Arguably the most famous resident of Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, Margaret Tait dedicated much of her life to making short, lightly experimental films that were mostly inspired by the rich and rugged terrain around her. This four minutes and twenty seconds of perfection from 1952 sees Tait training her camera on her own mother who just saunters across the landscape with a cigarette permanently dangling from her bottom lip. It's a paean to relaxation and how life can be purely defined by the connection we make to the earth, eliciting pleasure from flowers, books the wind and the light. And the simple musical accompaniment and a muttered, barely audible voice over all come together to produce a deceptively simple and nakedly moving piece of cinematic poetry.
