Land Makar

A landscape study of an Orkney croft, with the figure of the crofter, Mary Graham Sinclair, very much in the picture, and enriched throughout by her vivid comments. Filmed over several seasons between 1977 and 1980, it takes in many of the human activities which alter the look of the land. The croft is on the edge of a small loch where swans and other birds nest in the grass. It is worked in the old style and, although a mechanised aids are brought into use when appropriate, much is done by one woman's labour. The crops are hay, turnips, potatoes, kale and oats; the croft also fattens a few cattle and feeds a little flock of hens and a few ducks .... 'Makar' is a Scots word, meaning 'poet'. The film is worked out so that the sequences are like a number of canvases.