Nationwide tribute to first Scots female film director Margaret Tait will mark centenary of her birth

SCOTLAND’S first female film director is being celebrated with a major retrospective of her work.

Orcadian Margaret Tait was a distinguished poet, writer and film-maker, who made history as the first female Scots director of a feature-length film – Blue Black Permanent, starring Celie Imrie.

A nationwide tribute is being organised by the British Film Institute to mark the centenary of her birth next month.

“Tait’s unique mix of image, sound, rhythm and poetry reminds us of what cinema is and can be,” said an institute spokesperson.

Tait was born in Kirkwall in November 1918 and later moved to Edinburgh to study medicine, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in India and the Far East during the Second World War.

She later moved to Rome to study film and made her first short movie, One Is One, in Italy in 1951.

In 1954 she returned to Scotland, settling in Edinburgh and founding Ancona Films, eventually making more than 30 shorts, mostly about everyday life in the city.

She moved back to her beloved Orkneys in 1973 and worked as a locum to fund her film work.

Rhythm and Poetry – The Films of Margaret Tait – is at selected cinemas around the country from October 29.