651, 4/5/92. The Tait papers are deposited in Orkney Archives. Currently being catalogued. For any enquiries please contact Principal Archivist. The British Artist's Film and Video Study Collection at http://www.bftv.ac.uk/avantgarde based at Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design holds an artist's file on Margaret Tait. The British Film Institute National Library http://www.bfi.org.uk holds many of the published articles on her and her work. In 1979 Margaret Tait was the subject of a BBC Scotland 'Spectrum' arts programme.

Directed by Margaret Tait

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Place of Work

Place of Work · 1976

MovieDocumentary

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.'

Garden Pieces

Garden Pieces · 1998

MovieDocumentary

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.

Colour Poems

Colour Poems · 1974

'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

Where I Am Is Here

Where I Am Is Here · 1964

Where I Am Is Here

"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

Aerial

MovieDocumentary

"Touches on elemental images; air, water, (and snow), earth and fire (and smoke) all come into it." - MT

A Portrait of Ga

A Portrait of Ga · 1952

A Portrait of Ga

MovieDocumentary

Another early experiment in portraiture from Tait. In filming her mother she asks the wider question of how much the camera can reveal of the person.

Land Makar

Land Makar · 1981

MovieDocumentary

"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

Rose Street

Rose Street · 1956

MovieDocumentary

The minutiae of daily life on Edinburgh's Rose Street in the fifties is presented in this impressionistic documentary piece.

Blue Black Permanent

Blue Black Permanent · 1992

Blue Black Permanent

In 1990s Edinburgh, Barbara Thorburn reflects on memories of her poet mother, Greta, and her tragic death.

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo · 1955

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo

MovieDocumentary

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.

Calypso

Calypso · 1955

MovieAnimationMusic

Hand painted directly onto film stock by Margaret Tait, this film features animated dancing figures, accompanied by authentic calypso music.

Painted Eightsome

Painted Eightsome · 1970

Painted Eightsome

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.

Survivor

Survivor · 1976

Unedited slates from a film called 'Survivor' filmed by Margaret Tait. Footage includes outdoor landscape and garden scenes, a fire burning in field and a man drinking tea in his study. [There appears to be no coherence to the footage] See also Additional Information file at 11/1/455. Paper Archives 4/5/119, 4/11/651, 4/5/92.

Tailpiece

Tailpiece · 1976

MovieDocumentary

"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

On the Mountain

On the Mountain · 1973

On the Mountain

"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

A Pleasant Place

A Pleasant Place · 1969

A Pleasant Place

Film seems to tackle frustrations in communication in the relationship between two men and a woman, which are resolved in the end? Shot in Kirkwall and surrounding area. Ola Gorie, who plays Helen in the film is renowned Orcadian jewellery designer, and one of the founders of the modern craft movement in Scotland.

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