Screen Arts specialists, Poetic Film School, has had a busy year delivering training and festival screening events across the far north Highlands. Robert Aitken tells us all about the work going on and ambitions for the future.
The main aim of Poetic Film School was to bring host partner based displays and archives to the fore with visual stories from within local communities, tackling issues such as environment, energy transition and rapidly changing landscapes. It was important to break down these very real concerns and connect to our past to help inform present day challenges. This is what makes it all the more important to re-examine past trials, hardships and successes; to reinvigorate how we coped with, reacted to and leant from often complex changes.
In-Between Place Film Festival
Poetic Film School’s most recent activities have been screenings of the ‘In-Between Place Film Festival’; three films produced at education events with communities at Helmsdale, Lairg and Strathnaver last summer. The culmination was the making of three short-films which made great use of archives, artefacts and displays, as well as the great locations offered at each locale. The community films produced were –
THE FARR OGHAM – a revelation of story and mythology about the Picts.
TEND – an intimate portrait of one person’s life to care for the sick and poorly and how her legacy inspires a community to nurture each other today.
PLIGHTING THE ORD AN LUIRG – a signal sent from past, present and future that reminds us of the fragility and wonder of humans being tethered to the land.
You can watch the ‘In-Between Place Film Festival’ trailer at this link: https://www.facebook.com/poeticfilmschool/videos/1120744822764784
SCREENSKILLS Collaborative
Screen-skills are now one of today’s main communication tools yet there exists very little by way of education and learning. The ‘SCREENSKILLS Collaborative’ now establishes a transferable digital skills framework for communities across the Highlands in response. The uses for museums and heritage organisations alone are numerous and includes understanding past responses to turbulent periods of change. Exploring such themes through collaborative and accessible Screen Arts training can help create new narratives, insights and perspectives with new host partner screening events.
Community Cinemas
Just about any host venue can be turned into a ‘Community Cinema’. Poetic Film School has worked with a range of organisations screening all kinds of newly filmed cultural stories. Main factors to consider include access, appropriate technology for the room size and ensuring the space can be suitably darkened for projection. The biggest consideration is to ‘create a social experience’ for your attendees. Allow time for refreshments at the start and a mid-event comfort break for longer events. Screening more local themed films will engage much more active discourse, so consider a discussion session at the end.
License to Screen
Most filmed material needs permission to be shown publicly, which is usually attained from the ‘Rights’ or ‘Copyright’ holder. Sometimes it’s not always clear who this is and there may also be multiple ‘Rights’ holders that need to be contacted. There are some exceptions for film licenses, such as educational screenings, but you should always check your venue qualifies for each chosen film. Do remember to factor any licensing fees in event costs too, which is normally based around audience size.
Many venues find it problematic acquiring films around local themes with simple licensing. As such Poetic Film School is now exploring a new ‘Screen Arts Film Archive’ with easy licensing options offering mix of film lengths and themes for event programmers and curators. Options for converting old film reels and video tape for digital screening with an associated ‘Found-Film Project’ are also being explored.
The Evolution of Training in far North Highlands
We may be better connected digitally today but the physical scapes around us still shape us. Connecting in person is seen as one of our main training focuses. But there is much more to our training than learning new digital skills – we are building a culture of documented story-telling based on past wisdoms that itself builds on centuries of legacy writing and poetics. The evolution of Screen Arts training in far north Highlands now lies in the visual documentation of what we leave behind.
Changes to environments and landscapes are only truly felt by people when they experience a place over time. The last time the far North Highlands saw such a scape-shift was post war. Today, the Highlands faces many of the same issues around its economy, energy and environment. Large scale changes happening around us today directly affect tomorrow’s history and heritage. The ability to capture this through engaging community Screen Art stories, working with museums, heritage orgs. and all kinds of host venues is at the heart of Poetic Film School.
Robert Aitken
Poetic Film School
