Pilgrimage - swannie signs up

Tonight the Gurnmeister met swannie the newest member of the pilgrimage team. A few more pictures on the gurn flickr vault. Bill recently walked passed the festival and shares his thoughts and also a few pictures on his blog.

There's a welcome for them - whether they are on the pull or not!

The Maggot this afternonn and no pilgrims or pilgrimage machine or Tilda in sight yet. Perhaps the sign went up in the wrong place?
More gurning later, after dark about sewerage, oil down the drains terrrorists and more sewerage and testing, plus news from Angus up at Cawdor about a 'gathering'.

The Cinema of Pilgrimage reaches Cawdor - "Riot over oncoming vehicles!"

Picture will enlarge. The Cinema of Pilgrimage and Dreams reverses into the Cawdor Primary School car park but why is no one on the pull? No sign of a single pilgrim or Oscar winner either. Perhaps they had all been let off for the afternoon for good behaviour. They'll all be in Nairn tomorrow Gurnites on the Maggot car park.

The Pilgirmage is nigh!

Message from the pilgrims:

Dear Friends

We're about to embark on our Pilgrimage, safe in the knowledge that flash floods have already hit Nairn this month, and surely the same thing can't happen again...?

For those of you who are joining us in person, and haven't yet bought tickets, there are some still available at thebooth.co.uk or to buy in person at Nairn Bookshop, but they're selling up fast!
For those of you who'd like to come and see us pull Screen Machine, or even join in the heave, some of our pulling locations are a little tricky to get to/park at, etc. and so for safety's sake we're not encouraging onlookers to those spots. However, if you find yourself in Strontian on Mon 3rd at 1.30pm, you'll see us pull Screen Machine out of town. On Tues 4th at 2pm we'll be pulling from the viewpoint on the B862, 5 miles out of Fort Augustus. On on Wed 5th at about 11.30am we'll be pulling along the driveway of Culloden Visitor Centre. Thanks to Highland Council and Contraflow Traffic Management!

But for the rest of you, those who are in far-flung places and unable to join us in person, please please check in to the website a-pilgrimage.org as each day of the journey we will be updating the Day By Day page with our photos, scrawlings, movie clips, sound recordings, dried flowers, brass rubbings, mathematical equations, sandwich crumbs and 20 pence pieces we lost down the back of the sofa years ago so's you can experience the delights and diversions, and even watch some of the films along with us.

love
Mark, Tilda and Matt

First Pilgrims arrive in Nairn already

Not long to go now before Tilda Swinton and the Pilgrimage arrive in town but already Nairn seems to be capable of attracting pilgrims. Picture will enlarge.

(not a local picture - in fact an artist's impression)

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