THE LAST STORYTELLER (2002) Written and Directed by Desmond Bell (52 min)
Synopsis : An imaginative look at the tradition of folk lore collection in Ireland in which film maker, IASH Fellow Des Bell draws upon the magic of silent cinema to retell some of the uncanny tales collected by Sean O Eochaidh for the Irish Folk Lore Commission.
There will be a panel discussion after the screening.
Louise Milne, art historian and film maker, holds posts at Edinburgh College of Art and in the Film School at Edinburgh Napier University. She is the author of ‘Carnivals and Dreams; Pieter Bruegel and the history of the imagination’
Liv Willumesen is Professor of History at the University of Tromsoe in Norway. She is a witchcraft scholar and the author of ‘Witches of the North. Scotland and Finnmark’
Desmond Bell, film maker and cultural theorist, is a visiting fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. His film ‘The Enigma of Frank Ryan’ was selected for the World Film festival, Montreal and broadcast on Irish television.
Margaret MacKay (Chair) , is Honorary Fellow in Celtic and Scottish Studies and the University of Edinburgh and has extensive fieldwork experience of folklore collection.
The film represented Ireland in the 2003 Venice International Film Festival and was screened on RTE television.
Organised by Celtic and Scottish Studies and IASH