Margaret Tait

Margaret Caroline Tait (11 November 1918 – 16 April 1999) was a Scottish medical doctor, filmmaker and poet.

Margaret Tait
Born(1918-11-11)11 November 1918
Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
Died16 April 1999(1999-04-16) (aged 80)
Firth, Orkney, Scotland
Alma mater
Occupationfilmmaker, poet, author

Early life and education

Margaret Caroline Tait was born and raised in Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, before being sent to school in Edinburgh.[1]

Tait attended the University of Edinburgh, gaining qualifications in Medicine (1941). Between 1943 and 1946 she served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, stationed in India, Sri Lanka and Malaya.[1] She subsequently moved to Rome to study film making at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (1950–1952).[2]

Career

After studying in Italy, Tait returned to Scotland, living on Rose Street, Edinburgh [3] and founded Ancona Films, named after the street where she had lodged while studying in Rome.[4]

She would live near Helmsdale in Sutherland in the mid 1960s’ [5]. On her move back to Orkney in the late 1960s, Tait continued to make films and took inspiration from the landscape and culture of Orkney.

In 1950s and 1960s, she was close to, though not a member of, the Edinburgh-based Rose Street Poets, which included poets Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley Maclean and Norman MacCaig.[6]

Tait made 32 short films and one full-length film, Blue Black Permanent. In addition, Tait wrote prose and poetry, and published three poetry books - origins and elements, The Hen and the Bees, and Subjects and Sequences.

‘In the documentary Margaret Tait: Film Maker for Channel Four Television in 1983 Tait would describe her life’s work as making ‘film poems’.[7]

Death and legacy

She died 16 April 1999 at the home she shared with her husband Alex Pirie on Orkney [8] [9]. An annual Margaret Tait Award was established in 2010 in conjunction with Glasgow Film Festival.

[10]

Retrospectives of Tait’s work took place at the National Film Theatre London in 2000 curated by Benjamin Cook and Peter Todd, at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2004, and at BFI Southbank (NFT) London in 2018 both curated by film maker and curator Peter Todd, [11] amongst others. [12] [13] [14] 2018 also saw a year long celebration of her life and work Margaret Tait 100 with screenings, exhibitions, talks and other events with Sarah Neely as the director and supported by Creative Scotland.

Centenary exhibitions devoted to her work were held at GoMA Glasgow and The Pier Arts Centre Orkney. In February 2020 Historic Environment Scotland announced Tait would be included in the Commemorative Plaque scheme. [15]

Her films remain in distribution in the UK. [16]

Filmography
  • One Is One (1951)
  • Three Portrait Sketches (1951)
  • The Lion, The Griffin And The Kangaroo (1952)
  • Happy Bees (1955)
  • Orquil Burn (1955)
  • A Portrait of Ga (1955)
  • The Leaden Echo And The Golden Echo (1955)
  • Calypso (1956)
  • The Drift Back (1956)
  • Rose Street (1956)
  • Where I Am Is Here (1964)
  • Palindrome (1964)
  • Hugh Macdiarmid : A Portrait (1964)
  • The Big Sheep (1966)
  • Splashing (1966)
  • A Pleasant Place (1969)
  • He's Back (The Return) (1970)
  • John MacFadyen (The Stripes In The Tartan) (1970)
  • Painted Eightsome (1970)
  • On The Mountain (1974)
  • Colour Poems (1974)
  • Aerial (1974)
  • These Walls (1974)
  • Tailpiece (1976)
  • Place Of Work (1976)
  • Aspects Of Kirkwall : Shape Of A Town (1977)
  • Aspects Of Kirkwall : Occasions (1977)
  • Aspects Of Kirkwall : The Ba, Over The Years (1981)
  • Aspects Of Kirkwall : The Look Of The Place (1981)[17]
  • Aspects Of Kirkwall : Some Changes (1981)
  • Landmakar (1981)
  • Blue Black Permanent (1992) (Feature)
  • Garden Pieces (1998)

Selected works
  • The Grassy Stories: Short Stories from Children (Edinburgh: M.C. Tait, 1959)
  • Lane Furniture: A Book of Stories (Edinburgh: M.C. Tait, 1959)
  • origins and elements (Edinburgh: M.C. Tait, 1959)
  • The Hen and the Bees: Legends and Lyrics (Edinburgh: M.C. Tait, 1960)
  • Subjects and Sequences (Edinburgh: M.C. Tait, 1960)
  • Poems, Stories and Writings, edited by Sarah Neely (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2012)
  • Subjects and Sequences: A Margaret Tait Reader, edited by Peter Todd and Benjamin Cook (London: LUX, 2004)

References
  1. "Margaret Tait (1918 - 1999)". Scottish Poetry Library. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  2. Bell, Gavin (27 September 2000). "A reel visionary". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018 – via Highbeam.
  3. Neely, Sarah. Between categories : the films of Margaret Tait: portraits, poetry, sound and place. Oxford. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-78707-316-6. OCLC 982451544.
  4. Stevenson, Gerda (18 May 1999). "Margaret Tait". Glasgow Herald. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018 – via Highbeam.
  5. Neely, Sarah. Between categories : the films of Margaret Tait: portraits, poetry, sound and place. Oxford. p. 235. ISBN 978-1-78707-316-6. OCLC 982451544.
  6. Nick Roddick, pp. 54, Sight & Sound June 2015 Volume 25 Issue 6
  7. "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute". collections-search.bfi.org.uk. At 9 minutes 55 seconds. Retrieved 7 April 2020.CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. "Gerda Stevenson". www.gerdastevenson.co.uk. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  9. "Obituary: Margaret Tait". The Independent. 12 May 1999. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  10. "Margaret Tait Award". Glasgow Film Festival. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  11. "Peter Todd". LUX. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  12. National Film Theatre Guide, October 2000, pp.34-3
  13. Edinburgh International Film Festival 58th Brochure, August 18-29th, 2004 pp 124-128
  14. BFI Southbank Guide (NFT), October-November 2018, pp 44-46
  15. "Margaret Tait 100". Margaret Tait 100. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  16. "Margaret Tait". LUX. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  17. "The Look of the Place".
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