17th June 2009 - Blue Black Permanent

Today we received a long awaited copy of Margaret Tait’s only full-length film, Blue Black Permanent from BFI.

Margaret Tait was an Orcadian film-maker who originally trained as a doctor but began to write, direct and shoot self-funded short films during the 1950s when she studied film-making in Rome. Films, along with writing poetry and short stories, soon became Margaret’s main focus and, although never achieving huge recognition in her lifetime she was very well-respected as an artist by her peers.

Blue Black Permanent was first written in the early 1970s but was not actually filmed until 20 years later when Margaret was in her early 70s. As the production received funding from (amongst others) Channel 4 and Grampian Television, the film was shown on television several times soon after its release and is therefore the best known of Margaret Tait’s films.

The archive holds a semi-catalogued collection of Margaret Tait’s papers and a few of her short films. The collection includes several scripts, copious amounts of production material and files full of correspondence relating to the film. This acquisition of her most famous and ambitious work will augment an already fascinating set of records.