Screening Welsh films in the land of Sioni Winwns
Do you remember when everything used to be closed on a Sunday, and when the world would come to a stop on market day in the local town? Do you remember the days when shire horses would work the fields and when pit ponies would accompany the miners to the face? Weren't they the 'good old days?'But, 'boy, things have changed...' since then! And in the Celtic Film and Television Festival in Quimper, Brittany, the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales will be giving our Celtic cousins an opportunity to experience some of the social changes that occurred in Wales after the Second World War - from changes in agriculture to changes in industry, education, religion and politics.
The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales' selection will include footage of an old way of life - a clip of the methods used to churn butter on the island of Bardsey during the 1950s in 'An Island in the Current', or shots of silent Sundays in Wales during the 1940s in 'A Road to Yesterday'.
However, other footage in the selection also show a Wales on a 'road to tomorrow', and demonstrate that change was already underway - a new hay drying machine is at work in 'Yr Etifeddiaeth', and we have a taste of the dawn of nationalism, with a clip of a political rally, in 'Rali Senedd i Gymru, 1949'.
The selection will include films that comment on the changes - such as 'After a Many a Summer', a film discussing the effect of redevelopment on the ethnic minority communities of the Tiger Bay area of Cardiff during the 1960s.
And, of course, these changes will come alive through a medium that was new to Wales at the time - film.
'It's ironic that an old and traditional way of life has been captured so well by one of the most modern devices of the day...' says Mari Stevens, who will be representing the Archive in Quimper, 'And our selection, which moves from black and white to colour, from silent films to films with sound, tell a great deal about the development of film itself...'
From changes in the world of film to changes in the real world, the event in Quimper will give the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, which is based at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, an opportunity to exhibit and explore Wales' past. Some of the changes will be unique to Wales, but the event will also provide an opportunity to compare experiences and to see where Celtic 'roads' of 'yesterday' can meet and cross along the way.
For further information contact:
Mari Stevens, Access Officer, NSSAW
Phone: 01970 632820
E-Mail:mas@llgc.org.uk
March 2002