BY HER own admission, Shona Thomson spends a lot of time “hanging out in archives”.

The result is a bonus for coastal communities around Scotland who are benefiting from a touring programme of little seen gems of Scottish life.

Made by the Sea is an archive cinema tour that started yesterday in Portsoy and will visit communities from Ullapool to Barra over the summer.

Curated and hosted by Thomson, each event will offer the opportunity for an informal post-screening “blether” with local historians and special guests connected to the films.

The tour is supported as part of the British Film Institute’s Britain on Film UK-wide project through Film Hub Scotland and the BFI Film Audience Network using funds from the National Lottery.

“I’m excited to be out on the road again showing archive films in coastal communities where the footage was originally shot and is still relevant today,” said Thomson.

“From warships sailing into 1950s Ullapool to the important work of the RNLI lifeboats in the treacherous Pentland Firth, portrayals of life on and near the sea have often been dramatic. But Made by the Sea audiences can expect the lighter side too, with fabulous seaside holidays on the West coast and television’s legendary wanderer Tom Weir exploring the island of Vatersay near Barra.”

WHAT ELSE IS ON?

FROM high drama on the fishing boats to popular seaside destinations, the sea has played an important part in Scotland’s national moving image collection.

Featuring archive films from as early as 1908 on the big screen, the Made by the Sea tour opened with a live screening event at Portsoy Salmon Bothy as part of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival and now travels to five seaside venues across Scotland during the summer: Ullapool, Tobermory, Johnshaven, as part of the Johnshaven Fish Festival, Thurso, and Castlebay on the Isle of Barra.

Each screening on the tour is a chance to see unusual films local to each location alongside rarely-seen gems from the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive and the archives of STV and the RNLI.

Highlights include a wonderful record of village life in 1950s Portsoy, Cullen and Aberchirder filmed by local cinema manager William Davidson; the impact of the Eastern European “Klondyker” factory ships in 1980s Ullapool; a vintage tourist’s guide to beautiful Tobermory; King George VI’s Coronation celebrations in Laurencekirk; footage of the 1953 Thurso Gala Week with live musical accompaniment; and a 1920s song-hunter on the Isle of Barra.

Three of the Made by the Sea screenings will be in the newly-refurbished Screen Machine, Scotland’s mobile cinema in the Highlands and Islands.

ANY OTHER HIGHLIGHTS?

THE coast will also come to the heart of the city on Saturday, July 1, with an 80th anniversary screening of Michael Powell’s The Edge Of The World at the University of Edinburgh’s remarkable FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility. Showing as part of the 71st edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, audiences will experience the film above a unique circular wave tank, 25 metres in diameter and 5m deep which can replicate any coastal sea condition from around the UK.

Presented by New Media Scotland as part of their Atmosphere expanded cinema programme, the screening of Powell’s drama about the evacuation of St Kilda will see the wave forms manipulated live in concert with the action on screen. Accompanying the feature will be a showing of the archive BFI documentary St Kilda: Its People and Birds with a newly-commissioned score from by Alex Menzies and lighting by Florence To.

ANY MORE?

THEN in August, internationally renowned beatboxer and sound artist Jason Singh returns with his astonishing live soundtrack to John Grierson’s seminal 1929 silent documentary Drifters. The 2017 Following The Fleet: Drifters tour will retrace the historic route down Britain’s east coast following the journey of the herring shoals and drifter fleets, commencing in the historic port of Leith on August 5 before calling at UK City of Culture 2017 Hull and finishing at Great Yarmouth.

Kicking off the tour, the special Leith event is presented by A Kind of Seeing in partnership with leading arts organisation, LeithLate. Complementing Singh’s unique semi-improvised score for Grierson’s portrayal of the dramatic daily routines of North Sea herring trawlermen, each event will also feature a rare big screen presentation of local archive fishing films. From poets to DJs, artists local to the area will accompany these films responding to the themes of environment and labour migration that are just as urgent today.

WHY USE A BEATBOXER?

LAST year, Thomson, the woman behind A Kind of Seeing, took Drifters on a tour from Shetland to Anstruther in Fife, stimulating much interest even though the film was made 90 years ago.

“Grierson was a formidable director who wanted to get a message across to the rich and the governments of the world about the toughness of working people’s lives,” said Thomson.

“He wanted to do this with Drifters and it is a very visceral film of being on the high sea and the great effort needed to pull in two miles of net with no gloves and no health and safety even for the filmmakers. The cameraman had to be lashed to the mast.

“Singh makes music with his mouth which is seen as an urban youth style of music but the very visceral, energetic and atmospheric score connects with the hard graft and repetitive sounds of the engine so there is a close connection between what you are seeing on screen from 90 years ago and what you are hearing. It’s great we are restarting the tour in Leith in partnership with Leith Late.”

For more details visit madebythesea.net