Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations is an artists’ film by Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott commissioned by Cove Park and ACT, who together form the Argyll Climate Beacon.
Responding to the Scottish rainforest, the film is a poetic document of collaborative learning which expands from observational documentary footage, conversations, and a critical engagement with place.
Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations was filmed across the Argyll area, taking us from the experimental mono-cultural forestry of Kilmun Arboretum, to sites of Atlantic Rainforest at Cormonachan Community Woodland, Taynish National Nature Reserve, Barnluasgan, and recent planting of native tree species at Cove Park.
The film moves from blocks of planted forest to fragmented pockets of native woodland—from one management system to another. Paying close attention to the language and history of forest management and how this might develop into the future, we ask, what is allowed to grow, and what is not?
A digital copy of the accompanying publication can be viewed here.
Screenings
St Andrews Botanic Garden, 14 Sep 2024
Oban Phoenix Cinema, 17 Sep 2023
Online Screening, via Cove Park, 2-30 Nov 2022
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 1 Nov 2022
Cove Park, 30 May 2022