A series of artist shorts screened at Portobello Promenade, curated by Rosy Naylor, that explore our relationships to local landscapes, near and far, from Portobello, to the Solway Firth, Bristol’s hidden River Frome, the Isle of Lewis, and further afield to the arid landscapes of The Gulf. The films consider perceptions of change, beauty and livelihoods with water, weather and memory forming as interwoven elements.
Be Different Today 4.47 (Ruth Barrie & Juliana Capes, 2019)
Juliana Capes’ passion for equal access to the arts has been informed by her experience of working with visually impaired audiences over the last 15 years in Scottish galleries. Made in collaboration with Ruth Barrie, Be Different Today was filmed over seven visually described sunrises on Portobello beach in February 2019. The film charts the development of a vocabulary to describe the indescribable (such as colour, beauty, love and grief).
Ruth Barrie (1979, Glasgow) and trained as a filmmaker at Edinburgh College of Art. She has directed documentaries for Channel 4 & STV and regularly collaborates with musicians and artists to produce moving image work.
Juliana Capes (1974, Grimsby) and is a multi disciplinary visual artist. Her current artwork is influenced by her experiences of working as a visual describer in Scottish galleries and museums, the unrelenting beauty of the world and by the processes of feeling, seeing and believing. She has recently shown work at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Art Festival, Alchemy Film Festival, CCA , Glasgow and Campleline Gallery.
HAAF 16.34 (Heather Andrews & Julia Parks, 2020)
HAAF tells the story of the Haaf netters in their own words. A fishing tradition that dates back over 1,000 years to the Viking age, Haaf netting is an ancient art directly linked to the Solway Firth, where men on both sides of the border have passed down their knowledge of the craft for centuries. Due to external threats such as climate change and dwindling fish numbers, today’s Haaf netters may be the last to fish these waters. The film explores folklore, language and the current fight for its survival by three key men – Mark, John and Barry.
Heather Andrews is a sound designer and filmmaker based in Glasgow. She is a member of the Scottish Neuro diverse Performance Network, Wildlife Sound Recording Society and a joint founder of the Scotland Audio Group.
Julia Parks is a Cumbrian artist filmmaker exploring the interrelationships between landscapes, plants, people and industry. She works with experimental documentary forms often using 16mm film, archival footage, poetry and song.
at first, and then 15.00 (Joanne Matthews, 2023)
Set in a speculative salty world, at first, and then is a collage of photographs, moving image and sound. Part of Matthews’ 2022 residency with Art Walk Projects, the film takes place in an over-salinated Portobello. Through a queer lens and with nods to 1960s French new wave cinema, the work layers a 35-voice choir with crawling digital sounds, harking to past science fictions projecting into the future. Production and editing assistance from Kathryn Cutler-Mackenzie.
Joanne Matthews is from Brighton, based in Edinburgh working collaboratively across performance, audio, video, installation, photography and drawing. Their projects are often context-dependent, responding to locations and social-political contexts, shaped through ongoing research into deep ecology. Recent artworks range from sculptures made of solid salt, to performance scores mapping the movements of birds to a multi-channel sound installation communicating with sea life.
River Traces 9.00 (Kathy Hinde, 2020)
Sediment, algae and particles from Bristol’s hidden River Frome were placed directly onto analogue 16mm film, exposed with light and processed using eco-processing techniques such as coffee and plant developers. Physical traces were generated through a direct encounter between the materials of the river and the film itself, affecting both the visual and audio track. The results were combined with underwater recordings into a poetic audiovisual record of the river.
Kathy Hinde is an audiovisual artist inspired by behaviours and phenomena found in nature. Through installations, performances and site specific experiences, she aims to nurture a deeper and more embodied connection with the more-than-human world and the complex systems of the earth. She creates pieces in response to specific locations and frequently works in collaboration with other practitioners and scientists and often actively involves the audience in the creative process
The Heavens Is For All 15.00 (Ayman Zedani, 2023)
Ayman Zedani’s short film explores the regenerative power of ancient land management practices of water terraces and the emergence of an ecological site. The film points to the living legacy of interspecies storylines in an abandoned Hajj terminal where a central tree has become home to more than fifty nests of weaver birds. Commissioned by Diriyah Biennale Foundation.
Ayman Zedani’s investigative practice works to upend our comprehension of the past and challenge our acceptance of the future. His work includes videos, installations and immersive environments that consider the future of the Gulf. His resultant projects are platforms to invite audiences to observe human-nonhuman symbiosis, leaving his narratives open to a multitude of interpretations and questions. His arc of inquiry highlights the interactions and relationships of humans in more-than-human worlds, framing his practices and projects as extended animism.
Between Islands: Change 7.22 (Zoe Paterson Macinnes, 2022)
In Zoe Paterson Macinnes’ film, Change, artist and Gaelic singer Mairi Smith recalls memories from her childhood to compare with the changes to island life today. The film was created as part of a four-piece collection for the Between Islands Project, devised by Alex Macdonald and An Lanntair, featuring heritage bearers from the Isle of Lewis.
Zoe Paterson Macinnes is a visual artist and filmmaker from the Isle of Lewis. Zoe is a BA Film graduate from Edinburgh Napier University and is currently studying a Masters in Scottish Heritage at UHI. Zoe’s work explores identity and belonging by combing personal observations of land and sea with voice and memory from the islands.
Milking the Dark Rainbow 6.17 (Juliana Capes, 2023)
A new film by Portobello-based multidisciplinary artist and film-maker, Juliana Capes, Milking the Dark Rainbow is a work about beauty, weather and dissonance: the push-pull of repulsion and attraction, anxiety and wonder, late capitalism and rainy days.
Juliana Capes (1974, Grimsby) and is a multi disciplinary visual artist. Her current artwork is influenced by her experiences of working as a visual describer in Scottish galleries and museums, the unrelenting beauty of the world and by the processes of feeling, seeing and believing. She has recently shown work at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Art Festival, Alchemy Film Festival, CCA , Glasgow and Campleline Gallery.