Taking Time (In a cinema of small gestures) | Workshop with Alexander Hetherington

Alexander Hetherington leads this new, free workshop for artists who are interested in learning more about working with 16mm film in a small group setting.

There are 12 places available and the workshop is open to artists who are based in Scotland and not in education.

The workshop will take Alex’s recent experimental sound and image portrait ​‘The Disco’ (2025), as a starting point. Alex will introduce his evolving approach to 16mm film within his visual art practice, reflecting on his films that ​‘observe encounters between artists, the often precarious lived experiences of different communities, the intangibility of historical objects, personal biographies, diaristic writing and (queer) perceptions of time.’

Participants will be guided through some select approaches to handling 16mm cameras, that Alex describes as ​‘liberating, investigative prompts’ that can be applied to participants’ own moving image, filmmaking or creative practices.

The workshop will include discussion around Alex’s ideas of ​‘economy, care, contingency and slowness as well as a certain (queer) pursuit of failure’ as guiding methods to working with 16mm film and also reflect on Alex’s interest in British filmmaker Derek Jarman’s ​‘a cinema of small gestures’ and the poetic short 16mm films of Portuguese artists João Mario Gusmão & Pedro Paiva.

‘The Disco’ (2025) will be available for participants to view online, in advance of the workshop, with audio description and open captions.

This workshop will be live captioned, provided by an in-person captioner.

Application deadline: 10am, Monday 23 June 2025

This workshop is delivered in partnership with Culture Perth and Kinross.