As part of our 40th Anniversary celebrations we will also be holding a special screening of Wave Waulking, which was originally commissioned by An Lanntair 3 years ago.
‘Fiddler and composer Catriona Macdonald, born to a Shetland mother and Lewis father, explores her bi-island identity through Wave Wauking—a multimedia performance blending folk traditions, archival footage, found sounds, and contemporary visuals from both islands. The piece features a new musical score performed live by Macdonald and pianist Timo Alakotila.’
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Silent film screening with new live score by Inge Thomson and Catriona Macdonald. An extraordinary film from the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive directed by Jenny Gilbertson.
The Rugged Island is a beautiful ‘story documentary’ made by pioneering Scottish filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson showing life, love and work in Shetland’s rural crofting communities.
Jenny’s husband-to-be plays Johnny: a young man torn between his duty to home and his love for Enga, with the promise of a new life in Australia.
Hailed by John Grierson – father of the British documentary movement – as “one of the best descriptions of life in the country anybody has yet made”, this tender and beautiful dramatisation of Shetland life surpasses the bounds of both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking.
HippFest commissioned one of Scotland’s most in-demand composer producers Inge Thomson to create a new live score for this remarkable film. The premiere at HippFest 2024 was met with a rapturous response. Thomson, herself from one of Scotland’s most remote crofting communities, brought in multi award winning Shetland fiddler Catriona Macdonald, and between them they make a soundtrack both ancient and modern. The perfect foil to Gilbertson’s ‘feminal’ work.
HippFest (est’d 2011) is Scotland’s first and only festival of silent film with live music, centred in and inspired by Scotland’s oldest cinema, featuring exceptional screenings, commissions, workshops and community events. HippFest undertakes year-round activity and has established a reputation for excellence in commissioning new music and touring.
For more information about HippFest, visit: www.hippfest.co.uk
The tour and this performance was originally commissioned by HippFest: a world class Festival for silent film, cultivating an international community with an adventurous appetite for extraordinary cinema. The commission was supported by Creative Scotland’s National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations. Screening material courtesy of the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive. Programme notes reproduced with kind permission of Dr Shona Main.
Event Photography:
© Kat Gollock 2024, courtesy of Falkirk Council Leisure and Culture
© Douglas Robertson, courtesy of Soundhouse Winter Festival
Film stills: Courtesy of National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive
Videography: Strange Boat
Film credits:
Dir. Jenny Gilbertson (née Brown) / UK / 1933 / N/C U / 1 hr approx.
With: John Gilbertson, Enga Stout
CONTENT ADVISORY: contains shots of dead animals
N/C stands for not certified. In BBFC terms it’d be equivalent to a (U)niversal.
