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. 

Cinetopia collaborated with The Debutante (a feminist-surrealist magazine), and musician-composers Aurora Engine (Deborah Shaw), and Bell Lungs (Ceylan Hay) to bring audiences Electric Muses to audiences across the UK. This unique event originally premiered in its original form in 2020 at Leith Theatre. In its updated version, the project toured three venues through July 2022: Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. We plan to continue to expand the project and bring it to new audiences in 2023 and beyond.

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 is ‘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 Afternoon composed and performed by the same musical team. Two additional short films by Sarah Pucill and Barbara Hammer will be screened as part of the programme. 

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 followed between the audience and musicians about the work of the various filmmakers and the process of scoring music.

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