Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

A film about how we are haunted by, and in turn haunt our ancestors, and a family who cannot agree on how to tell their own story. Family Fugue is a chase in three movements in pursuit of a white snake, a red duchess and a golden boy, spanning eight centuries and starting in a cave. Beginning with the family's origin story of Neish de Ramsay, a 13th century wizard who was said to have cured king Alexander II of Scotland using a potion from a white snake; it continues with Katherine Stewart Murray, Duchess of Atholl, a trailblazing female MP in the early 20th century who fell out of politics because she vocally opposed fascism; and concludes with David Ramsay, a polymath prankster whose life was terminated abruptly during action in World War II, suggesting his death was not final. Playing with these histories as a score to be interpreted, using documentary, reenactment and lush theatrical tableau, the film allows disagreement, criticism and self doubt to flow in and out. ‘Life is not the wick, nor the candle, it is the burning’ Katherine Stewart Murray

GF Ramsay (b. 1988, Dundee, Scotland) is an artist working with poetry, ritual and analogue filmmaking. In 2017 & 2018 he burned hundreds of people’s regrets inside volcanoes across Eurasia. His fake epic poem Raven’s Reprise (2020) tells of a trickster raven travelling through the pandemic and remaking the world to her better designs. His short film CASTOROCENE (2021) sees beavers re-build the world after humans have destroyed it. Mid length film Family Fugue (2022) is about how we are haunted by, and in turn haunt our ancestors. Forthcoming films Nursted from the sleep side (2023) and Flesh, Wax & Glass (2023) deal with the idea of a place falling asleep, and the impossibility of filming sacred rituals respectively. He is currently making plans to have his body thrown into a volcano after he dies. In 2023 Ramsay was shortlisted for the Margaret Tait Award. He has collaborated with artists and scientists such as CAConrad, Clive Oppenheimer, Alexander Hetherington, Coby Sey and Mica Levi.