A long road back

For those wondering what has become of me, I am still recovering from my neurosurgery of March 2023. I had a decompression of the cerebellum, laminectomy of the C1 and then cervical fusion (so I could hold my head up). This all followed a bump to the head in 2013 and I knew I was going to have to get things sorted sooner rather than later, with the PhD causing things to be later. Unfortunately, after my op I got meningitis then hydrocephalus and had a couple of falls so didn’t make things easy for myself.

Currently, I am an incredibly slow walker with a steady wobble. I also see two or three of everything which is only really desirable when it’s the moon. But the spirit is strong and the Bigton people are the best folk to be amongst in times of trouble. I am working very slowly on the Shetland Arts/ McNey Art Museum/ British Council commission I was awarded in 2021 (thank you for being so enormously patient) and figuring out a way to be visually impaired filmmaker. There will be a way.

I have been out the hospital for a while but this was the work of the Gilbert Bain physios who helped me celebrate the award of my PhD. They were and still are great at helping me appreciate all I have done and am doing.

I have submitted

After 6 years and 3 months (fast, slow, slow, slow, fast) on January 6, 2023 I submitted my film and written thesis.

The final title is ‘Attending, listening, taking time: the quietly radical ethical practice of the filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson.’ It considers the extractive and assimilatory nature of documentary filmmaking and looks to Jenny Gilbertson’s practice of attention as a way to foreground those you film and film with, creating a way of working and making that strives to recognise, respect and reciprocate.

I had my viva on February 8th. Thank you to Susan Berridge (chair), Barbara Evans (external), Maria Velez Serna and Elizabeth Ezra for one of the best hours of my life and for doing this so promptly in the light of my impending neurosurgery. And thank you to my supervisor Sarah Neely for the years of support, advice and for willing me on. Thank you to everyone who willed me on. I will write about my thanking at a later date.

And, yes, I wore an Oodie to my viva. I was so excited and absorbed, I let the fire go out.

Wildie and Lalla (2021)

An honouring of Jessie Saxby (Wildie) (1842-1940) through her writings and love of her late daughter, Lalla.

Commissioned by Shetland Arts and Creative Scotland.

Words and music Catriona Macdonald

Cinematography and editing Shona Main

Editing Angelica Kroeger

March 2020: going back to Grise Fiord

I am packing and readying to head back to Grise Fiord to see the people who helped me when I was there in 2018. I will show them the film I have made on my experience of following Jenny Gilbertson to and around Grise Fiord. After listening to their responses and thinking with their thoughts I will make the necessary changes so they are at ease with how they and their community is represented.

I will be there for just under three weeks so I will have a bit of time to experience Grise Fiord in Early Spring, do some more filming and recording and enjoy the company of friends. Thereafter I will return to Scotland to do the finishing edit, complete my written thesis and submit.

UPDATE: This trip has been postponed. Be safe, Nunavummuit.

‘Jenny’s Arctic Diary’ goes home after 40 years

It turns out this was the first ever public screening of the film in Grise Fiord.

Lovely screening of Gilbertson's 'Jenny's Arctic Diary' in Grise Fiord Hamlet last night. pic.twitter.com/enwGGRqvLx

— shonamain (@shonamain) October 6, 2018