Join us for a Film and Arts Screening by Alchemy Film and Arts, hosted by Narture CIC in The Auld Toy Shop, a night of watching three short films exploring global Scottish histories, in a prominent historical building here at 25 Newmarket street.

The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil is a touring programme of artists’ moving image produced in the Scottish Borders by Alchemy Film & Arts. Engaging with global Scottish histories across industrial, social and colonial contexts, the programme brings together three acclaimed films made by artists Luke Fowler, Corin Sworn, Julia Parks and Maybelle Peters during residencies in Hawick between 2022 and 2025.

Shot on 16mm, each of the films is a tactile response to a specific aspect of Scotland’s identity in a global context. Taken together, the programme spans an ambitious range of themes including architecture and industry, conservation and erasure, and the tension between the archival and the anecdotal.

In On Weaving, Luke Fowler and Corin Sworn respond to High Sunderland, the 1950s Scottish Borders modernist home of Serbian-born textile designer Bernat Klein, linking the history of its ownership with the current rhythms of the region’s textile mills. In The Wool Aliens, Julia Parks tells a centuries-old story of migration as she investigates the relationship between sheep’s wool, invasive plant seeds and the Scottish Borders textiles industry along the River Tweed. And in We Deh Here, Maybelle Peters explores her mother’s maiden name (Scotland) to trace the residues of colonialism between Scotland and Guyana.

This touring programme brings these three films together for the first time, following individual screenings at renowned festivals and institutions such as the Berlinale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Edinburgh International Film Festival, e-flux, National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and now is coming to Ayr at Narture through a film screening in The Auld Toy Shop.

About Alchemy Film & Arts

Alchemy Film & Arts is based in the Scottish Borders town of Hawick. We work with artists and communities across local, national and international contexts, using film as a way to come together, have conversations and strengthen community.

We deliver the UK’s festival of experimental film and artists’ moving image; an award-winning programme of community filmmaking, skills development and creative learning; and Scotland’s only film-specific residencies programme, supporting the generation of new knowledge through long-form, practice-led research and multidisciplinary partnerships.

We are constantly questioning the broader contexts in which we live and work. Through collaboration and a critically engaged practice that places inclusion, equity and social justice at its centre, we aim to put Hawick on the map as Scotland’s Film Town, and contribute to a fairer creative industry.

For more info about Alchemy Film & Arts please visit: https://alchemyfilmandarts.org.uk

Contact the host of Alchemy Film & Arts Screening - The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil Touring Programme

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