Output details

A Boat Retold

‘A Boat Retold’ is a feature length documentary, co-directed by Louise Milne and Sean Martin, that interprets and experiments with concepts of narrative in different media. The film documents a voyage to the Shiant Islands by the writer Robert Macfarlane, in a completely rebuilt 1912 boat, and draws parallels between the rebuilding of the boat and the retelling of stories in the oral tradition.

The boat and its history become the narrative focus for movements in time over three generations, spinning tales of fishing, boat-building and family history – a ballad of island traditions, experiences and arts – and this story is set within a wider interpretive consideration of storytelling and orality in the island culture in Scotland.

This project formed part of ‘Is a Thing Lost…?, a wider arts initiative curated by Ian Stephen and commissioned by the An Lanntair Art Centre in Stornoway, with the aim of forging links between the Scottish Island Arts Centres in Stornoway, Stromness, North Uist, Tobermory, Shetland and Inverness, and interpreting Scotland’s storytelling culture in different media.

Milne and Martin were one of several artists invited to make work for this exhibition, including the film-maker Andy Mckinnon, and the artist Emmanuelle Waeckerie.

Their work was shown in a gallery context at An Lanntair in March 2011. It has since been shown in other cinematic arenas, including the ‘Tip of the Tongue’ festival on Jura in April 2012, the Alchemy Film festival in October 2012, Ceol’s Craic, a festival of Gaelic and Highland film in Glasgow in Spring 2013 and the 13th International festival of Ethnographic Film, held in Edinburgh in June 2013.