Screening & director Q&A: Tha Thu Air Aigeann M’ Inntinn
Friday 18 January, 1.10-2.30pm
The Project Room,
50 George Square
EH8 9LH
Catriona Black will be screening her short, hand-drawn Gaelic animation about the Iolaire disaster and its lasting impact on the Lewis and Harris communities. Tha thu Air Aigeann m’ Inntinn combines first-hand accounts from survivors and witnesses with Iain Crichton Smith’s poem of the same name, and a powerful musical score by fiddler Sarah-Jane Summers.
Catrìona will talk about how she made the film, and the many challenges she faced during the year it took her to make it.
Director/Animator biography: Catrìona Black
Catrìona Black has used a wide variety of media over the years to tell Gaelic stories built around archive material. Her first short animation for the BBC, Pìobairean Bhòrnais (2003), was nominated for several prestigious awards, screened in over 50 cinemas worldwide, and distributed on DVD in North America by National Geographic.
Animation Calum Noah followed in 2007, and was also screened on the BBC and in cinemas worldwide, and her 2013 art film Faodail, funded by National Geographic’s All Roads Film Fund (Spike Lee was a board member) has been shown in festivals and gallery settings as well as by BBC Alba.
Catrìona has also presented three MacTV documentaries: Catrìona ’s na Colourists, Superhero, and Mgr Ailein agus na Faclan, as well as making regular appearances in other programmes and on the radio.
Catrìona has written and illustrated three picture books for Acair: An Tractar agus an Liobht; Cairistìona Camaillean, and most recently, Sly Cooking. This last project also took the form of an exhibition (launched at An Lanntair and touring so far to Inverness, Islay, Tarbert and Gigha) of original linocut prints which were made for the book. Catrìona was nominated for the 2018 Gaelic Award for Arts and Culture for her popular Sly Cooking project.