National Library of Scotland
A female director holds a camera and directs a young actress.

To celebrate Margaret Salmon's exhibition 'Assembly' at the Hunterian Art Gallery, we are screening her debut feature film 'Eglantine' followed by a Q&A session with the artist herself.

Born in 1975 in Suffern, New York, Margaret Salmon lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. She creates filmic portraits that weave together poetry and ethnography. Focusing on individuals in their everyday activities, her films capture the minutiae of daily life and infuse them with gentle grandeur, touching upon universal human themes.

Her debut feature 'Eglantine' (2016) is not only a loving homage to classic children's films such as Ray Ashley's 'Little Fugitive', Jean Renoir's 'The River' and Albert Lamorisse's 'The Red Balloon', but draws from nature studies of the past, such as Mary Field's 'Secrets of Nature' series.

Shot on 35mm in various locations around Scotland, Salmon draws inspiration from a range of cinematic movements as well as wildlife documentaries to produce a lyrical and sensual portrait of a child's eye perspective on the natural world. A copy of this film is preserved here at the National Library of Scotland's Moving Image Archive, and we're delighted to bring it out of the vault for this special screening.

This event will be chaired by Eleni Stavrou, Communications and Audiences Coordinator for the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

You may be interested in

Concrete dreams

Screening
3 September 2025, 6:30PM to 8:00PM
The cover of the 'Concrete Dreams' book and another copy of it open showing an interior of a building.

Mackintosh on film

Screening
29 October 2025, 6:30PM to 7:45PM
Title frame from the film 'Mackintosh Redux' with the dates 1868 and 1928.

100 years in a day

Screening
26 November 2025, 6:30PM to 7:30PM
Two black and white film strips containing eight stills take from archive films showing various daily activities.