Scottish Centre for Island Studies
Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries
Screening and Research Event
Venue: CCA, Sauchiehall Street Glasgow
Thursday 9th September 2010
The Scottish Centre for Island Studies in association with the Small Islands Film Trust is hosting a small research focussed event of film screenings and related discussions on the 9th September 2010 in the UWS space at the CCA, Glasgow.
The CCA is screening the celebrated Ealing comedy Whisky Galore! at 7pm as part of their wider Distant Voices programme and SCIS at UWS has taken this as an welcome opportunity to position this classic film text from within an island studies perspective as well as inviting comments drawn from related disciplines such as film studies, history, social anthropology, critical geography, media and art practice. The event will take place on Thursday 9th September 2010 SCIS as a research informed programme primarily consisting of screenings of both English and Gaelic language productions (English Subtitles), with an opportunity for participatory discussion throughout the day facilitated by research staff at the Scottish Centre for Island studies.
Participants are invited to engage with ‘filmic’ and creative responses to socio-economic and geo-political realities of islands with particular reference to the Outer Hebrides and the ‘Whisky Galore!’ narrative and related textual accounts including the later ‘sequel’ film ‘Rockets Galore! The event is designed as an introduction to a broader ‘island studies’ perspective including some reference to ‘geopolitical’ commentaries that may pertain to the texts and the interplay between literature and film, fiction and factual accounts. With specific reference to the work of Compton MacKenzie, this event is therefore offered as a ‘critical’ reflection and informed response to the CCA evening screening of Whisky Galore! and is designed to offer an extended backdrop to one of the ‘iconic’ film texts of ‘British’ cinema and its continuing and pervasive legacy.
We would be delighted if you could join us.
The day is informal and participation is particularly invited from undergraduate and postgraduate students, more established researchers with related interests and those individuals with a general interest in island representations, the Hebrides, and Scottish cinematic texts.
If you wish to attend this Scottish Centre for Island Studies UWS research day then please email your name and contact details to: kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk
Programme:
10:30 Screening Islands: Island Studies
11:00 Creative and Critical Practice: History, Media and Representation
Screening: Am Politician (1991) – 2 parts MNE TV
This two part documentary chronicles the real story behind the mystical romance surrounding the sinking of the SS Politician on February the 5th 1941 off the island of Eriskay in the Western Isles of Scotland. Part 1 tells the story of the sinking and salvage of the ship and part 2 focuses on the Jamaican currency on board.
12:30 Break
13:30 Geopolitics: Political Spaces – Cultural Spaces
Screening(s): Trusadh Series Deserting Uist (2010) MacTV
Na Rocaidean (2008) MNE TV
Two different documentaries providing accounts of the history and communities affected by the establishment of the ‘Rocket range’ – RA Hebrides on ‘Uist’ in 1957. Extracts will be shown from both.
15:00 Iconography and Identity: Place and Non-place
Screening: Rockets Galore! (1957) Dir: Michael Relph
17:00 Close/Break
19:00 CCA Screening: Whisky Galore! (1949) Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
NB: Please Call Box Office on 0141 352 4900 to book your tickets if you wish to attend the CCA Distant Voices screening of Whisky Galore! http://cca-glasgow.com/home
Scottish Centre for Island Studies 
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