Films and Music at the Festival Online
There’s a treasure chest of films and music that has developed for the online festivals in 2020 and 2021 – with all continuing to be available on our YouTube channel. Filmed presentations give insights in a lively way, with Orkney’s geology introduced in The Shape of the Coast on Orkney’s geology, and its archaeology in Stories in Stones.
There are outings like Foraging the Old Road and Foraging by the Flow, and workshops like Riches of the Shore and Make a Selkie’s Ghost Net Bracelet. There are stories and archive images in Seeing the Valley of Light and A Hoy and Rackwick Evening.
There are performances on the theme of the sea and transformation is The Selkie’s New Clothes and Wondering, and there are scenes of shore life in The Shore and the Sea: The Life Within and in Otters and Orcas, Puffins and Skuas. And there is music in Sagas and Seascapes and in Histories and Herstories; and there are stories with it in Five Stars in Auriga and Music for the Winter Queen. And there are songs from Mr Boom!
Films 2022
FILM: WHEN THE GRASS DANCES
September 4, 2022 → 7:45 pm ─ 8:30 pm
Join an artist, a poet and a naturalist as they bring our attention to Orkney’s grasses. Made at the start of the grass season by Mark Jenkins, this film weaves natural history, botany, poetry and photography into a thoughtful and lingering visual experience. With Rebecca Marr, Valerie Gillies and John Crossley.
FILM: THE DOOR OF THE WIND, THE DOORS OF THE RAIN
September 4, 2022 → 7:30 pm ─ 7:45 pm
The need to rethink the human relationship with the natural world is the context of Selena S. Kuzman’s new performance film. It draws on the old Highland stories of deer shapeshifting into women, bridging the human and natural worlds. Costume and headdress are created from found and pre-loved fabrics and objects from the past.
FILM: DRAWING ARCHAEOLOGY
September 4, 2022 → 5:00 pm ─ 6:00 pm
The atmosphere of the world-famous Ness of Brodgar excavations is captured in drawing, painting and sound, by Karen Wallis, an Artist in Residence since 2016. It's more than a documentary, evoking the physical existence of the dig and focusing on the archaeologists’ everyday process in a flow of voices and images.
ANCIENT STORIES, MODERN SEAS
September 3, 2022 → 8:00 pm ─ 8:45 pm
Oceanographer Dr Neil Banas looks at how a story by a master Haida mythteller, Skaay, reflects the marine ecology on the North Pacific Ocean’s edge. “He managed to capture the dynamics of ecosystems at the ‘edge of chaos’ in his mythic frame with an accuracy that mathematical modellers still struggle to duplicate.”
Films 2021
THE SHAPE OF THE COAST
September 8, 2021 → 5:00 pm ─ 5:30 pm
Geologists Dr John Flett Brown and Dr Adrian Hall look at the sea-cliffs of Orkney’s west coast. The dynamic duo explore the Old Red Sandstone along the shore and discuss the effects of monster waves in Atlantic storms. "Few coasts on Earth," they declare, "match the magnificence ...
WONDERING : IN-BETWEEN AND BEYOND
September 7, 2021 → 6:30 pm ─ 6:45 pm
A visual short performance film about the sea and its transformations, and our relationship to it. Is the sea an object to be gazed at from a distance, or a place of attachment for us? The moisture in our bodies links us to the rain from the sky and the water of the seas. Our bodies follow the tidal movement of ebb and flow, hope and despair, joy and sorrow – are we carried in a deeper flow?
THE SHORE AND THE SEA : THE LIFE WITHIN
September 7, 2021 → 6:00 pm ─ 6:15 pm
Award-winning wildlife cameraman and photographer Raymond Besant has been looking into his archive, to bring us some scenes of life along Orkney’s coast, including some footage not shown before. ...
SEEING THE VALLEY OF LIGHT
September 3, 2021 → 6:15 pm ─ 7:00 pm
Filmmaker Mark Jenkins brings together images of Rackwick with voices past and present, using a slow cinema approach to focus on the aural experience. The film was created in response to ‘The Hidden Valley of Light’, one of the ‘Tales o Hoy’ podcast episodes developed for the Hoy Heritage ...
Words and Music 2021
SAGAS AND SEASCAPES
September 3, 2021 → 9:00 pm ─ 10:00 pm
Norse stories and landscape around the northern sea-routes form the inspiration for this concert by Nordic Viola. Irish composer Linda Buckley’s Aud draws on the settlement of Iceland, while Lillie Harris’ sextet Elsewhen seeks to capture the atmosphere of Orkney’s ancient sites. In Carry His Relics for flute and viola, Orkney composer Gemma McGregor describes the journey of the remains of St Magnus from Birsay to Kirkwall, along the present-day ...
FIVE STARS IN AURIGA
September 2, 2021 → 9:00 pm ─ 10:00 pm
The stars and their origins are the theme of three works by the Scottish composer Edward McGuire – interwoven here with stories from the Scottish Borders of lives connected by astronomy and space. Each of the five stars is represented by a separate instrument, with the first trumpet for the brightest, fiery Capella. Howie Firth’s text for the linking narrative and its Borders theme was inspired by many conversations with a lifelong friend of the Festival from Jedburgh, the late Dr Tim Dolan.
Films 2020
OUTING: FORAGING BY THE FLOW
September 12, 2020 → 3:30 pm ─ 4:15 pm
We go over to Orphir and a walk across the sands of Waulkmill Bay and up through the RSPB’s Hobbister reserve on a section of the St Magnus Way. It’s a journey from sandflats and saltmarsh to moorland and sea cliffs for ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning and Orkney wildlife guide Megan Taylor, as they look out for wild plants and discuss their traditional uses for sustenance and health with foragers from Scotland and Poland.
OTTERS AND ORCAS, PUFFINS AND SKUAS
September 7, 2020 → 7:30 pm ─ 8:15 pm
Award-winning wildlife cameraman and photographer Raymond Besant takes us on a tour of Orkney's coast, from cliffs and geos to sandy beaches, and the varied birds and mammals who live and feed there in a world of wild weather, orcas, otters, seabirds and seaweed.
WORKSHOP: MAKE A SELKIE’S GHOST NET BRACELET
September 7, 2020 → 2:00 pm ─ 2:15 pm
Join Selena S Kuzman and Anthony Harley on their day adventure to the Moray coast, hunting for beach treasures, with images of the sea. Learn how to make a selkie’s ghost net bracelet from washed-ashore pieces of fishing nets, amongst other examples of finding creative uses for reclaimed coastal waste.
STORIES IN STONES
September 6, 2020 → 3:30 pm ─ 4:15 pm
It starts with a handful of stone artefacts from the Ness of Brodgar, in the heart of Neolithic Orkney … and Prof. Mark Edmonds of York University and UHI goes in search of their origins. Some are striking, others seem simple by comparison; all of them have stories to tell about how stone was caught up in people's lives over 5000 years ago.
WORKSHOP: RICHES OF THE SHORE
September 6, 2020 → 2:00 pm ─ 2:45 pm
We’re off to the shore, to Warebeth and Birsay, for a creative and informative family-friendly session of shore-inspired fun. It’s hosted by artists and foragers Katherine Diaper, Rebecca Marr and Fiona Sanderson, and marine ecologist Dr Andrew Want, and they say that all ages are welcome. They want you to make plant brushes, and paint with shore-sourced pigments. Forage along the coastline and feast on your finds. Get up close to shore creatures. Photograph the beauty of seaweed. And they’re going to round off with foraged food around a beach fire.
THE SELKIE’S NEW CLOTHES
September 5, 2020 → 9:30 pm ─ 9:45 pm
The old selkie story found in Orkney and elsewhere around the coast of the British Isles tells of shapeshifting between the human and natural worlds, in the uncertain boundary world of the shore. This performance piece by artist Selena S Kuzman, specially created for the Year of Coasts and Waters, merges in a poetic way the folk stories of the selkie people with the transformation of waste materials and our deep connection with the sea and the land.
A HOY AND RACKWICK EVENING
September 4, 2020 → 7:00 pm ─ 7:30 pm
Take the ferry from Stromness to Moaness pier, and walk up the brae to the Hoy Kirk for seaweed soup for supper, with a recipe here for you to prepare at home in advance. Then sit back and enjoy some music, with the story of Jimmy o’ the Bu’s Polka, with memories from his grand-daughter Jean Thomson and his tune played by six of his great-great-grandchildren, including the fiddle that he played on. Then we hear the story of settlement in Rackwick from archaeologist Dan Lee.
OUTING: FORAGING THE OLD ROAD
August 30, 2020 → 2:00 pm ─ 2:45 pm
Walk through Binscarth Woods and over the hill to the Loch of Wasdale, on a section of the St Magnus Way. Orkney wildlife guide Megan Taylor looks out for wild plants while ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning discusses their traditional uses for sustenance and health with foraging experts from Scotland and Poland. After the film there’s an opportunity for live questions to them both on aspects of wildlife and foraging.
Words and Music 2020
SONGS OF THE WHALES
September 8, 2020 → 6:30 pm ─ 7:15 pm
Why do they sing? How do they learn their songs? Is there a connection to music more generally? Dr Luke Rendell and Dr Ellen Garland of St Andrews University’s Sea Mammal Research Unit describe the latest insights and explore their implications with composers Emily Doolittle and Alex South. This is followed by a performance by the Kapten Trio of Emily Doolittle’s piece Bowheads, based on the songs of the bowhead whale.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
September 6, 2020 → 8:30 pm ─ 9:15 pm
Music inspired by the sea, presented by its composer, Lochaber musician Ingrid Henderson, in conversation with the head of NatureScot’s marine unit, Katy Gillham. The music was created for a new music and audiovisual show for the Year of Coasts and Waters. Mixing newly crafted music and song with ancient Gaelic melodies and powerful imagery and animation, it explores themes of ocean currents, migration and environmental impact as well as celebrating the rich marine life around us and the deep cultural connection of coastal communities to the sea. Music by Ingrid Henderson (harp/fiddle/vocals), Anna Massie (guitar/fiddle), Megan Henderson (fiddle/vocals/piano) and Conal McDonagh (Irish pipes/whistle).
MY LOVE’S IN GERMANY
September 6, 2020 → 7:00 pm ─ 7:45 pm
When Bishop George Graham started to build Skaill House 400 years ago, Orkney was settling down after the time of the Stewart Earls. But Europe was caught up in the Thirty Years War. It would affect the lives of Kepler and Galileo – and also many young Orcadians who would join the Swedish army to fight in Germany. There is music by David Griffith and a song by Owen Griffith, and Howie Firth tells the story of a conflict that brought men from Papay and Hoy alongside soldiers like Prince Rupert of the Rhine. There’s a welcome to Skaill House from Major Malcolm Macrae. To add to the experience, you could prepare your own afternoon tea, in a Skaill House style.
SELKIES, SHIPWRECKS, SONGS AND STORIES
September 5, 2020 → 9:00 pm ─ 9:30 pm
Orkney storyteller Tom Muir tells a selkie story from North Ronaldsay. Katarina Juvančič sings The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry, accompanied by guitarist Dejan Lapanja, and then a song in similar mood about a Slovenian girl taken away by a water-sprite. Anne Sinclair from Fair Isle describes some of the island’s shipwrecks and introduces a song from the group Fridarey.
SINGALONG WITH MR BOOM
September 5, 2020 → 2:00 pm ─ 2:20 pm
Direct from the Moon, there’s now a chance, with Mr Boom to sing and dance!
HISTORIES AND HERSTORIES
September 4, 2020 → 8:30 pm ─ 9:30 pm
Nordic Viola presents reflections on female experience of landscapes and community from the Northern Isles to Greenland in music by women composers for string quartet. Highlights include ‘Machair’ by young Highland composer Lisa Robertson and music influenced by Orcadian history and the Hardanger fiddle style by Gemma McGregor. Greenland’s only classical composer, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm, reflects on winter whilst English composer Lillie Harris depicts the full fury of a Shetland storm. Anna Appleby’s evocative ‘Hrakningar’ includes migrating geese from Iceland, and American Jocelyn Hagen offers a new take on the haunting Icelandic lullaby ‘Sofðu Unga’. There are new tunes reflecting on motherhood and the wild Orcadian weather by traditional fiddlers Margaret Robertson (Shetland) and Fiona Driver (Orkney),
MUSIC FOR THE WINTER QUEEN
September 3, 2020 → 9:00 pm ─ 9:45 pm
Modern science was born amidst the Thirty Years War, a catastrophic conflict that flared up 400 years ago when an invasion of Bohemia ended the King and Queen’s rule after just one winter. The Winter Queen was Elizabeth Stewart, granddaughter of Mary Queen of Scots, and the war affected the lives of many people – among them Kepler, Galileo and the poet John Donne. Howie Firth tells the story, interwoven with the online premiere of a setting of Three Donne Lyrics by the composer Edward McGuire, sung by the Choir of Paisley Abbey with bass flautist Ewan Robertson.