Blue Black Permanent
A film by Margaret Tait
With Celia Imrie, Jack Shepherd, Gerda Stevenson
Dual Format Edition and iTunes release on 24 June 2019
Blue Black Permanent, Margaret Tait’s only feature film, made when she was 74 and created from her own screenplay, was co-produced by the BFI in 1992. It was the first ever Scottish feature directed by a woman. Now newly remastered in 2K, it will be released by the BFI in a Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray & DVD discs) and on iTunes on 24 June 2019.
The release follows a celebratory season held at BFI Southbank in October/November 2018 to mark Margaret Tait’s centenary. Special features on the discs include a selection of her short films and a filmed panel discussion that took place during the BFI season.
Born in 1918 on Orkney, Margaret Tait was a doctor in WWII before she studied film in Rome. Returning to Scotland in the early 1950s, she made over 30 distinctive short films, mostly self-funded and shot on 16mm.
Blue Black Permanent, starring Celia Imrie (
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Calendar Girls), Jack Shepherd (
The Golden Compass, Bill Brand) and Gerda Stevenson (
Braveheart, Heartbeat), is a haunting and magical film that moves between Edinburgh and Orkney as it tells of a photographer’s attempt to come to terms with her mother’s death through her childhood memories. Filled with flashbacks and dream sequences, it’s also a film about the islanders’ relationship with the ever-present sea.
This new release will be launched with a special FREE screening and cast and crew reunion on Saturday 15 June at 4pm at Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh EH9. A post-screening discussion with members of the cast and crew will include the actor and poet Gerda Stevenson, who plays lead character Greta, Kate Swan (Co-Producer/Executive Producer), Rod Stoneman (Executive Producer/Deputy Commissioning Editor for Channel 4), Andrea Calderwood (Location Manager), along with Douglas Weir (Technical Producer, BFI), who oversaw the film’s remastering, Dr Sarah Neely, Director of Margaret Tait 100 and author of a book-length study of Tait’s films, and Richard Demarco, gallerist and host for the event, who was a great friend of Tait’s as well as an early champion of her work.
Tickets are free but need to be
booked through Eventbrite.
For more details on events marking Margaret Tait’s centenary:
www.margaretait100.com
Special features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition;
•
A Portrait of Ga (1953, 5 mins): Margaret Tait's hypnotic and deeply personal short documentary about her mother;
•
The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (1955, 7 mins): Tait's entrancing interpretation of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem;
•
Rose Street (1956, 15 mins): Tait's film about the Edinburgh street that runs parallel to Prince's Street;
•
Margaret Tait: Film Maker (1983, 34 mins): the director talks to video artist Tamara Krikorian in this in this portrait directed by Margaret Williams;
•
Film Poems Panel Discussion (2018, 31 mins): Curator Peter Todd examines Tait’s work with Lucy Reynolds, So Mayer and Anna Coatman in an onstage discussion filmed at BFI Southbank;
• Illustrated booklet with essays, film credits and notes on the extras (first pressing only)
Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1336 / PG
UK / 1992 / black and white, colour / 86 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio (320kbps)