So Many Partings (clip 1)
Scenes of farewell and of the old ways of life, set to traditional songs reflecting emigration
- Description
- Questions & Activities
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Description
Grampian Television documentary about emigration in the 1960s.
A steamer funnel blows, and crowds say goodbye to departing passengers on the quayside. There are emotional shots of people watching the shore recede as the ship sails away, waving corn fields, and wild cotton blowing in the wind. There are landscape shots of lochs, hills, fields and forests.
Songs include: Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw; White Waves on the Water
Updated October 2020
Questions & Activities
Questions
- Why do you think they are leaving and where are they going?
- What expectations do they have?
- How is sound used in the clip?
- Why were these songs chosen?
Activities
Discuss the concepts of 'motherland', home and national identity.
Research romanticism around agriculture in art and song.
Discuss the emotions shown in the film as well as the ways emigration is sentimentalised.
Watch the film without the sound and try to work out what the film is about. Then watch the film again with sound and discuss why these words and sounds were chosen.
Clip Details
| Record Id | 007-000-002-137-C |
|---|---|
| Resource Rights Holder | Courtesy of Scottish Television |
| Project Ref | 0806 |
| Date | 1966 |
| Genre | TV Documentary |
| School Subject | Social Studies, History, Geography, Music, English |
| Subject Matter | Media, Emigration, Immigrants and Exiles, Free at Last, Journeys, Life in the Sixties, International |
| Who | Edward Joffe (director), Grampian Television (production company) |
| Where | Greenock |
| Event | Emigration |
| Attributes | Black and White, Sound |
| Clip Length | 8:32 |
| Film Length | 26:50 |
| References | Alan Spence 'Sailmaker'. |