Friday 21 September at 7.00 p.m.

Ali Smith on Margaret Tait:

‘A unique and underrated filmmaker, nobody like her. Born of the Italian neo-realists, formed of her own Scottish pragmatism, optimism, generosity and experimental spirit, and a clear forerunner of the English experimental directors of the late 20th century. Now credited with kickstarting the late 20th-century renaissance in Scottish writing, like Liz Lochhead's, Alasdair Gray's. A writer whose openness of mind, voice and structure all come from the Beats maybe, and Whitman crossed with MacDiarmid, but then cut their own original (and crucially female) path.’

Ali Smith will show and talk about Margaret Tait’s work, in conversation with Sarah Neely, editor of the new edition of her Poems, Stories and Writings (Carcanet).

Work by the pioneering filmmaker will be screened courtesy of LUX.