Refugia: A Celtic Rainforest

Refugia: A Celtic Rainforest

A film by Coulson & Tennant in collaboration with Stephen Rutt. Original score by Ben Please.

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.

This exhibition is a part of the Season of Photography 2026 -  a celebration of photography in Scotland running from 1 September – 20 December 2026