CinemARC: I Swear

To celebrate Burns night, we are excited to be taking you to the Scottish Borders with an acclaimed recent production, I Swear.

After the film, join us for a Q&A panel with University of Glasgow linguists, Prof. Jennifer Smith and Dr Clara Cohen, led by Prof. Joanna Kopaczyk-McPherson. We will dig into various shades of swearing — in our brains, in our language, and in Scottish culture more broadly. Why do swear words generate emotions, why do they sound different than other words, and why do they burst out before we have time to think? From there, we turn to Scotland’s reputation as a famously “sweary” place. Where does that idea come from, who keeps it alive, and what does it say about class, history, humour, and power? The panel looks at how Scottish voices are presented on screen: Scots dialects, Scottish English, and other languages of Scotland. Who is allowed to swear, and for what narrative effect? Expect an engaging conversation that asks what swearing reveals about us as individuals and social beings.

About the panel

Professor Jennifer Smith (FBA, FRSE) is a sociolinguist whose research focusses on the drivers of linguistic change in the here and now. She has created two major digital resources for the analysis of dialect patterns across Scotland: Speak for Yersel and The Scots Syntax Atlas. Speech recordings in the latter have 54 instances of our favourite national swear word.

Dr Clara Cohen is an experimental psycholinguist who studies how listeners can use subtle details of pronunciation variation to predict larger grammatical structures, and how encountering complex grammatical structures affects listeners’ ability to hear sounds, predict meaning, and encode memories. She has a highly developed practical proficiency in swearing.

Professor Joanna Kopaczyk-McPherson is a historical linguist who specialises in the history of Scots. She is fascinated by multilingualism in medieval and early modern Scotland and by how we construct narratives of minoritised languages. She has studied the language of flyting - a competitive exchange of insults, which can serve as entertainment or get one into serious trouble.

I Swear | 2025 | 121 mins

Funny, honest, and deeply human, I Swear tells the inspirational true story of John Davidson, a trailblazer whose honesty and humour helped the world better understand what it means to live with Tourette Syndrome.

Based on an inspirational true story, I Swear charts the remarkable journey of a Scottish man whose life was irrevocably changed by the sudden onset of Tourette's syndrome. A bright, funny, football-mad lad with everything ahead of him, 15-year-old John Davidson’s life seemingly splinters in 1983 when he develops uncontrollable vocal and physical tics at a time when Tourette’s was barely understood, even by doctors. Feeling ostracized by the world around him — including his own family — he retreats into years of relative isolation, burdened by the anxiety, shame, and loneliness that can often accompany the neurological condition.

Everything shifts when John (now in his late twentiess) meets Dottie, the no-nonsense mother of a former schoolmate, who has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The bond that forms between them is as unexpected as it is life-changing. With Dottie’s fierce encouragement and unwavering support, John finds belonging, purpose, and the confidence to be himself.

Schedule

17:30 - 17:45

Introduction

17:45 - 19:45

I Swear film plays

19:45 - 20:30

Panel discussion and Q&A

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This event is free, but ticketed.

You will be provided with one drink on arrival, while stocks last.

You are welcome to bring food with you, but please ensure you take any rubbish away with you.

If you have any access requirements, please contact [email protected].

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