Margaret Tait [1918-1999]

The Orkney-born artist’s radical approach to film is being honoured in her centenary year

- Catherine Coyle

When she opened the 1992 Edinburgh Film Festival with her first full-length feature film, Blue Black Permanent, Margaret Tait was 74 years old. She had devoted her life to making films, but despite having had some overseas recognition from within filmmaking circles, she was little-known in Scotland. LUX Scotland, the charity that supports artists who work with the moving image, along with Dr Sarah Neely at the University of Stirling, have been trying to put this right. Over the past year, to celebrate the centenary of her birth, they have put together an impressive programme of events to showcase the breadth of Tait’s talent and to honour her posthumously for her achievements.

Works by the pioneering experimental filmmaker have been on the LUX distribution list since the late 1970s as part of a collection of independent films available to hire and show at festivals or theatres around the world. DESIGN ARCHIVES [Left] Calypso, 1955 (courtesy of the Margaret Tait Estate and LUX). [Below] Margaret Tait, photographed in 1992 (courtesy of the Margaret Tait Estate and Orkney Library and Archive)

But in her home country it was only at the twilight of her career and – as is the case for so many true artists – after her death that there was any real appetite for her work.