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Film festival celebrates region's textile history

Alchemy Festival A textile loom in operation with a range of red, black and yellow threadsAlchemy Festival
The film festival is celebrating the importance of textiles to the Borders this year

A film festival in the Borders is celebrating the region's textile history this year.

The Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival is in its 15th edition and runs in Hawick from 1 to 4 May.

It includes a film looking at the legacy of textile designers Bernat and Margaret Klein who lived near Selkirk.

Festival director Michael Pattinson said they were excited to host its premiere in the Borders.

Alchemy Festival A man bends over a machine at the centre of a Borders textile factoryAlchemy Festival
The 15th edition of the festival runs from 1 to 4 May

The film, called On Weaving, is the work of 2012 Turner Prize nominee, Luke Fowler and 2014 Max Mara prize winner, Corin Sworn.

It features the current owners of the Kleins former home, talking about them and the story of the textile industry in the Borders.

Mr Pattinson said he was delighted to have the film as part of this year's festival.

"The film is a rich portrait of the Klein home as well as of active sites of textiles production in the Scottish Borders," he said.

"Its use of analogue film to capture these places in all their colour and texture provides a lasting snapshot of our region's architectural and industrial heritage."

Alchemy Festival Film makers at work in a Borders textile factory looking at the material madeAlchemy Festival
The Borders is still home to a large number of textiles firms