Scottish event cinema tour dates announced for WHERE YOU’RE MEANT TO BE ‐ Paul Fegan’s feature documentary, starring Sheila Stewart and Aidan Moffat.
Following its sold out Barrowland Ballroom premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, Where You’re Meant To Be hits the road with a preview event cinema tour at venues across Scotland from 25th March. The film plus a live set from Aidan Moffat and friends will visit a limited number of venues from Skye to Blairgowrie, granting communities where the film started out access to preview before a wider release later this year.
In the spring of 2014, Scottish cult‐pop raconteur Aidan Moffat and award‐winning filmmaker Paul Fegan made plans to tour the length of Scotland – to socialise with local characters, carouse into the early hours, and explore the country’s music traditions as part of a folkloric pop voyage called Where You’re Meant To Be.
It was meant to be the basis for a film depicting Moffat’s road trip. It was meant to be a film that celebrated Scotland’s communities and lore, as the former Arab Strap frontman toured his modern re‐interpretations of old folk songs.But just before they hit the road, Fegan and Moffat met Sheila Stewart: a 79‐year‐old force of nature, the last in a line of travelling folk royalty, and a balladeer whose life – and unexpected death in September 2014 – upturned Moffat’s folk assumptions, and diverted the course of Fegan’s film.
The ensuing film, Where You’re Meant To Be, is a warm‐hearted and open‐armed journey through Scottish music, landscape and time. It’s also a moving, wry and enlightening depiction of two of our country’s most distinct and vital voices, as they cross paths (and words): Moffat believes Scotland’s oldest songs are ripe for re‐working against a contemporary urban backdrop. Stewart does not.
Following Moffat’s initial encounter with Stewart last spring, and with her wrath ringing in his ears, we see him embark on a trip around Scotland’s remote parts with his band in tow, to immerse himself, and his bawdy muse, in folk clubs, gatherings, our oldest songs. He encounters myriad colourful myths and characters along the way: feuding monster hunters at Loch Ness; a heartbroken crofter singing at his kitchen table on the Isle of Skye; a gaggle of chain‐mail clad warriors, re‐animating history in a village cemetery outside Oban; and many singers, tales and songs.
When Moffat’s tour of Scotland comes full circle – back to Glasgow, where he lives, and where it all began – he finds himself cornered as Stewart takes her last stand at the Barrowland Ballroom. The world‐famous venue is a fitting locale for their crowning face‐off: a symbol of social gatherings past; the best‐loved rock stage in the world; and a recurring character in a film – and love story – with a sense of community at its heart.
On bringing the film back to the communities involved director Paul Fegan commented, “I’m excited to show the film first within the communities that we toured and where the characters within the film live. All the songs and stories shared with us over the past three years have helped shape the film greatly. It’s been a long journey since we first started and I can’t wait to share the finished film with our Scottish audiences first, and then further afield.”
The World Premiere of Where You’re Meant To Be at the Barrowland Ballroom on 19th February is now sold out. Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) goers have another chance to see the film ‐ with a Q&A with Aidan Moffat and Paul Fegan ‐ at the Glasgow Film Theatre on 24th February at 1.30pm.
Following its run at GFF, Where You’re Meant To Be will have a preview event cinema tour at venues across Scotland, featuring a live set with Aidan Moffat and friends after each screening. The tour will call at:
Running length film: 75 mins
25 March – Belmont Cinema Aberdeen
26 March – Cullerlie Farm Park
27 March – DCA Dundee
31 March – Aros Hall Skye
1 April – Drumnadrochit Village Hall
2 April – Phoenix Cinema Oban
3 April – Bo’ness Hippodrome
6 April – Adam Smith Theatre Kirkcaldy
8 April – Blairgowrie Town Hall
9 April – Filmhouse Edinburgh
Tickets for the preview screenings above go on sale Friday 5th February at 12pm. All screenings ‐ including festival and upcoming screenings ‐ and online ticket sales will be listed on the film’s website at whereyouremeanttobe.com.
Readers can connect to Where You’re Meant To Be online via Facebook: www.facebook.com/whereyouremeanttobe and sign up for updates at whereyouremeanttobe.com.
Alongside the Where You’re Meant To Be event cinema tour, Aidan Moffat releases his album with the same title on 25th March. The CD album will be on sale at whereyouremeanttobe.com and is now available to pre order.
Credits:
A Better Days production is association with Creative Scotland and Scottish Documentary Institute. Director / Producer: Paul Fegan
Written by: David Arthur & Paul Fegan
Executive Producers: Stewart Henderson, Sonja Henrici, Noe Mendelle and Mark Thomas
PR enquiries / interviews, high‐res stills, press tickets:
Ruth Marsh on ruth.marshpr@gmail.com or 078244 68396.
All other enquiries:
Ellen Tolsma (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) ellen@screenpmd.com or 07531 785983.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Aidan Moffat
Aidan Moffat is one of Scotland’s most distinctive musical and literary voices. A compelling performer, lyricist, author and storyteller, the former Arab Strap singer won 2012’s Scottish Album of the Year Award for his collaboration with Bill Wells, Everything’s Getting Older. His latest album with Bill Wells, The Most Important Place In The World, was released last year.
About Paul Fegan
Paul Fegan’s debut short documentary, Pouters (2012), won countless awards including Best Documentary (Jury Award) at London Short Film Festival, Best Film (Audience Award) at Hamburg International Short Film Festival and Best Scottish Short Film (Jury Award) at the Glasgow Short Film Festival. He also directed Moffat and Wells’ promo video for The Copper Top.
About Sheila Stewart
Sheila Stewart MBE (1935‐2014) was Scotland’s definitive ballad singer. A storyteller and traveller who was born in a stable in Blairgowrie, she honed her voice while berry picking in Perthshire, sang for the Pope and performed in the White House, and her tales and songs and lore found friends in the likes of Hamish Henderson, Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl. In the foreword to Stewart’s 2011 autobiography, A Traveller’s Life, storyteller Jess Smith called Stewart “the vibrant heart of Scotland’s travelling folk”.