What's On Scotland 4-10 Nov: Mark Cousins's Like a Huge Scotland

Is there a busier filmmaker in the UK than Mark Cousins? He made four feature films in 2021 alone and is currently touring film festivals with his latest, The March on Rome. This month, however, he breaks out of the cinema and into the gallery space with his first installation piece: Like a Huge Scotland.

The subject of Cousins’ piece is the great Scottish abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, specifically the extraordinary cycle of paintings she made inspired by climbing across the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. Using a four-channel video installation, shot on 8K cameras, Cousins casts a forensic eye on these paintings, enlarging their details 10,000 times their size while also featuring archive footage of a trip Cousins took to the same Glacier.

The show is peppered with Wilhelmina’s voice as well as music from composer Linda Buckley and sound design by Ania Przygoda. “We will plunge people into the feeling of being inspired,” says Cousins, “of looking anew, of having your brain changed. What does inspiration feel like? What happened to Barns-Graham on that day?” 5-27 Nov, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh

Glasgow Print Fair
The Lighthouse, Glasgow, 5 Nov, 10.30am

For one day only, Glasgow Print Fair is taking over The Lighthouse with some of the biggest and best names in printmaking selling their wares. Stallholders include anarchic powerhouse Black Lodge Press, Brighton-based illustrator Lucy Sherston, Scottish literary magazine Extra Teeth and even some The Skinny contributors. Image: Lucy Sherston

Push the Boat Out
Summerhall, Edinburgh. 4-6 Nov

Poetry festival Push the Boat Out returns with some of the country’s best wordsmiths involved. Highlights include Edinburgh’s Makar Hannah Lavery in conversation with poet Michael Mullen, and there's a riotous gig featuring The Honey Farm (pictured), Omar Musa, Niques, and jayda & houseplants. 

Confidence Man
Barrowlands, Glasgow. 9 Nov, 7pm

The Barras should be bouncier than usual this week as Aussie party band Confidence Man head to Glasgow. Expect wild characters, choreographed dance routines and certified pop bangers; there will be a fair bit of dancing from the crowd too, we imagine. A good time is pretty much guaranteed.

Radical Book Fair
Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh. 10-13 Nov

If you too are feeling extra angry given, well, everything, then Lighthouse Bookshop’s annual Radical Book Fair is a great place to feel more empowered. Themed this year around “Our Fight”, events include a panel on Mutual Aid, a queer life drawing class, and the usual deliciously curated book stalls. Pictured: Eshe Kiama Zuri, panellist at Radical Book Fair. Courtesy of Lighthouse Bookshop

Mark Cousins, Like a Huge Scotland
Fruitmarket, Edinburgh. 5-27 Nov

In May 1949, Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham climbed onto the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. The afternoon changed her life. Inspired by Barns-Graham’s own moment of inspiration, renowned filmmaker Mark Cousins has made an immersive, multi-screen installation in which to enfold the viewer in an angry elegy to a retreating glacier and a passionate tribute to a great artist.

↪The French Film Festival
Various venues across the UK. Until 15 Dec

The French Film Festival turns 30 this year, and is celebrating with new films from Michel Hazanavicius (Final Cut), the Dardenne Brothers (Tori and Lokita) and François Ozon (Peter von Kant). Our pick of the programme, though, is Eric Gravel’s propulsive Full Time (pictured), a social realist thriller that comes on like a Ken Loach film directed by the Safdie Brothers. 

→ Havana Glasgow Film Festival
Various venues, Glasgow. 6-13 Nov

Havana Glasgow Film Festival returns with a spotlight on Black Cuban filmmaking with a particular focus on Black women directors. Highlights include a mini-retrospective dedicated to Sara Gòmez, an Afro-Cuban documentarian who explored the position of women and Afro-Cubans within Cuban society. And on 12 November, the festival hosts a party at Saramago Café, where Cuban DJ Cami Layé Okún comes fresh from Havana.

→ Inverness Film Festival
Eden Court, Inverness, 4-10 Nov

Inverness Film Festival always puts on a remarkable show, bringing some of the biggest and best films from the international circuit right to the heart of the Highlands. Some highlights from this year’s rich and exhilarating programme include Golden Lion-winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and the tender, queer instant British classic Blue Jean.