Edinburgh-based Cinetopia is collaborating with The Debutante (a feminist-surrealist magazine), and musician-composers Aurora Engine (Deborah Shaw), and Bell Lungs (Ceylan Hay) to bring audiences ELECTRIC MUSES: a women-led evening of surrealist film and creative, technologically enhanced live music.

ELECTRIC MUSES celebrates women working in creative technology spanning across two centuries, bringing their overlooked input into the public eye.

Since the birth of cinema, women filmmakers have used this “electric” art form to tell their stories. With ELECTRIC MUSES we will merge cinema and live, technologically enhanced music to highlight the profound contributions women have made in creative technology art forms.

Cinetopia is showcasing four surrealist films made by pioneering female filmmakers over the 20th century alongside the compositions of two contemporary Scotland-based composers, both of whom use technology heavily as part of their process and performances, Aurora Engine and Bell Lungs.

The main feature will be ‘The Seashell and the Clergyman’ (1928) by Germaine Dulac, a female surrealist filmmaker and director active during the 1920’s. This will be accompanied by a live soundtrack composed and performed by Aurora Engine and Bell Lungs.

In addition, audiences will experience a newly commissioned score of Maya Deren’s experimental short, 'Meshes of the Afternoon' (1943) composed and performed by the same musical team. Two additional short films will be screened curated by The Debutante.

The curatorial team will introduce audiences to the programme, and to the contributions these female surrealist filmmakers made to the movement and to the history of filmmaking.

A Q&A will also follow between the audience and musicians about the work of the various filmmakers and the process of scoring music.

Film titles as part of this screening of Electric Muses:

Short films – screened with original sounds

You Be Mother ( Sarah Pucill) - 1990 - 7 min

Psychosynthesis (Barbara Hammer) 1975 - 6 min

Short films – performed with Live Music

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren; Alexander Hammid) 1943 - 14 minutes

The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac) 1928 - 41 minutes

This screening of ELECTRIC MUSES is part of Film Feels Curious, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. Explore all films and events at filmfeels.co.uk.