Margaret Tait

Margaret Caroline Tait (born 11 November 1918; died 1999) was a Scottish film maker and poet.

Life

Tait was born and raised in Kirkwall on Orkney, an island off the coast of Scotland.

Tait died in Kirkwall in 1999.

Training and career

Tait attended the University of Edinburgh, gaining qualifications in Medicine (1941). She later moved to Rome, where she studied filmmaking at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (1950-1952).

After studying in Italy, Tait returned to Scotland and founded Ancona Films. On her move back to Orkney in the 1960s Tait continued to make films and took inspiration from the landscape and culture of Orkney.

Tait made 32 short films and one full-length feature, Blue Black Permanent. In addition, Tait wrote prose and poetry, and published 3 poetry books - 'Hen and Bees', 'Subjects and Sequences' and 'Origins and Elements'.

Filmography

• One Is One (1951)
• Three Portrait Sketches (1951)
• The Lion, The Griffin And The Kangaroo (1952)
• Happy Bees (1955)
• Orquil Burn (1955)
• Portrait Of Ga (1955)
• The Leaden Echo And The Golden Echo (1955)
• Calypso (1956)
• The Drift Back (1956)
• Rose Street (1956)
• Where I Am Is Here (1964)
• Palindrome (1964)
• Hugh Macdiarmid : A Portrait (1964)
• The Big Sheep (1966)
• Splashing (1966)
• A Pleasant Place (1969)
• He's Back (The Return) (1970)
• John MacFadyen (The Stripes In The Tartan) (1970)
• Painted Eightsome (1970)
• On The Mountain (1974)
• Colour Poems (1974)
• Aerial (1974)
• These Walls (1974)
• Tailpiece (1976)
• Place Of Work (1976)
• Aspects Of Kirkwall : Shape Of A Town (1977)
• Aspects Of Kirkwall : Occasions (1977)
• Aspects Of Kirkwall : The Ba, Over The Years (1981)
• Aspects Of Kirkwall : The Look Of The Place (1981)
• Aspects Of Kirkwall : Some Changes (1981)
• Landmakar (1981)
• Blue Black Permanent (1992) (Feature)
• Garden Pieces (1998)

References

• Preserving the Hand-Painted Films of Margaret Tait, (MA Dissertation), Joss Winn, 2002
• National Library of Scotland: Scottish Screen Archive (Biography of Margaret Tait with links to film details and clips)