Rebel Queer Film Club: WITCH // HAG Winter Solstice Film Festival

Witches and Hags are ancient archetypes. Myths and tales of witches have been told as long as women have transgressed gender roles. Historically, the hag was everything that a man feared. She was ugly, she was subversive, and she was powerful. Anytime a woman transgresses she risks being called a Witch, even now. The gruesome true history of the witch massacres of Scotland gives this archetype a deep authenticity in the Scottish Psyche.

Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, but it augers the start of the light. We feel our solstices in Scotland.

WITCH // HAG FILM FESTIVAL

3pm - Doors Open

3.30pm - The Deathless Woman (2019) Dir. Roz Mortimer

A ghost story for the 21st Century. An elegiac account of the Nazi genocide of the Roma expressed through the filmmaker's engagement with The Deathless Woman

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5.30pm - Häxan (1922) Dir. Benjamin Christensen - Rescore By Dave NULL//VOID

Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe

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7.30pm - Panel Discussion: The Witches of Scotland with QC Claire Mitchell & Author Zoe Venditozzi (Free)

Witches of Scotland is a campaign for justice; for a legal pardon, an apology and national monument for the thousands of people – mostly women - that were convicted of witchcraft and executed between 1563 and 1736 in Scotland

PODCAST

8.15pm - She Will (2021) Dir. Charlotte Colbert

An aging film star retreats to the Scottish countryside with her nurse to recover from surgery. While there, mysterious forces of revenge emerge from the land where witches were burned

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9.44pm Solstice Ritual (Free)

Join the Cailleach and clear the darkness to make way for the light

10pm - Special Appearance // Burd Ellen

Neither Witch Nor Will Warlock is a newly curated performance from experimental folk duo Burd Ellen, with film in collaboration with Scottish artist Kieran Milne.

Stories of wayward women, winter hymnal that hinges the sacred and profane, and audio tarot cards will be accompanied by film from their previous work with Milne as well as new visuals produced for this performance.

BANDCAMP

11pm - H6llb6nd6r (2022) Dirs John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

A teen and her mother live simply in a home in the woods, spending their time making metal music, a chance encounter with a fellow teen causes her to uncover a connection between her family and witchcraft

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1.30am - The Craft (1996) Dir Andrew Fleming (Free)

A newcomer to a Catholic prep high school falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls who practice witchcraft, and they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who anger them

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Festival presented as part of IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS a major nationwide film season from the BFI, supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.

Produced by Riot Films and Rebel Queer Film+Club

Supported by the National Lottery, BFI Film Audience Network in cinemas and venues across the UK until 31 December 2022 Http://indreamsaremonsters.co.uk for full UK-wide listings.