Use: Immediate Issue Date: Monday 1 November 2004
GAELIC GOES TO BONN
The Màiri Mhòr Gaelic Song Fellow for The Highland Council, Fiona Mackenzie of Dingwall, has just returned from participating in the second "Film Alba" – the Scottish Gaelic Film Festival, held in Bonn, Germany.
"The first Film Alba was held in 2003 in Bonn and is a celebration of the Gaelic Culture, illustrated through Film and Music. There is a very enthusiastic Gaelic Community throughout Germany, particularly in the Bonn/Cologne area" said Fiona. "There are regular classes and courses in Gaelic, at all levels, as well as Gaelic Song classes and they are all organized and run by the Film Festival Director, Michael Klevenhaus. Michael is a Gaelic learner himself but has brought himself to fluency by sheer hard work and determination and he now visits Scotland every year to run a Gaelic course through the medium of German at the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mor Ostaig."
Fiona and Arthur Cormack of Feisean nan Gaidheal were invited to sing at the opening of the Film Festival held in the Museum of Modern Art Auditorium in Bonn itself and Fiona was also invited to give a song lecture on the great Gaelic Bardess, Màiri Mhòr nan Orain, at the University of Bonn.
She said: "It was a great honour to be invited to lecture at the University and I was very excited to be given the opportunity to take some of Mairi Mhor’s songs to a German audience and also tell them about the Fellowship and the work we are doing to promote Gaelic song in the Highlands. I was given a very warm reception by the Head of Celtic Studies there, Dr Steven Zimmer and he expressed a desire to see more of this kind of partnerships in the future."
The opening ceremony of the Film Festival concentrated on the film ‘Is Mise an Teanga’ ( I am the tongue)- a celebration of the work achieved through the book " An Leabhar Mòr" or the " Big Book of Gaelic". The writer of the film, Kevin Anderson, from Dublin, presented a talk on the reasons for making the film and how they achieved it.
Fiona added: "I had not seen the film before, but it is a wonderful showcase of Gaelic today and our close connections with the Irish Gaelige Community shown through the eyes of poets and artists of today and yesterday. Arthur Cormack and I were asked to sing songs which are included in An Leabhar Mòr and clarsach player Karen Marshalsay, played Gaelic tunes and songs.
"We were both overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown to the Gaelic culture and the reception we received from the many Gaelic learners in Bonn. Michael Klevenhaus works very hard to promote Gaelic in Germany and we can learn many things about our own culture, if we look at it through the eyes of these Gaels in Europe!"
Film Alba was sponsored by Iomairt Colm Cille, Radio nan Gaidheal, BBC and the City of Bonn.