Artful Migration: Coulson and Tenant

The conclusion of this Artist in Residence programme 2026 will be the showcase of the film:  Refugia: A Celtic Rainforest by Coulson and Tennant. This will be premiered in the Wigton Book Festival on Sunday 27^th September 7.30pm and on Wednesday 30^th September at 2pm in Newton Stewart Cinema. This film by Coulson & Tennant is a collaboration with writer Stephen Rutt. Original score by Ben Please will be played live.

https://tickets.wigtownbookfestival.com/sales/events/festival-2026/refugia-a-celtic-rainforest

Refugia: A Celtic Rainforest is an art documentary exploring the temperate rainforests of southwest Scotland — a rare and ancient ecosystem surviving quietly between lochs, farms, and commercial forestry. The film reveals a hidden landscape where the birds, mosses and lichens of these oakwoods persist against the pressures of time, industry, and climate. Structured around local voices and the journeys of migratory bird species, the film draws subtle parallels between ecological migration and human movement. It reflects on ideas of survival, belonging, refuge, and home. As migratory birds travel thousands of miles between rainforests in Africa and Scotland, the film considers migration as a universal and deeply natural act. Reflective, immersive, and emotionally restrained, the film becomes both an ecological portrait and a meditation on persistence, connection, and the fragile worlds that endure unnoticed around us.