Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium: Gaelic

Showing posts with label Gaelic. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 December 2007

Welsh Audiences Line Up to See Scottish Gaelic Film Rejected in Oscar Language Controversy

Searchd Opens in Cardiff, a Scottish Galeic film at the heart of a language controversy with the Oscars . . .

"SOME OSCAR CONTROVERSY!"

"Seachd has not been put forward by BAFTA as the UK's official non-English language Oscar nominee."

See more here:

Forget Highlander and see Seachd, the first REAL Scottish Gaelic film

Searchd opens at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff this weekend:

Fri 21 - Sun 30 Dec
Gwe 21 - Sul 30 Rhag

Friday, 21 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Saturday, 22 December 2007 15:00 Cinema 1

Saturday, 22 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Sunday, 23 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Thursday, 27 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Friday, 28 December 2007 11:00 Cinema 1

Friday, 28 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Saturday, 29 December 2007 15:00 Cinema 1

Saturday, 29 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

Sunday, 30 December 2007 17:00 Cinema 1

{Pictured above: publicity still from the Gaelic Language feature film, Searchd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007).]

Scottish film director Simon Miller has put out an appeal for help, as it's been reported to Celtic Cult Cinema that the Scottish Parliament is poised to debate BAFTA Oscar Controversy over the alleged snub of the Gaelic Feature Film 'serachd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007).

Simon Miller's Gaelic language feature film opens across Scotland this week, just as the BAFTA Oscar nomination controversy has caught fire.

It’s a film specifically about storytelling, and about the firm location of old stories in particular landscapes."

"A fitting theme for the first ever feature film in Scottish Gaelic."

[Quoted above from the programme book of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007]

What the critics are saying:

"Gorgeously-realised blend of magic realism and family drama" THE HERALD
"Dramatic, funny, spectacular and steeped in Gaelic mythology" THE LIST
"Glows with warmth and humanity" THE OBSERVER
"Visually breathtaking" BBC

Simon Miller writes:

"As you may have seen in the Seachd group blurb on facebook BAFTA (The UK's film academy) has failed to put forward any non-English language films for the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Oscars - which includes Seachd."

"THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP, PARTICULARLY THOSE OF YOU FROM OUTSIDE THE UK..."

"Of 18 Western European countries invited by the Academy to put non-English language films forward for the Oscars, the UK is the only one to fail to do so."

"BAFTAs decision is sensless and really could not have been made on some measure of the "quality" of the film, given the strong early reviews we have had (“excellent” The Sunday Times, “breathtaking” BBC, “tender, graceful…gorgeously-realised” The Herald, “worth shouting about” The Scotsman, “dramatic, funny and spectacular” The List, and “an astonishing production” Eye For Film). And surely they wouldn't have put forward such obviously English language turkeys as they have in recent years if quality really was the issue?"

"BAFTA is an institution designed to promote British film - in whatever language - and their decision feels dangerously close to censorship and it will mean - ultimately - that less people will get to see the film in the UK internationally."

"YOU CAN HELP CHANGE THAT..."

"We have been able to gather a great deal of support to help overturn their decision within the film industry in the UK, and also from the Academy who have written to BAFTA asking for an explanation. And we have just learned that this issue is on the agenda to be debated in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday this week."

"HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP..."

Read the entire story here:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2177934,00.html

Searchd: The official Website

UK/2007/100 mins/subtitled/ctba. Dir: Simon Miller. With Aonghas Padruig Caimbeul, Padruig Morrison, Coll MacDonald.

This delightful Scottish Gaelic film features stunning scenery and powerful performances. Angus travels to Skye to say a final farewell to his grandfather and find out the truth about his parents.

"a poignant ode to storytelling" - BBCi

www.seachd.com

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the first feature film in Scottish Gaelic.

It is a film from the Scottish Gaelic community starring local Gaelic-speaking actors from the Highlands and Isles and was filmed entirely on the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) off the West Coast of Scotland.

Seachd is not a Hollywood film. The film was shot across just 25 days on a tiny budget, but it is a film with a big heart and it represents the lives of people living in a part of the world that has yet to be shown on the big screen.

The soundtrack to Seachd features some of Gaeldom's greatest living vocalists and musicians - and ancient Gaelic instruments such as the Carnyx (Celtic battle horn), the metal strung Clàrsach (Gaelic harp) and the triplepipes (the predecessor of the bagpipes).

As it's said in Gaelic: Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil -- The truth is in the story. When a young man, Angus, visits his dying Grandfather in hospital he cannot hold back his boyhood quest for the truth - the truth behind the death of his parents and the truth behind his Grandfather's ancient, incredible, fearful stories.

Stories from the whole swathe of Gaelic history of poisoned lovers, bloody revenge, water-horses and Spanish gold.

His Grandfather hijacks Angus' life for one last time leading him to one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, The Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, and an ancient truth he never expected to find.

Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil. Tha Aonghas air a bhith air tòir na fìrinn o òige, miann a tha a' teannachadh na inntinn 's na chorp nuair a thuigeas e gu bheil am bàs gu laighe air a Sheanar.

Tha fios aig Aonghas gu bheil an t-àm dha eòlas a chur air an fhìrinn mu bhàs a phàrantan 's cuideachd mu sgeulachdan a Sheanair. Sgeulachdan iongantach, eagalach a thug air cuairt tro eachdraidh nan Gaidheal iad le gaol, sabaid, eich-uisge agus òr Spàinnteach nam measg.

Tha Aonghas 's a Sheanair a' gabhail aon chuairt eile còmhla, cuairt a tha gan toirt gu mullach Sgùrr Dearg 's gu fìrinn ris nach robh dùil sam bith.

Simon Miller's Searchd Official Website

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Tuesday, 24 July 2007

Minority Language Summer Field Work (another lame excuse to 'subsist' on prosciutto e melone) Che peccato!

Pictured above, a vicolo piccolino tipico in the Molisano Medieval mountain fortress cittadina (walled-city) of Guglionesi, where the language of 'Wee-yonn-naish-shon' is spoken, not Italian.

Guglionesi possibly derives from Colle di Nyseus, or Hill of Bachus, a mix of Latin with the ancient Samnite Italinate language.

The local dialect is a pure version of Frentani-Uscosium, which stretches from Vasto in the north to Puglia in the south.

[Dw i'n wedi ymweld yr Eidal gyda fy Mhartner Eidaleg y penwythnos diwethaf, yn y brofins o'r enw Molise, gyda dair daleithiau o' enw Campobasso ac Isernia (canolau taliethiol Rhufeinaidd). Dw i' mynd ar ol dros mis Awst.]

I'm doing a bit of summer research 'field work' in Molise, which is the centre of the Samnite dialects, which are cousins of Latin in the Italic family of Indo-European.

With all the fresh melone and prosciutto, to avoid putting on an extra stone, I am jogging every morning and taking the local 'passiaggiata' every night, that is, walking along tops of this walled city, which is perched atop a mountain 1,000 feet above the Adriatic.

No one speaks English for many miles around here. I have walked each night along the crumbling ramparts as I learn another (yes another) minority language from the chatty WWII pensioners and widows in black hose and scarves . . .

The Samnites were conquerered by the Romans in 290 B.C., since their nation was located directly over the Appennine Mountains, hugging the Adriactic, and apparently Rome lusted for the fertile vineyards, olives and girasole (sunflower) fields of the Montane di Sannita'.

The curious Samnite dialects, which are mostly comprehensible to an Italian speaker, first caught my attention when I read the philologist Dottore Mario Pei's famous book, 'The Story of Language' in 1975.

Pei points out that Celtic language scholars once thought the Samnites might have a connection to Gaulish, Welsh, Breizh or Irish, since the Osco-Umbrium borderland dialects have mutations and other traits which are similar to modern Welsh, etc.

The connection has been rejected, but the similarity has never been effectively explained, at least not without detractors, who assert a Celtic connection, going back to the 3rd century B.C.E.

What's curious is that the people of Molise, in relatively rural and economically-impoverished ancestral centres like the medival fortress city of Guglionesi, are continuing to speak and teach their language (whose written form predates Christ by at least 250 years) to their children, even without the help or support of any 'national' language boards.

This is my third visit to Molise, and I have started to compile a dictionary and grammar of their language, which they insist is only a 'dialect' of Italian.

But my casual study reveals a grammar and sophisticated vocabulary that is distinct from Italian, and which parallels the history of people who still consider themselves a separate 'paese' or country, not to be confused with the official Italian culture and language, based upon the Tuscan vernacular of Italian, albeit the local "diletto's" displacement by Latin and then Italian is post-colonial dating from Republican Rome).

I met with several prominent scholars last week, and tracked down numerous 'dialetto' books and music CDS, etc. There is a dictionary of sorts, which I've ordered, but I noticed that the phonetic rendering uses Latin or Roman letters, which neglect to indicate the distinctive aspirate or unsounded consonantal stops and words, i.e., d t t tr is pronunced duh-tuh-t-ya-truh, and is an anagram of a related Latin or Italian phrase.

Era fatto in Sicilia, si, pero' solomente per essempio, guarda Lei questo film con l'Italiano proprio e il dialetto siciliano nello film famoso, 'il Postino' (1994):

I located a film festival in Molise, which I hope will lead me to indigenous tv and filmic product in the this 'non-language' national language of the people of Guglionesi and nearby towns and cities, along the Adriatic Sea.

In Guglionesi itself, there is a media school which is producing an annual children's film fest 'Friends' which celebrates the local language in video and film, and which features local folk singers and dialect 'rappers'.

The studio is called 'ARS IDEA STUDIO' located on Via Roma across from the Chiesa Maria Maggiore (crypt and presbytery circa IX-X centuries) which you can find here:

ARS IDEA STUDIO

Molise Cinema Film Festival 2007

Hwyl fawr dros y Haf i bawb / Tanti auguri a tutti quest'estate e Felice Ferragosto!

Marc Miami

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Wednesday, 13 June 2007

Gaelic Language Makes Big Comeback in New Scottish Feature Film 'Searchd'

Simon Miller's Searchd Official Website

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.