Explorations on Film: Three Journeys to the Arctic
Published: 3 March 2020
Wednesday 11 March 2020
Wednesday 11 March 2020
7.00pm - 8.30pm
Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre, 1445 Argyle Street
Free entry, all welcome
This special screening event accompanies The Hunterian exhibition Exploration: from deep time to outer space and is part of a range of activities at Kelvin Hall marking International Women’s Day 2020. It presents the work of contemporary artist and film-maker Ruth Maclennan, whose films Cloudberries (2019, 22 minutes) and Hero City (2016, 14 minutes) record journeys she has made to the Arctic Circle. Cloudberries was shot in Arctic Russia during the hottest summer on record. It focuses on a small fishing village that has taken on geo-political significance because of its location near one of the largest natural gas fields in the world. Hero City is set in an unnamed urban location above the Arctic Circle, in the far north of Russia. A narrator, the film-maker, tells of her encounters and her recollections of what happened after her visit; the film asks what it means to be a witness to one’s time.
Maclennan’s films are accompanied by a selection from the Moving Image Archive of the National Library of Scotland, including Jenny Gilbertson’s 1975 film Jenny’s Dog Team Journey (25 minutes). Gilbertson’s film records her travel from Igloolik to Repulse Bay, covering 300 miles by sea ice and over the hills of the Melville Peninsula, with four adults and a three-month-old baby. Also featured is a short film made in 1934 by Isobel Hutchison, a remarkable woman who lived a sheltered life until her mid-thirties when her life as a traveller, film-maker, poet and novelist began. Her Flowers and Coffee Party at Umanak (6 mins) documents a party hosted by the Governor of Greenland, attended by local people in traditional costume. Hutchison’s film is shown by kind permission of Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
A Q&A with Ruth Maclennan, hosted by Dr Dominic Paterson (Curator of Contemporary Art, The Hunterian) follows the screening.
Image © Ruth Maclennan, Cloudberries (2019). Courtesy the artist.
First published: 3 March 2020
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