This year’s Crossing the Line expands upon the relationship between cinema and visual art into the fields of music and poetry, with world premieres of unique experimental works, installations combined with live performances, and boundary-breaking productions from emerging artists.

Below are summaries of the ten screenings and events that make up this year’s Crossing the Line programme.

Nancy Holt: Sun Tunnels

19 February | CCA
Our Extra-Sensory Selves
Allison Gibbs’ new film is the result of research conducted with the Development Circle for Radical Subjectivity in France which shows participants’ journeys as they attempt to reach a higher state of consciousness. Allison Gibbs will be present for a Q&A after the screening.

20 February | Stereo
Square Legs, Round Bowls
A programme of new works using film to inform musical composition and by visual artists that use musical structures in their film work. The event will include work by Torsten Lauschmann, Rob Churm, Joe Howe, Beatrice Gibson, Richy Carey and Anneke Kampman.

22 February | CCA
Nancy Holt: Sun Tunnels / Revolve
Margaret Tait Award-winner for 2014 Charlotte Prodger will introduce this double-bill of work by pioneering American artist and filmmaker Nancy Holt (1938-2014). Sun Tunnels documents Holt’s eponymous site-specific construction in the Utah desert in 1976. Revolve, meanwhile, uses multiple camera angles and repetitions to modulate Dennis Wheeler’s personal narrative of his battle with leukaemia.

22 February | CCA
Beauty and the Right to the Ugly
This piece is set in the Dutch community centre of ‘t Karregat, Eindhoven, built in 1974 as a social project designed to perpetuate communal styles of living and to transfer ownership of living, working and recreational environments back to users.

23 February | GFT
Margaret Tait Award Screening
Named after acclaimed Scottish experimental filmmaker Margaret Tait, this annual award recognises Scotland-based artists who work within film and moving image in an experimental and innovative way. 2014 award-winner, Charlotte Prodger premieres her work.

24 February | GFT
Margaret Tait Residency: O.K. Rick
The Margaret Tait Residency aims to support and develop emerging Scotland-based artists working within film and moving image. Florrie James participated in the residency in 2014 and will screen her short drama set on a fictional island inspired by both Orkney and Shetland.

25 February | CCA
Reading in the Dark
Exploring the overlaps between language and film, Reading in the Dark is the second instalment of the research project of artist Suzanne van der Lingen, who will present this programme of artist film and video with work from Sarah Forrest, Laure Prouvost, Peter Rose and Gerard Byrne.

Reading In The Dark

AlgoRhythm

26 February | The Art School
AlgoRhythm
A series of collaborative art and music events that bring together practitioners from a variety of creative fields who specialise in the use of technology in their practice.

27 February | CCA
Letters to Max
Letters to Max documents the conversations between Maxim Gvinja, former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Abkhazia, a state which seceded from Georgia during the 1992-93 civil war, and acclaimed French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire.

28 February | GFT
Sea Without Shore **WORLD PREMIERE**
André Semenza and Fernanda Lippi of the renowned Zikzira Physical Theatre mark their feature debut in Sea Without Shore: a mix of cinematic physical theatre and dance with sound design overseen by the Oscar-winning Glenn Freemantle and a soundtrack by The Hafler Trio.

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

Art/Roc/Doc is a fly on the wall documentary which followed Glasgow band, Isosceles on a road trip to uncover the London art scene during Frieze Art Fair 2009.

Along the way, Isosceles headlined PLUS, a large group exhibition and series of events produced by Kerry Ryan (Neon and Sign-makers), Declan McMullan (artist/independent producer) and Volume (London), with support from Central Station. PLUS was 72 hours of non-stop artists, exhibits and music, featuring Douglas Gordon, Matt Collishow, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk and Sam Hasler.

See all three parts of Art/Roc/Doc here.

Members Tom Duncan and Dasha jumped on board to film and photograph the event, designer Ruth Parker was set with the task of creating a cardboard caravan and together they created a short film which premiered at Glasgow Film Festival 2010.

To find out more about the project, read this.

See the full Art/Roc/Doc collection online here.

(originally published on Central Station V1)

Still from Maclean’s film The Lion and the Lady

Artist Rachel Maclean has just been announced as the winner of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival Margaret Tait Award. The award recognises Scottish artists and Scotland-based artists who work within film and moving image in an experimental and innovative way. Named after acclaimed Scottish experimental filmmaker Margaret Tait, the award is supported by Creative Scotland & LUX. It consists of a prize fund of £10,000 and the opportunity to present a new commission at Glasgow Film Festival in 2014.

Glasgow-based Maclean graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009. She works largely in green screen composite video, using colourful props, costumes and sculpture. She is often the only actor in her work, playing a variety of characters that mime to popular music.

28 nominations were received for the award and 7 artists – Michelle Hannah, Rob Kennedy, Rachel Maclean, Sophie Macpherson, Gillian Steel, Sarah Tripp, and Stina Wirfelt – were shortlisted to put forward a proposal for final selection by Glasgow Film Festival’s Margaret Tait panel. Maclean’s proposed film, titled Happy and Glorious, will be a darkly comedic exploration of British national identity. The film will create a discursive space in response to the context of 2014, in relation to the upcoming referendum on Scottish Independence, as well as the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and the 100th anniversary of the beginning of The First World War.

Rachel was chosen unanimously by the judging panel for the 2013 Margaret Tait Award. The panel said:
“Rachel appears most definitely to be on the cusp of something big with upcoming exhibitions this year at the Collective Gallery (Edinburgh) and Edinburgh Printmakers as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, and a solo show at CCA during the Commonwealth Games in 2014. We find her work extremely unique – it certainly provokes a reaction!

Her proposal was strong and with its relation to national identity, it has a sense of urgency to it and grabs the moment.”

Portfolio Manager at Creative Scotland, Amanda Catto said:
“We are delighted that Rachel Maclean has been selected as the 2013 Margaret Tait Award winner. The award will allow her the space and time to extend her practice within the medium of film and moving image and to develop partnerships with the film industry. Rachel’s new video work will be a fantastic addition to Glasgow Film Festival which showcases the very best of Scottish, UK and International work.”

Maclean said:
“I am delighted to have received the Margaret Tait Award and can’t wait to get started on a new video work. It’s a great opportunity to work with GFT and LUX and I am very excited to be a part of Glasgow Film Festival.”

Maclean joins previous winners Stephen Sutcliffe, Anne-Marie Copestake and Torsten Lauschmann for this prestigious award. For more information on the award, please visit here.

Read Rachel’s blog post she wrote on the making of her recent film, Germs for Central Station here.

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Scotmid Shop Assistant
Well, with no experience you’ve got to start somewhere – I was 15 and living round the corner from Scotmid. One day I walked in and offered my services for a measly £2.20 an hour. It was the start of a long line of part-time retail jobs seeing me through school and Uni. I still see my old colleagues when I go back home to my parents as some of them never left.

English Language Teacher – Prague   
A teen fascination with Eastern Europe led me to Prague where I taught conversational English in a high school. I had just left high school myself and was the same age as most of my students, we used to go to the pub together after class. I was paid £100 per month and had a room on the 4th floor of the school next to the classrooms and a burly Slovakian janitor. Sometimes I’d sleep in and would have to dash across the corridor to the shower without the pupils seeing me! In my free time I travelled as much as possible – safe to say my wanderlust had begun. After Uni, I taught English in Akita, Japan for 2 years, then in Barcelona before returning to a language school back home in Scotland.

Front of House Assistant – Santa Barbara Film Festival
After 4 years teaching English, I was itching for a new challenge. I found myself on an extended holiday in California and volunteered at a local film festival. What an eye opener! I met fellow film geeks who I could chat at length with about obscure foreign movies and documentaries and crammed in as many free films as I could.  Until then it had never occurred to me that this could be a possible career path. I quickly became hooked…

Guest Assistant – Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF)
When I got back home I applied anywhere and everywhere for festival jobs. Most were short-term and initially unpaid but I eventually managed to quit teaching. My first internship was as a Guest Assistant for EIFF where I coordinated travel and accommodation for filmmaker guests. This was a great way to get in – Edinburgh was where my knowledge of what it takes to put on a big film event really began. Festivals are so fast-paced that even 3 months work can seem like 6 and your job title never quite encompasses all that you do. You feed off adrenalin and team work. I went back to various jobs at EIFF over 4 consecutive years, eventually moving into the Industry and Talent Development side where my interest lies, in between short stints at various other festivals.

Guest Representative at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Skipping ahead a little, one of my more significant career breaks was when I headed West. My travel bug returned so I began juggling visa and job applications – lucky for me my Canadian visa came through just days before I got a call to join the TIFF team. Toronto was an incredible experience – a big budget Festival with some of the most fun employees you could ever hope to meet. One of my highlights was taking down Isabella Rosellini’s credit card details over the phone (THAT VOICE!) as my colleague danced excitedly in the background and I struggled to keep a straight face. I wound up staying in town for a year, volunteering at a number of smaller film festivals and on film shoots, before landing a really interesting job assisting with the Hot Docs Forum – a large pitching forum for documentary filmmakers.

With Festival work you never quite know where your next wage slip is coming from – it’s frequent bouts of unemployment punctuated by intense pressure, overflowing inboxes and late nights… but it certainly keeps you on your toes – and there are plenty of free films! I don’t think I could do my current job without the experience gained in the jobs I’ve mentioned – working with different personalities, thinking on my feet, keeping a cool head and adapting to new working environments are all skills I’ve honed along the way!

Photographer – Santiago Marin

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

No project would be complete without a last minute clash of opinions and technical complications, and this one was no exception. Dispite these, I think the end reuslt holds together well. Ofcourse there are a few things I would have liked to do differently or spend more time on to improve the technical quality, but unfortunately there just wasn’t the time available.

I have to say I was blown away by the musical composition Charlie from “Eardrum Productions” put together for the trailer. I think it really enhances the visuals and will sound great when the great unwashed get to experience it in theatres around the country. I met up with Jen from GFF and Charlie (Charlie’s partner in crime) down at Savalas to produce the 5.1 Dolby stereo mix. What a treat! Over 5k of surround soundsystem and a very nice technician, Chris, pulling all sorts of nuance out of the music to achieve maximum impact in the theatre.

Well, it’s been a fun ride, but it’s finally over. Now I just can’t wait to see how the 35mm print will look on the big screen!

I’ll leave it to the cSta guys and GFF to release the full trailer, so I’m afraid this blog post is just a tease…. All I can show is a collection of frame captures.

Well, there’s been a bit of radio silence from me whilst I feverishly worked on my proposals….

As usual I took some prettty radical departures from my original idea before pulling myself together and distilling it all into something which I hope begins to form a concise idea! The video attached is just a little test I did to demonstrate the approach. I didn’t have enough time to produce a complete animatic of the whole trailer!

Good luck to the other guys… look forward to seeing the winners film on the big screen!

p.

ps, just testing out the image uploading, so apologies if the resolution of the storyboards is too low to read the text…