Hamish Henderson - An Artist's Inspiration

Charles Nasmyth's film An Artist's Inspiration screens at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Sunday 15 November, as part of the Carrying Stream Festival. The film looks at the man behind the legend: Perthshire-born Hamish Henderson, a multi-talented figure who was the only British soldier well enough versed in Italian to take the surrender of the fascist armies in Italy in 1944, and who helped Jewish children escape Nazi Berlin. He went on to help found the School of Scottish Studies and recorded hundreds of songs and ballads from rural Scotland. Nasmyth meets many of Henderson's friends and collaborators to explain why he felt so strongly that Henderson should be commemorated in a painting.

There's a bit more to the afternoon than the film itself. Once the screening finishes, Professor Fred Freeman will play three recently recorded and virtually unknown Hamish Henderson songs, a fifteen-minute addition that lets you hear the very thing Henderson spent so much of his life collecting. The whole thing runs for 75 minutes, so it's a fairly self-contained session.

The screening sits within the Carrying Stream Festival, which runs from 11 to 18 November at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and explores the changing world of the traditional arts. Its ethos celebrates the 'Carrying Stream' — the organic route by which music, song, spoken word and culture are passed from person to person and generation to generation. The festival grew out of the Edinburgh Folk Club, and the Scottish Storytelling Centre is part of its revival this year.

It's at the Netherbow Theatre, inside the Scottish Storytelling Centre at 43-45 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SR. The screening starts at 14:00 on Sunday 15 November, and tickets are £8.00.