UK Premiere of Daphne was a torso ending in leaves at Alchemy Film Festival, Hawick, 2-5 May 2024

Screening: Lands of Make Believe

HEART OF HAWICK

SATURDAY 4 MAY
12:00 – 13:30 / 66′ + Q&A

Catriona Gallagher and Nariman Massoumi will be present for the Q&A. 

PROGRAMME NOTES
by Rachael Disbury

In Lands Of Make Believe, four films scrutinise mythmaking as the basis and backdrop of narratives taken for granted – those of nationhood, colonialism, erasure and empire. 

Catriona Gallagher’s Daphne was a torso ending in leaves centres on a heroine of classical mythology. Reanimating Daphne’s metamorphosis from woman to laurel tree, following her plea for protection from Apollo’s pursuits, Gallagher questions the obliteration and abstraction implicit in the tale. Guiding us through Daphne’s materiality and centrality, from the high-status symbol of the laurel wreath to the nourishing staple of the bay leaf, Gallagher intervenes upon feminine erasure with an immersive soundtrack, transfixing 16mm imagery and a carefully paced text-based suspense. 

Screening alongside Sarah Ballard’s Heat Spells, Chris Paul Daniels’s Is there anybody there? and Nariman Massoumi’s Pouring Water On Troubled Oil