Of the many stories fairies tell
This you must remember well
It is a tale of those who’ve died
Beneath the swirling, rushing tide
And of others who were doomed
As smoke engulfed and flames consumed
And if you think this is their fate
The fairies know it’s not too late
For deep within the rumbling sea
There’s magic that can set them free.

-The Water’s Tale-

I have always believed art isn’t an extravagance in our culture. It is where we explore meaning. The word ‘art’ is embedded in the word ‘heart.’ I follow my spirit on my creative journey. And I find solace and comfort when I find other artists doing the same. Nova Scotian filmmaker Ann Verrall is one of them.

She has made a lot of inspiring work which you can see on her website. http://www.shortworksproductions.ca

This is an installation art piece she is currently working and below that are her words and links to her experimental feminist fairy tale, The Water’s Tale.

First screened at Nocturne Halifax October 2014

 

The Water’s Tale

46 min. 1996

Multi award winning epic experimental feminist fairy tale from 1996, shot on Hi-8 video and edited before the digital revolution.

Synopsis

by Ann Verrall

At the edge of the world a Child learns from her Grandmother that she is descended from the fairies. She longs to know more but her Grandmother is silent. To find the story of her past, the Child enter the land of The In-between and travels to the beginning of time when Fairies roamed the earth. But the story she finds is not the one she wants. In a fit of anger she sends her Grandmother down into the sea to find the magic story she wishes for. Filled with remorse, she plunges into the sea to bring her back. As the Child sinks, the sleeping world of fairies begins to stir and the long lost secrets are awakened. The Water’s Tale is a story of the interconnection between a woman and the past – herself as a child and the burden of history through the ages.

The Water’s Tale was inspired by three stories:

My grandmother told me I was descended from the Picts in Northern Scotland – a people who left no written records and the idea of them has been transformed into a semi-mythical race of fairies.

My mother told me about the killing of two Covenanters.

The mostly forgotten story of the Wigtown martyrs in Scotland during the “killing years” of 1680-5 when the Covenanters refused to accept the restoration of the Roman Catholic church. Margaret Lachlane, aged 63, and Margaret Wilson, in her 20s – were tied to stakes in Wigtown’s mudflats, and allowed to drown as the tide came in.

My discovery of the Jeanne d’Arc story.