As the winter finally starts to recede, it’s time once again to set aside some space in your diaries for the Folk Film Gathering, the world’s first folk film festival, which returns tomorrow to the Filmhouse, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Summerhall as part of Edinburgh TradFest. After a record year in 2017 where the majority of our screenings at Filmhouse sold out, we are excited to present another programme of folk cinema that places Scotland within an expansive, comradely global context.

The theme of the Folk Film Gathering this year is ‘A Sense of Place’, exploring some of the many instances in which filmmakers around the world have explored the connections between communities and the places and landscapes in which they live. With films from Scotland, England, France, Italy, Scandinavia and Alaska, location is central to all of our screenings this year, each of which convey a vivid sense of stories inseparable from the cities, towns, and landscapes in which they take place.

After the enthusiastic response to the elements of live traditional arts performance we integrated with our programme last year, each of our screenings this year will be introduced by one of TradFest’s live musicians. In particular, don’t miss our one-off event ‘A Flyting of Screen of Sang’, which will pitch the voices of some of Scotland’s most celebrated traditional musicians into conversation with silent films from the National Library of Scotland’s screen archive. Exploring glimpses of folk history from Eriskay, Ayrshire and Glasgow, our films will be soundtracked by Radio 2’s 2017 Folk Musician of the Year Rachel Newton, and Glasgow’s own Arthur Johnstone. We’ll also be continuing to explore the relationship between cinema and the traditional arts in our first ‘film ceilidh’, hosted by TradFest’s Donald Smith, featuring contributions from celebrated Scots-Traveller singer and writer Jess Smith, and Scottish writer and activist Alasdair McIntosh alongside experimental documentaries by Scottish filmmakers Margaret Tait and Luke Fowler.

Another special event in our programme this year involving live performance is the screening of Alan Clarke and David Rudkin’s magical, dreamlike Penda’s Fen – sometimes touted as one of the first ‘folk horror films’ which will be introduced from a mini-concert from boundary-pushing Scots folk-singer Alasdair Roberts. Set within the story-soaked landscape of the Malvern Hills, Penda’s Fen follows seventeen-year old Stephen, a pastor’s son, as he experiences a strange series of encounters among the Fens – some real, some imagined – that challenge the spiritual, political and philosophical foundations of his life.

As in previous years, we’ll be offering more rare chances to see some of the lost classics of Scottish cinema on the big screen. In particular, don’t miss Bill Bryden’s Ill Fares the Land, a gentle paean to the last families to live on St Kilda, which sensitively chronicles the daily lives and customs of the island community in the months leading up to their final departure. We’re also providing a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to see Michael Radford’s deeply poetic screen adaption of Jessie Kesson’s The White Bird Passes, about a young girl growing up on the back streets of Aberdeen, and Timothy Neat’s essential Scottish documentary Hallaig: the Poetry and Landscape of Sorley Maclean.

Just as importantly, we’ll be contextualizing the Scottish roots of our programme within an expansive, diverse tapestry of international cinema. We’re honoured to be hosting the Scottish premiere of Katya Gauriloff’s Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest - a moving, affectionate portrait of the filmmaker’s great grandmother, a Skolt Sami community matriarch and storytelling tradition bearer. Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest is part of a wider focus within our programme this year on the cinema of the indigenous people’s movement. Elsewhere, Nils Gaup’s Pathfinder reimagines a Sami folk tale told to the director by his grandfather, about a young boy who seeks revenge against the men who killed his family. Elsewhere still, Cannes Golden Camera winner Zacharius Kunuk takes John Ford’s The Searchers and recontextualises it within the indigenous Alaskan communities of the Canadian Arctic to tell a story both specific and universal.

Inspired by Patrick Geddes’ advice to act locally and yet think globally, the 2018 Folk Film Gathering thus sets out to explore the many resonances and solidarities that may exist between Scotland and the rest of the world. Do consider joining us, and adding your voice to the conversation.

The Folk Film Gathering runs from Friday 27th April 29 to May 12 at Edinburgh Filmhouse, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Summerhall. www.folkfilmgathering.com