Archive for August, 2008
Definitely not racist, FOUND loving music at Cabaret Voltaire
Red Eye is the great name for a new film club opening in Leith on Friday 5 September (great whether you are suffering from four long weeks of festival or not). Don’t miss the first night’s screening of Who Shot the Sheriff with fantastic footage of the Clash, Misty in Roots, Estelle, Ms Dynamite and Hard-Fi among others. This history of Rock against Racism (now Love Music Hate Racism) kicks off at 7pm in Pilmeny Youth Club, 44 Buchanan Street. It’s just off Leith Walk and it’s free!
At the end of a list of great films you see events are organised by Leith Walk Central branch of the Labour Party. Dig a little deeper and you will find the man behind the Red Eye film club is Mike Cowley, a lecturer in politics at Telford College and active supporter of Leith Open Space, who promises the best in socialist and radical film-making. But, Mike adds, you don’t have to be a lefty film-buff to join the club: “We aim to show unusual, rare and unique presentations, as well as more well-kent fare, and all are welcome.”
Each monthly event will begin with a short scene-setting introduction and end with time for lively discussion. Here’s Mike’s summary of just a few of the films in the Red Eye library which he says is “broad and wide, and ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous!”
Who Shot the Sheriff? – (Alan Miles; 2005). The history of Rock against Racism (now Love Music Hate Racism), from the moment a still unrepentant Eric Clapton unleashed his racist bile to the RAR’s earliest gigs. A master class in grass-roots rebellion!
The Conformist – (Bertolucci; 1970). Based on Albert Moravia’s 1951 novel this remains a sinister, beautifully shot meditation on the Fascist mentality. Jean Paul Trintignant plays Marcello Clerici as the pallid bureaucrat and potential assassin.
The Intruder – (Roger Corman; 1962). ‘He Fed Their Fears and Turned Neighbour Against Neighbour!’ So went the tagline for this 60s oddity. William Shatner plays the racist, anti-Semitic agent-provocateur in this Southern Gothic melodrama. Not one for unreconstructed Trekkies!
Hearts and Minds – (Peter Davis; 1974). A rare chance to see this Oscar-winning documentary on the Vietnam War. Combining archive footage and interviews from both sides of the political and military trenches, ‘Hearts and Minds’ has been an inspiration for a generation of film-makers such as Michael Moore, though not Frank Sinatra, who denounced it while comparing the Oscars of that year.
Thanks to FOUND for the picture taken by Jen Owens capturing singer Ziggy Campbell belting out the lyrics:
“Can we drop down the guards and think about the good times, I hope that when we’re sober we remember what it’s all about”
August 28th, 2008
It took a lot of helping hands to install Edinburgh’s most powerful festival exhibition, Return of the Soul: the Nakbah project by Jane Frere. Now more volunteers are needed for the massive task of unhooking more than 3,000 wax figures from the Patriothall Gallery in Stockbridge when the show ends on Monday. “That will involve bubblewrapping the figures and sending them on their way to Lebanon,” says Nick Gardner, one of the volunteers (read his review on Leith and North).
If you would like to help email returnofthesoul@gmail.com or call in at the gallery.
August 16th, 2008
“This isn’t political, it’s humanitarian.” Jane Frere.
Each one is different. You can’t be sure of course, it would take a long time to study each of the 3,000 figures suspended from the ceiling of Patriothall Gallery. But although it’s the mass of humanity that you notice when you first walk into the gallery, I think it is the individuality of each small figure that makes Return of the Soul so very moving.
Return of the Soul: the Nakbah Project symbolises the exodus of 750,000 Palestinian men, women and children displaced by the creation of Israel 60 years ago. The wax figures were made in Bethlehem and the West Bank and in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The workshops were led by artist Jane Frere who taught her students how to make the figures and at the same time she recorded their stories and memories triggered by deceptively banal questions such as, “What were you wearing the night you were evicted from your home?”
Mundane details catch the eye: a basket, a walking stick, a shawl. Others catch something deeper inside: a tiny babe in arms; a dead body carried on the shoulder. The exhibition has a disturbing beauty which reminds me of images of other displaced peoples across the world so hauntingly documented by the photographer Sebastiao Salgado in his studies of ‘humanity in transition’.
People are on the move in their millions and wittingly (through our wars) or unwittingly (through the goods we buy) we all play our part in dislocating lives of other human beings. Like Salgado, Jane Frere leaves the viewer to look and think for themselves. This is not about politics, she says in newspaper interviews, it’s about people.
And one way and another her art involves a lot of people. The exhibition was hung with the help of many volunteers painstakingly attaching each small figure to transparent wires and then climbing on to scaffolding to suspend them from the ceiling. Among the volunteers was our own Leith Open Spacer Nick Gardner whose excellent website coverage of the exhibition is among the media reviews displayed on the gallery wall.
Each figure will have to be taken down with equal care and volunteers will be needed for that too. So if you happen to be free between 8 am and midnight on August 18-20, leave your name at the gallery or email returnofthesoul@gmail.com
Fay’s Open View
August 14th, 2008
Grassroots, the Zimbabwean band, bring the festival spirit to Redbraes
“I keep smiling thinking about it,” says Becky and her pictures tell the rest of the story. After months of hard work Redbraes community garden opened to the public on Saturday with a party that even the sun enjoyed.
I wasn’t able to get to the barbecue but when I dropped by earlier in the day I could tell it
was going to be a good party. That didn’t stop the hard work of course. While PC Simon Daley and helpers put up the gazebo, Becky Govier, the garden designer, was surrounded by volunteers busy digging a border for all the plants donated by the Botanics (see Police raid Botanics).
Since then the hard work has continued with Simon returning to finish seating and secure water supplies. But for that sunny Saturday afternoon there was time to relax and enjoy the garden. Becky sums up the general mood:
“The day was magic. More volunteers came forward yesterday and a neighbour has been in touch to ask for help reclaiming his garden to create a vegetable patch. One neighbour donated an attractive little conifer to the cause. As a result of the event we now have a greenhouse, gas BBQ, lavender plants, new volunteers, a potential source of funding and more friends.”
Volunteers of all ages come to lend a hand for Redbraes open day
time for a break in the outdoor classroom area of the garden designed by Becky.
a party to remember
August 7th, 2008
Caught greenhanded! PC Simon Daley (that’s him on the right), raids the nursery of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – with a lot of help from nursery supervisor Pete Brownless (that’s him in the middle) and PC Ian Penicuik.
It’s all in a good cause, of course. After months of digging, building and planting, Simon is helping Redbraes Community Garden prepare for a party on Saturday’s Open Day. They hope you will come and join them for a barbecue between 3-6pm. And if you can lend a barbecue for the occasion you will be specially welcome!
By then, weather permitting, Simon’s team will have finished the new path into the garden but if rain stops work you will see signs to lead you through a friendly backgreen.
Redbraes Community Garden are celebrating the results of months of hard work, not to mention the success of winning £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund Breathing Places Fund and support from Edinburgh city council. But though money matters it’s people who make gardens grow.
Led by Simon, the local community policeman, volunteers of all ages have been hard at work behind the houses of Redbraes. On an almost hidden site running down to the Water of Leith they have been turning a hard landscaping plan into reality: with raised beds for growing vegetables, an outdoor classroom, a wildlife area and a bonfire circle.
As garden designer Becky Govier says, “We have a great team of volunteers. This is the first community garden I have designed and I have found it incredibly rewarding”.
Food, drink and plants for the Open Day have all been donated by local businesses with perhaps just a little gentle persuasion from their local policeman. Having picked up the generous donation of plants from the Botanics, Simon went on to collect a box of white tiles from B&Q (”which they sold me for a pound - thanks to my colleague Lee Jack who donated said pound!”), £100 of free food from Scotmid and soft drinks for 100 people from Beetroot Blue.
Just one thing missing. Says Simon: “I’ve yet to source a BBQ and anyone who can lend one for the day would be much appreciated?!?!”
Meet some of the volunteers making Redbraes Community Garden grow
August 1st, 2008