Thursday, June 11, 2009

A movie pilgrimage to Nairn - Tilda is on the ropes!

' The Scottish Road Movie Film Festival – organised by Swinton and the film-maker and writer Mark Cousins – is an off-beat film festival they organised in the actress's home-town of Nairn last year. They estimate it will take 70 volunteers manning ropes to take the Screen Machine – a mobile cinema on a lorry that opens out from its container – along minor roads from the west coast of Scotland to Nairn.'
More here and sign up for the pilgrimage here.
Update:
Just in from Tilda and Mark:
Dear Friends,
What do we like about cinema? That it takes us somewhere, imaginatively, in its arms so to speak, and that it is communal.
We have devised an event to render these things; a journey for kids and adults between two places that mean a lot to us. The journey will start in Glencoe, in the west of Scotland. It will end in Nairn where Charlie Chaplin holidayed, where the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams took place in August 2008, where we first showed a modest wee Iranian journey film, The Boot, which has become our totem.
We will pull the Screen Machine mobile cinema (
www.screenmachine.co.uk) on our journey, over 5 days. Why? To make a pilgrimage for cinema. To bear witness to its wonders. To miscegenate walking and film. In tribute to the road movie genre. In tribute to the brilliance of the Scottish land. To show the world that film deserves such an effort.
Many of the roads are too busy for such pulling, so our efforts will take place on quiet stretches, in sites of great beauty. In between times we will drive the Screen Machine, and travel on a bus. Every night we will stop in a small town or village and screen movies.
The journey will take place between 1st and 6th August, when we will arrive in Nairn and show films until Sunday 9th. The full route, programme and tickets will become available through our website (
www.a-pilgrimage.org) from 1st July. Those travellers wishing to join us for the whole journey will be invited to book a seat on the bus too. We'll provide some suggestions for accommodation, but you may have to be prepared to camp occasionally, as the Highlands in August are very popular!
We hope you can join us on A Pilgrimage...

love Tilda and Mark

3 comments:

Jane Harkiss said...

Aren't you a lucky, little, old wee luvly couple of 'ol celeb-rye-ties, that you can get together all your fave films 'jest like that!!' As the legend that is Tommy Cooper may well have said. I'd love to do the same, but then again - oops, nearly bloody forgot! - Och! I have fuck all money, bugger all connections, 3 little kids, low self-esteem - and - (if that wasn't enough) my choice of films would, I am completely and very, very definately sure, be 'rather different' from yours. But hey, who cares? You're the one wit the clout n the spondulicks after all, aint'cha? heh? Wanna do something that matters? Watch the bloody for a change (not 'entertainment') THE NEWS

Anonymous said...

There you are sat in your small village enjoying the final rays of the sunset when Hollywood is hauled into town and blots out your view.
The whole community has to attend the event and you applaud politely as the star says a few words about cinema and hopes you enjoyed the film you’ve never heard of and would never choose to sit and watch.
It’s all such fun as you flick the last few crumbs of fairy cake from your fleece and wonder as to how soon you can wander home for a much-needed dram.
The local ‘arts’ person is beside herself and tries to sook a little piece of something from the star like a bee on a flower, ‘we are blessed with your presence’ she chirrups hoping around like a cricket in a hot frying pan.
Tomorrow night we will be blessed. The circus will have left to inflict itself on another hapless village, and we will be bathed in the light of the real world.

Anonymous said...

What a couple of eejits (Pookie & Anonymous above). At least some people are trying to make a difference, by bringing a different experience to people who wouldn't normally get the opportunity to have a cinema visit them. I watch the news & it makes me depressed, so anything that offers a bit of escapism is fine in my book.
Idiots.