Away with the Faeries

Fresh from the launch of the Map of Stories its great to hear that Iona Lee’s film poem Away with the Faeries, is the winner of the August prize for The John Byrne Award. John Byrne Awards explains:

“Away With the Faeries is a reimagining of the fantastical Scottish ballad ‘Tam Lin’. This haunting film, recorded at the witching hour in Warriston cemetery, is the result of cross-discipline collaboration between a poet, a musician and a film-maker. Tam Lin remains radical, not only for its rare featuring of a female hero, but in its emphasising of female desire and its pro-choice sentiments. We, as artists, were interested in evincing contemporary resonances from this ancient Scottish folk tale, investigating the implicit feminist overtones and allowing the audience to interpret in terms of their own personal experience. The character of Tam Lin appears amorphous in word, as well as image. In many ways, he is the archetypal tragic hero, a mascot of romantic masculinity, which has more recently fallen from its pedestal. While inherently magical, the narrative is universal. This is a tale of gender dynamics in a turbulent first love, which asks the question: are fallen idols worth saving?”

Credits: A Film Poem by Iona Lee and Alex Auldsmith

Poem : Away with the Faeries by Iona Lee
Video : Directed, Filmed and Edited by Alex Auldsmith
Sound Design : Callum Govan