‘a forecast, a haunting, a crossing, a visitation’ was originally created as an immersive 3-screen installation. For this screening, all visual elements of the work are re-presented within one screen. 

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a forecast, a haunting, a crossing, a visitation focuses largely on Scotland and Cape Wrath, wherein a series of characters Uranio (Uranium), Agüita (an affectionate name for water) and Vientazo (a gust of wind), write letters to one another. The letters appeal to the water, the wind and the toxic land, speculating upon the navigation of bodily crisis, health and grief, speaking of the feeling of mourning environmental loss. Previously shown as a three-channel video installation, the film includes images from the Vieques Archive of Historical Memory, video footage of protests recorded by Vieques filmmaker Andrés Nieves, and posters and stickers of Scottish Vieques solidarity actions, filmed at the Park Ranger Archives at Durness Information Centre. The film is informed by these connections, and by oral histories from farmers and workers from Durness and Cape Wrath, where Emilia visited in October 2018. The film holds an oral history of fisherman, crofter and mini bus operator James Mather, framing stories of healing and activism through the ubiquity of peat and moss. The work also speaks of Scotland’s lesser told colonial history - the movement of ships and supplies across the Atlantic, and a Scottish ship’s five-day occupation of Crabb Island (the British name for Vieques) in 1698, as part of Scotland’s failed attempt to set up a colony in the Caribbean Gulf of Darién.

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Director Emilia Beatriz 

Sound Design Kiera Coward-Deyell 

Oral History James Mather

Archival Footage Andrés Nieves

Commissioned by CCA, Glasgow

With thanks to Ainslie Roddick, Cine Vieques, Vieques Museum of Historical Memory, Donald Mitchell, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Scottish Collections at Mitchell Library, Hope Scott Trust, Glasgow Visual Arts Makers Awards, Robert Rabin, Beta Local 

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Emilia Beatriz is an artist, access worker and beekeeper-in-study from Puerto Rico’s diaspora, living in Glasgow. Emilia’s work addresses interconnected histories of bodies, land and resistance. Their practice engages griefwork attuned to climate and place, informed by oral history and community archiving. Emilia was the 2020/2021 Margaret Tait Award recipient, their forthcoming film 'barrunto' seeks to poetically translate ‘embodied forecasting’ through immersive sensorial storytelling.