Wales Feed

Pop-up event marks 100 years of Bollywood

2014-03-16T15:00:36+00:00

Last May marked 100 years since the first silent black and white feature film, Raja Harischandra, was released in India and all across the world throughout 2013-14 celebrations have been taking place to herald the milestone.

Now a multi-million pound industry, the genre produces up to 1,500 films a year, and is renowned for its vibrant style of song and dance and escapist plots.

And next weekend it is the turn of the Gujarati community in Grangetown, Cardiff to play host to a pop-up live music and dance event as part of the Wales One World Film Festival 2014.

Sita Thomas with band performing in Cardiff. Image: Simon Ridgeway

The evening at the Samaj Community Centre features The Bollywood Brass Band and dancer Sita Thomas in a performance that will bring to life a selection of some of the most iconic Bollywood scenes from films over the years.

Sita, who grew up in Tenby, told me: "It will be a very visually stimulating event which aims to give a flavour of the whole history of Bollywood music and film.

"We've got four drummers and six horns, trumpets, dhol drums, trombones and people will be able to spot some of the scenes from the earlier silent films as well as the colourful classics of modern Bollywood."

Bollywood Brass Band performing in Exeter. Photo: Tom Hurley

Sita has been dancing with the Bollywood Brass Band for six years and was inspired to train after seeing Bombay Dreams in the West End.

She later joined Honey Kalaria's Bollywood dance troupe and has performed for several Bollywood dance groups in Britain, as well as working extensively with the National Youth Theatre as both a choreographer and performer.

She has choreographed all of the dance moves for the Cardiff event and is particularly looking forward to recreating the Kajra Re for the crowds.

The Bollywood Brass Band's dhol drummer and Sita Thomas. Image: Simon Ridgeway

She said: "The evening will be really enjoyable for people who are big fans of Bollywood but for those who are less familiar it is a fantastic introduction to the genre and really celebrates the best of British and Indian culture. Hips, shoulders and feet won’t be able to resist moving!"

Rabab Ghazoul, who runs the WOW Women's Film Club, which hosts women-only screenings and encourages them to debate film, said: "This is the next natural step for the Women's Film Club.

"Women from diverse communities across Cardiff have been coming to our unique events at Chapter for years. Now it's time to take our events into those communities.

"This is the first of several exciting pop-up events for all the family, bringing our Film Club, Chapter and host community audiences all together under one Bollywood-style roof!"

The Bollywood Brass Band's saxophone and dhol. Photo: Tom Hurley

The Best of Bollywood Live! is on Saturday 22 March at 7pm at the Samaj Community Centre in Grangetown.

Tickets are priced at £12/£10/£8 and include a Gujarati meal and are available from Chapter Box Office on 029 2030 4400 and www.chapter.org

For more information on the event visit: www.wowfilmfestival.com

To find more about the Bollywood Brass Band visit www.bollywoodbrassband.co.uk

Future of Welsh film at heart of St David’s Day celebrations

2014-02-28T11:12:23+00:00

New Welsh sci-fi action thriller The Machine has been creating a buzz at film festivals on both sides of the Atlantic and now Cardiff audiences will have their chance to see it at an exclusive screening this weekend to mark St David’s Day.

Directed by Caradog James and made in Cardiff by Red and Black Films, The Machine scooped three BAFTA Cymru awards last year for Special Achievement for Film along with Best Costume Design for Chrissie Pegg and Original Music for Tom Raybould.

It also won Best UK Feature at the Raindance Film Festival and The Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards as well as Best Sci-Fi and Best Actress in the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

The Machine. Image courtesy of Red and Black Films.

The Machine stars Caity Lotz (The Pact) and Toby Stephens (Die Another Day) and the fast-paced plot sees the UK and China engaged in a technological Cold War. Vincent, a brilliant scientist working for the Ministry of Defence toils away at perfecting Britain’s weaponry, although his real concern lies with his daughter who has a condition called Rett Syndrome. A solution is found in Ava, his lab partner's mind - a programme possessing her replicated brain patterns.

Together, Vincent and Ava create the first ever piece of self-aware artificial intelligence, but things go wrong when the MoD steal their breakthrough and teach it to become a robotic weapon for Britain's cold war.

This weekend Film Agency Wales has teamed up with the Wales Millennium Centre to bring writer-director Caradog James and producer John Giwa-Amu over from Los Angeles for a post-screening Q&A session during which they’ll give an insight into how they brought The Machine to life.

The film is not officially released until the end of March so the event will act as a sneak preview and is part of a weekend programme of activities to mark St David’s Day at the Wales Millennium Centre.

Film fans will also be able to join BAFTA-winning filmmaker Gerald Conn for workshops on his special sand-on-glass animation where they can try out the technique and create short sand animation under the camera.

Mr Dog Media are also showcasing their multiplatform project Banshee, a new fusion of multiplayer Facebook game and film. They will also demonstrate the pioneering new virtual reality technology that immerses audiences into the spirit world of Banshee.

The WMC is also offering a busy programme of free performances on the Glanfa stage throughout the weekend with artists including Côr y Mochyn Du and harpist, Ann Williams.

There will be a free identity board workshop, where participants can express their Welsh connections, either on the giant public canvas or a personal cut-out. Younger visitors are encouraged to take part in a mini make and do workshop to create their own Welsh trinkets and treasures, while the over 10s can enjoy a workshop with a local graffiti artist outside the centre.

Visitors are also welcome to take in the Aur exhibition which features work from the last 10 years of National Eisteddfod Gold Medal winners in Fine Art and Craft and Design.

Mathew Milsom, Managing Director, Wales Millennium Centre said: “With our national day falling on a weekend this year, it gives us a fantastic opportunity to showcase a programme of cultural activity with broad appeal for all the family on both Saturday and Sunday.

“And what’s more, it’s free! As Wales’ national centre for the performing arts, Wales Millennium Centre is the obvious place to come and celebrate St David’s Day in the capital city.”

The daytime activities are free and unreserved, but you can book tickets for The Machine from the Wales Millennium Centre box office now on 02920 636464 or at www.wmc.org.uk.

Find out more about the St David’s Day weekend at Wales Millennium Centre.

How Green Was My Valley takes the Oscar

2014-02-26T11:57:05+00:00

On the evening of 26 February 1942 the cream of Hollywood society – all the actors and directors, the technicians and movie moguls of the film industry, as well as many members of the press and general public - turned up at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles to witness and take part in that year's Academy Awards ceremony.

America had been at war for just three short months and the memory of Japan's sudden attack on Pearl Harbour the previous December was still fresh in people's minds. So the glitz and the glamour that always surrounded the Oscar ceremonies was particularly welcome in February 1942. Anything to take people's minds off the horror of warfare and the imminence of sudden death!

Hot favourite to take that year's coveted award for Best Picture was Orson Wells' Citizen Kane, but it had competition from what have now become Hollywood classics like Sergeant York and The Maltese Falcon.

A scene from How Green Was My Valley.

As it turned out, the winner was none of those. John Ford's How Green Was My Valley, a romantic and overly sentimental film about life in a Welsh coal mining community, swept the board. It claimed the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and two others for cinematography and art direction.

How Green Was My Valley was based on a 1939 novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn and stared Hollywood ‘greats’ such as Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Roddy McDowell.

These days we look at the film and cringe at the set piece shots of miners coming home from the pit, faces suitably blackened, happily singing Welsh hymns. In 1943 it was exactly what cinema audiences wanted, somehow seeming to symbolise the suffering and the hardships of the British people who had been fighting a lone war against Adolf Hitler for over two years.

The false Welsh accents of the cast - Welsh accents being fiendishly difficult to achieve and certainly beyond most of those who took part - reflect the American, Irish and Canadian nature of the film's stars. Pidgeon came, not from the USA as most people supposed but from Canada while Maureen O'Hara was Irish.

The childhood star Roddy McDowell was actually English but he was more or less American by adoption - that, after all, was where the film opportunities for any young actor really lay.

The only genuine Welshman in the cast was Rhys Williams. He had a small part, Dai Bando, a man who befriends the young Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowell) and teaches him how to fight. As Dai Bando, Williams was also involved in a memorable scene where he administered a sound thrashing to the bullying school teacher Mr Jones.

How Green Was My Valley was John Ford's third success as a director. Just the previous year he had won his second Oscar with The Grapes of Wrath but while that earlier film dealt effectively and memorably with the deprivation and poverty of the Great Depression, Ford certainly missed a trick with his Welsh film.

There is little real social or political comment in How Green Was My Valley and almost nothing about the destruction of the environment that mining caused to the Welsh valleys. Inaccuracies slip, all too often into the picture - a coal mine, for example, being set on the top of a mountain.

The loss of a long-established way of life in these communities is also largely ignored in favour of an overt sentimentality. That sentimentality also managed to fix, in the minds of many, the stereotype of the Welsh working man or woman whose only interests are the chapel and work.

Ford's interest in or fixation on sentimentality was to re-surface 10 years later when he filmed his Irish version of small-town life, The Quiet Man, again starring Maureen O'Hara but this time partnered by John Wayne. Ford's partnership with Wayne, forged in countless epic westerns, managed to sustain his Irish picture and give it a degree of credibility that How Green Was My Valley sadly lacks.

Ford had wanted to shoot How Green Was My Valley in Wales. The war stopped that and the film company, Twentieth Century Fox, was forced to create their own Welsh town in California. The replica town was built on a 3,000 acre site at Fox Ranch outside Los Angeles.

How Green Was My Valley was not a great film and it is all too easy to deride it as a poor representation of Welsh life.

But in 1941, when the film was made, and 1942, when it won the Oscar, it suddenly brought Wales and the Welsh people to the notice of American people. Many of them had never heard of the country. This film, sentimental and stereotyping as it was, at the very least brought Wales to the forefront of their imaginations. And for that it deserves to be remembered.

Historic castles in pop-up cinema venture

2014-01-30T14:05:47+00:00

Over the next two weekends two of the most picturesque spots in south Wales will be transformed into cinemas as part of a series of public film screening events.

Cadw and Chapter Arts Centre host film screenings at Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castle this February. © Cadw, Welsh Government (Crown Copyright), 2013

Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castle will provide the atmospheric surroundings for the pop-up cinemas as part of a drive by Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, to engage more people with Wales’ historic monuments.

This weekend (1-2 February) audiences will be able to watch Tangled - Disney’s 2010 re-telling of the traditional fairytale Rapunzel - in the environs of Wales’s own fairytale castle, Castell Coch, while the following weekend (8-9 February) Caerphilly Castle’s Great Hall will add a touch of true gothic horror to screenings of Bride of Frankenstein and 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu.

There will also be screenings of the Johnny Depp classic Edward Scissorhands at both venues.

As well as the stunning setting, there will be special effects and live soundtrack performances to create a whole new layer of sensory experience for film-goers.

I caught up with Ffion Reynolds, Cadw’s public engagement manager and the organiser of the events, to find out what sort of experience is in store.

She said: “This is a pilot project which we hope will prove successful as we would love to roll it out to other historic sites in Wales.

“We’ve teamed up with Chapter Arts Centre to host some of their Darkened Rooms events as we aim to use the arts to inspire visitors to think about Wales’ historic monuments in a different way.

“I would love to have similar events at places like Tintern Abbey, Raglan Castle and at sites in Denbigh and Caernarfon. There’s so much potential but we just need to see if the appetite is there first.”

Caerphilly Castle. Photo: Steven Jay

The screening of Nosferatu at Caerphilly Castle will be accompanied by live organ music to help build tension for the plot of the classic horror film.

Students from the University of South Wales will also help create specialist lighting effects and artificial smoke will billow out of the so-called murder hole above the portcullis, where historically those guarding the castle from intruders were poised to hurl such delights as boiling water on any unwanted guests.

There will also be smoke and lighting projections at the other films and at Castell Coch, the screening takes place outdoors, so if it is a clear night film-watchers will be able to see a starry night sky above them as they watch. Visitors are advised to wrap up warm.

John Griffiths, minister for culture and sport, said: “Staging well-loved films amongst the grandeur of some of Wales’ most impressive historic monuments is a new and exciting project for Cadw that will bring the sites to life in a different way for our visitors.

“By bringing together heritage and the arts, Cadw can continue to connect with different audiences to increase appreciation of its 129 historic sites.”

Sally Griffith, director of cinema and Film Hub Wales at Chapter Arts Centre, said: “We are excited to bring the pleasurable terror of the gothic and the pure joy of family entertainment to some of Europe’s most important historical sites.

Castell Coch. © Cadw, Welsh Government (Crown Copyright), 2013

“These spectacular settings will give an atmospheric backdrop to some of the most beloved and chilling films ever made, from early silent cinema to more modern thrills.”

Tickets are £6 for family-friendly afternoon events and £12/£10 for evening screenings. They can be purchased at www.chapter.org or by calling 02920 304 400.

For full event listings or more information visit www.cadw.wales.gov.uk, find Cadw on Facebook or follow @CadwWales on Twitter.

Spine-tingling horror and gothic films to be celebrated in Wales

2013-10-28T14:23:34+00:00

It's the time of year that horror fans relish, where there are plenty of late night screenings of thrillers to peer at through your fingers and make your spine tingle both at the cinema and on TV.

The popular appetite for all things ghoulish and chilling is being celebrated through Wales Goes Dark, part of Gothic - a film experience programme which is being rolled out throughout the UK by the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN).

Although the spooky season of films starts ahead of Halloween, Gothic will last until February 2014 and will see a "film hub" based in Wales working with the annual Abertoir Horror Film Festival and the BFI to offer a programme of macabre events at venues throughout Wales based around all things horror and gothic.

The aim is to bring film to hard to reach audiences, create memorable events and encourage return visits to the cinema.

The season will see BFI reissues of some classic British horror films, with Theatr Clwyd in Mold celebrating the cinema of the legendary Peter Cushing in his centenary year; new titles from Welsh directors including Chris Crow's Viking epic The Darkest Day, which will tour venues across Wales, and screenings of true thrillers taking place at haunted castles and stately homes.

These include: Dracula, which is being shown at Cardiff Castle with Darkened Rooms on 29 October and 5 November but has proved so popular it has already sold out; Night of the Demon at Tredegar House in Newport on 30 October; and the more family-friendly Hotel Transylvania (also with Darkened Rooms) at Cardiff Castle on 29 October and at Tredegar House on 30 October.

The Torch Theatre in Milford Haven is also screening Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder in 3D, among other horror hits, while the Gwyn Hall in Neath will host its first ever gothic and horror film festival, including Jean Epstein's The Fall of the House of Usher, which will be accompanied by a live soundtrack created and performed by Steepways Sound Collective using acoustic instruments and processed audio. Other highlights include The Exorcist Director's Cut, The Darkest Day, Bats and Coraline.

Still from The Darkest Day. Photo: The Darkest Day/Lindisfarne Films Ltd

The Darkest Day director Chris Crow will take part in two Q&As about the film, which was shot on location in south Wales. The sessions will take place at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre on Halloween, and at the Gwyn Hall in Neath on 15 November.

And of course, the Abertoir festival will be serving up all sorts of dark delights at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre between 5 and 10 November.

This year's guests of honour are actor Richard Johnson and composer Fabio Frizzi. Johnson will appear at the festival for a special 50th anniversary screening of Robert Wise's The Haunting. Johnson also stars in Zombie Flesh Eaters, which is screening before a special in-depth interview with the film's composer, Fabio Frizzi.

From Wales, the dark sci-fi film The Machine, which recently won three Bafta Cymru awards, will be showing. Both the director Caradog James and producer John Giwa-Amu will be present at a Q&A on 8 November.

Receiving its second UK screening and closing the festival will be Soulmate, the debut film by Axelle Carolyn, a ghost story shot in the Brecon Beacons. The film's stars Anna Walton and Tom Wisdom will attend the screening on 10 November.

A still from the film Soulmate. Photo: Guy Armitage

UK premieres include Chanthaly, the very first film from Laos to be directed by a woman, which is also the country's very first horror film, Across the River, Forgotten, Bad Milo, and brand new Japanese film HK: Forbidden Hero.

The full line-up for Abertoir and Wales Goes Dark is now available on the website abertoir.co.uk. Passes are £58 for the whole six days.

Lisa Nesbitt from Film Hub Wales said the idea of the project was to enable different venues to collaborate and for the film hub to provide resources and funding for a whole series of screenings, archive events, Q&A sessions, special guests and music and educational events.

She said: "Our hub is one of eight in the UK and we are a big network with a joined-up approach. Gothic is just the first phase of a four year project which will see all sorts of themes explored.

"The aim is to bring cinema experiences to audiences around Wales and to branch out to other areas from events that are already taking place so if there are any venues keen to take part that aren't already, they should get in touch.

"We will be offering funding and resources to venues in Wales that want to create their own events, whether it's a pop-up cinema in a theatre, a music event, a guest speaker appearance, anywhere can take part."

To follow the progress and actions of Film Hub Wales, please visit: chapter.org/filmhub.

For more information visit the BFI Gothic and the BFI Film Audience Network websites.

Cardiff documentary-maker scoops award at film festival

2013-10-16T09:43:25+00:00

The winners of this year's prestigious Iris Prize Festival have been announced and they include an accolade for a first-time filmmaker from Cardiff.

Jay Bedwani scooped Best UK Short at the world's largest gay and lesbian short film festival for his nine minute film My Mother, which focuses on Gustavo Billarreal from California and what inspires him to live and perform as his alter-ego Donna Personna.

Jay Bedwani accepting his prize. Photo: Iris Prize Festival

Jay said his film aimed to respond to Gustavo "unobtrusively and honestly".

"I wanted to capture what compelled Gustavo to have these two identities and rather than just being about attention and ego, I felt it was much more to do with his personal relationships and his childhood," he said.

"I wasn't expecting to win anything so I'm really delighted and surprised. The award has given me a lot of confidence and I've had a lot of support from directors so I'm really excited about the future.

"Gustavo was really happy with the film and to hear about the award so I'm looking forward to meeting up with him and celebrating."

Gustavo Billarreal in a still from My Mother. Image courtesy of Jay Bedwani

Jury representative Gilly Adams said: "It's rare to find a documentary made with such love and tenderness.

"This beautiful film captivates with its intimate account of a courageous life. We wanted it to be longer."

Read a longer blog entry about the film on the BBC Wales Blog.

Jay will now sit on the jury for the 2014 Iris Prize.

The overall festival prize, worth £25,000, was won by Tim Marshall from Australia for his film Gorilla, a short film about a newly-formed couple who are forced to face the unknown in their lives when a mysterious woman arrives at their secluded campsite.

He will use the prize money to make a new short film in the UK.

Other winners this year included Eytan Fox, who scooped Best Feature Award for Cupcakes; Ryan Steele, who won Best Actor in a Feature for his portrayal of Chip in Five Dances; and Sabine Wolf, who won Best Actress in a Feature for the role of Katya in Two Mothers.

For Dorian directed by Rodrigo Barriuso (Canada) and The Last Time I Saw Richard directed by Nicholas Verso (Australia) were highly commended by the jury,

The Youth Jury, as part of Takeover Cardiff sponsored by The British Council, announced their winner as Straight With You directed by Daan Bol. The Language of Love directed by Laura Scrivano also received an honourable mention.

Jay Bedwani at the Iris Festival with his mother and father. Photo: Iris Prize Festival

Gilly Adams said: "Iris 2013 has reminded us of the enjoyment to be had in discussing film.

"We've learned new ways of looking at cinema through sharing ideas, and often found our opinions changed by the challenge of listening to opposing views.

"We were impressed by the strength of the documentaries in this year's selection - subtler and perhaps less angry than in the past.

"Across the board we felt that the storytelling and the film making were better and a cause for optimism about the future of LGBT cinema."

All of the filmmakers who travelled to Wales were hosted by the Friends of Iris, individuals who open their homes to the makers of the 30 shortlisted films from as far afield as Australia, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Norway and the United States.

The five-day festival also included nine of the latest gay and lesbian feature films, all enjoying their UK premieres at the festival.

Festival guests included director Diemo Kemmesies (Silent Youth, Germany), Paul Sweeney, senior film buyer for Cineworld, and a strong UK contingency including Jason Davitt (Vampires: Lucas Rising, Wales) and Simon Savory (Bruno & Earlene Go To Vegas, England).

The International Jury included last year's Iris Prize winner Grant Scicluna from Australia, festival directors Sridhar Rangayan from Mumbai, India and David Mullane from Dublin, Ireland.

Kenneth Griffith, Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker

2013-10-10T07:01:18+00:00

For anybody who loves the old British films of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, those black and white Ealing Studio and Boulting Brothers comedies that were symptomatic of the era, the face of Kenneth Griffith will be immediately recognizable.

He specialized in character parts, more often than not playing a sycophantic and ambitious supporting role to actors like Peter Sellers and Ian Carmichael in films such as I'm All Right, Jack and Lucky Jim.

Kenneth Griffith in The Soldiers Of The Widow, 1967

The role of the 'snide,' the unpleasant weasel you would willingly put down or annoy, could not have been further from the truth because Griffith was a man who believed in saying what he thought – and with the talent to back up his opinions.

Born in Tenby on 12 October 1921 as Kenneth Griffiths, he was brought up by his paternal grandparents after his mother and father separated when he was just six months old.

A good scrum half for the school rugby side, a regular attender at the local Methodist chapel, he attended Greenhill Grammar School in the town where he was mentored and encouraged by his English teacher who clearly saw his promise. He was also advised to drop the 's' from the end of his name by the school headmaster, JT Griffith – it would, the head advised, seem less Welsh.

Kenneth Griffith (minus the 's') left school in 1937 and went to Cambridge where his first job, in an ironmongers shop, lasted just a day.

Always fond of acting, he became involved with the Cambridge Festival Theatre where his first part of any note was as Cinna the poet in Julius Caesar. In due course Griffth became a regular in repertory shows across the country and made his West End debut in 1938.

A year later, just before war broke out, he joined the RAF, reading Mein Kampf in his spare time – it was good to know what you were fighting against, he said. Sent to Canada for flight training, Griffith contracted scarlet fever and in 1942 he was invalided out of the service. The RAF's loss was acting's gain.

Kenneth Griffith made his film debut in 1941, before being discharged from the RAF, in a film called The Farmer's Wife. It was not a great vehicle for his talents but he then joined the Old Vic Theatre Company where he was really able to develop his art. The Old Vic was where he met a man who became a great and lifelong friend, the actor Peter O'Toole.

Griffith (top, second left) as Raskolnikoff in Crime and Punishment, 1953

Over the next few years Griffith made dozens of films. In his long career he appeared in over 100 movies, dramas and comedies alike. He will always be remembered for his roles as the librarian Jenkins in Only Two Can Play and as the fawning trade union official in I'm All Right Jack.

Less well remembered but equally as effective was his performance as the wireless operator Jack Phillips in the Kenneth Moore film about the loss of the Titanic, A Night to Remember.

Kenneth Griffith also worked in television where his credits included The Prisoner, Minder and Lovejoy. Two late film parts of note were as the irascible wedding guest who berates Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral and, in a wonderful cameo, the Rev Jones in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

But Kenneth Griffith was not just an actor. In 1965 he was asked by the BBC if he would like to make a documentary. He was given free rein, the choice of subject could be his.

The offer resulted in a whole series of documentary films on subjects such as the Boer War, the Indian premier Nehru and Tom Paine, a man he called "the most controversial Englishman who ever lived."

Griffith in Omnibus: Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death, 1976

Griffith pulled no punches in his documentaries – witness his intensely critical account of Cecil Rhodes in A Touch of Churchill - and was once ordered out of Iran after making a film about the Biblical three wise men.

His 1973 film on the life of Irish patriot Michael Collins, Hang Up Your Brightest Colours, was highly critical of the British government and with the IRA troubles escalating, the documentary was banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. It was not shown on television until the BBC finally screened it in 1993.

Another of his films, Curious Journey - interviews with surviving Irish patriots from the Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath – was also banned and Griffith was thrilled to note that Margaret Thatcher once called him "a dangerous Marxist." He insisted on naming his home Michael Collins House and once actually received death threats from people in Ulster.

Married three times, Kenneth Griffith became a victim of Alzheimer's disease in later life, an affliction that enforced his retirement from acting and directing. He remains famous for his hugely comedic parts but he was also powerful in more dramatic roles such as his portrayal of a vicious blackmailer in The Shop at Sly Corner.

A huge talent, both as an actor and as a director, Kenneth Griffith remains one of Wales' best loved artists. Look out for him the next time you switch on one of those afternoon films – you will not be disappointed.

There should be free popcorn with every ticket

2013-09-13T12:28:12+00:00

From this week, the BBC is embarking on a celebration of cinema music - with BBC Radio 6 Music, Radios 1 & 1xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3 and the Asian Network, alongside a complimentary series of TV programmes on BBC Four, all coming together to celebrate the BBC's Sound of Cinema Season.

All next week Radio 3's Live in Concert broadcasts will be dedicated to the incredible orchestral scores of Hollywood. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be performing on Wednesday night at St David's Hall, and our evening of Hollywood glamour will be introduced by Mark Kermode, arguably one of the most well-known film critics in Britain today.

The concert will also mark the beginning of our 2013/2014 season at St David's Hall as orchestra-in-residence - talk about opening the season with a bang!

A great movie score should suggest the very essence of a film's intention; if there were no words, the music should leave you in no doubt as to the nature of the onscreen action. Indeed, a great soundtrack can help to immortalise a great film, and for our America at the Movies concert we have a selection of truly remarkable scores.

There are the names you would expect, names so identified with cinema that their exclusion would lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth (mostly by the brass), such as John Williams, Howard Shore, and one of my favourites, the inimitable Danny Elfman.

However, there may be names that are not so familiar. For me, one such name is Elmer Bernstein, who, it turns out, scored two of my father's favourite films - The Ten Commandments and The Great Escape. We will perform his theme from The Magnificent Seven.

Miklós Rósza (perhaps another ‘who are you?' for some) will also feature. Some regular blog readers may remember me waxing lyrical about Rósza's music back in March 2012, when we performed his Three Hungarian Sketches at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, under the baton of Roberto Minczuk.

For Sound of Cinema, we will perform his music to Hitchcock's 1945 film, Spellbound. It was a stroke of luck for Rósza that he got to collaborate with Hitchcock on this movie, as Hitchcock's regular collaborator, the great Bernard Herrmann, was unavailable.

Indeed, Herrmann's scores are those that I am most looking forward to getting familiar with. His name is synonymous with the films of Hitchcock. If you were one of the many who enjoyed the Hitchcock Season at Chapter Arts Centre last year, you will have heard Herrmann's incredible writing ratcheting the suspense and terror factor of Hitchcock's psychological mind melts up to the nth degree.

Hermann is perhaps best remembered for the chilling, shocking, screeching strings of Psycho's iconic shower scene, but for this concert we will perform the equally memorable Suite from the Hitchcock's 1958 tale of obsession, Vertigo. We will also perform excerpts from Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver, Martin Scorcese's 1978 film about an outsider turned vigilante.

Good film music will always evoke the memory of the work it was written to be part of, but great film music can also stand on its own, simply as good music. I believe the scores we will present to you are all incredible in their own right - but they made the films they partnered immortal.

Tweet the orchestra on @BBCNOW, including the hashtag #bbcsoundofcinema and let us know your favourite film scores.

Tickets for America at the Movies, on Wednesday 18 September, can be booked by calling the Orchestra's Audience Line on 0800 052 1812, or visiting the St David's Hall website.

Kieran Evans on his debut film Kelly + Victor

2013-08-27T12:11:19+00:00

It has been described as an "anti-love story" and makes for raw, compelling and at times brutal viewing, but for director Kieran Evans, his first film Kelly + Victor has been a labour of love that took almost a decade to realise.

The film premiered at the 2012 London Film Festival and was shown at SXSW in America earlier this year, and goes on general release in art-house cinemas across the UK next month. Both Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and Aberystwyth Arts Centre will screen the film from 20-26 September.

The gritty drama is adapted from Wales-based novelist Niall Griffiths' book of the same name and explores what happens when two young people, one of whom is emotionally damaged, embark on a passionate, sexual and destructive relationship.

Julian Morris and Antonia Campbell-Hughes in Kelly + Victor. Photo: Vanessa Whyte

Kieran's journey to get the film to screen has been at times tortuous - from the gem of an idea in 2004, to numerous inspiring discussions with Niall and producer Janine Marmot, only to fall at the final funding hurdle several times.

But he admits each hiccup only hardened his resolve to bring his vision to fruition.

"I was already a fan of Niall's writing when I met him while I was working for BBC Wales and developing ideas for the now defunct arts programme Double Yellow.

"It was a real meeting of minds as we discovered we had a lot in common - we are both huge supporters of Liverpool FC and have shared Irish and Welsh parentage.

"I was about to go on holiday and he sent me a proof of Kelly + Victor. I read it once then I read it again and again and I was totally hooked."

On his return from holiday, Kieran showed the book to Janine, who like him, saw its potential as a film and optioned it. Then began a gruelling battle to secure funding.

"It was post 9/11 and I think the appetite for new films then was very different. I think the subject matter and the violence wasn't very appealing but we were so gripped by it, every rejection just seemed to make us more determined."

So what was it about the book that so intrigued Kieran and Janine?

Set in Toxteth, Liverpool, it focuses on two young people who live in a sort of spiritual vacuum and find an escape from the bleakness of their everyday existence in one another.

Kieran sees them as ghosts in their own town, individuals looking for a high that takes them away from their surroundings to somewhere dangerous where sensation is the only way they can express themselves.

Julian Morris and Antonia Campbell-Hughes. Photo: Vanessa Whyte

"It's about what happens when two atoms collide - that once in a lifetime moment when you meet somebody who turns your world upside down and you have no idea why. But in Kelly and Victor's case that collision is more extreme and feeds into sexual violence and obsessional behaviour.

"The structure of the novel is very challenging but so interesting as it starts with Victor's viewpoint and plays out everything that happens to him before rewinding to capture Kelly's viewpoint. Her story fills in all the little gaps and story arcs so it is not until you reach the very end that you get the whole picture of what happens between them.

"This sort of timeline obviously can't be completely replicated in film, but we chose to select key moments and play Victor's timeline going forward and Kelly’s going backwards and it enabled us to tell the story in a way that worked filmically."

The internal dialogue created by Griffiths was conveyed through a certain mood or vibe that Kieran was keen to capture, which borrows from the Scandinavian film genre and allows much to be expressed through gesture rather than dialogue.

Much of the film's potency hinges on the excellent casting, which sees Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Lead Balloon and Lotus Eaters) and Julian Morris (ER and 24) in the title roles.

"Antonia brings innocence and a determination to the role in a way nobody else could, while Julian has that softness and shyness to him that we were looking for," said Kieran.

"Something between them just clicked on set and I banned them from reading the book so that they could focus on themselves instead.

"It was very intense filming the more violent scenes but we kept things light on set and both the actors were so strong, they just got on with it."

Kieran's background is in making documentaries and much of the shooting style of Kelly + Victor echoes that simple stylistic approach, shooting long takes on limited lenses with wider shots and hand-held cameras conveying that sense of the audience being an invisible spectator to their fate.

He benefited from a close friendship with Griffiths throughout the process, although the novelist stepped away from most of the shooting.

"The initial writing process was a real collaboration but I think Niall was focused on novel number four and so he respectfully bowed out when it came to scripting and shooting it.

"He and several family members, including his mum, do have a starring role in the fight scene near the end of the film though, and he was a constant presence and came to the wrap party.

"It was wonderful to have him trust me with the project and to encourage me when our bids for funding failed."

Antonia Campbell-Hughes in Kelly + Victor. Photo: Vanessa Whyte

The soundtrack to the film was also vital to Kieran and saw him spending hours compiling playlists that might work with the dialogue.

"I wanted it to feel like a mix tape that Victor makes for Kelly at the start of the film and so I had to think about what sort of songs he would choose and what he was trying to convey, but to also find tracks that captured the mood and darkness of what is happening between them.

"One thing I really worked a lot on with Steve Fanagan, the sound designer, was to create the right music to accompany the sex scenes, as I wanted it to feel unsettling and I wanted to develop or loop that sound as the film went on.

"I found this track Fog Sea by a band called Geese and after meeting one of the band members in the pub near where I live, he agreed to send me the stems [individual sound files] of the track which allowed us to experiment with the sound we wanted and develop a series of musical signatures."

Kieran is excited at the prospect of bringing the film to audiences in the UK and for his family and friends in Wales to see it.

He added: "It's been an incredible journey and I have met some wonderfully talented people who shared my vision and determination and made it happen. There were times when it didn't feel possible, but their confidence in the film kept me going."

Niall Griffiths will be at Aberystwyth Arts Centre for a Q&A session on 21 September, while Kieran will do the same at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on 22 September.

Adaptation of acclaimed production receives world premiere in 360° cinema

2013-08-22T11:41:22+00:00

Pal o' Me Heart, a short film adaptation of Welsh dance company Earthfall's award-winning stage production At Swim Two Boys, is currently premiering at the Edinburgh Festival in a portable 360° cinema.

I found out a bit more about the short from Jim Ennis and Jessica Cohen, who are joint artistic directors at Earthfall.

I understand Pal o' Me Heart was filmed on the Pembrokeshire Coast. Can you tell us where exactly and why the location was chosen?

Earthfall and Coreo Cymru's short film, Pal o' Me Heart, was shot in and around the Abereiddi Beach, Porthgain and harbour, near the Blue Lagoon in Pembrokeshire, as well as in Cardiff and Newport.

The area around the Blue Lagoon was perfect in replicating what would have been the two boys' visits (escapes and escapades) to the sea, and the '40 Foot' in Dublin, from Jamie O'Neill's original novel. Cardiff and Newport provided locations for early 20th century cityscapes and civic images of government and power.

Filming Pal o' Me Heart in Pembrokeshire. Photo: Janire Najera

I understand the dancers performed both in and out of the water. Can you tell me a bit more about the challenges of asking them to do this and why you chose to set it that way?

Pal o' Me Heart is based on Earthfall's award-winning live production of At Swim Two Boys, the latter of which was adapted in collaboration with the author Jamie O' Neill from his acclaimed novel. In Earthfall's live production (first performed in 2004) the action takes place in water throughout the performance. This decision was made as the essential part of the characters' developing relationship and events take place when they go to the sea to swim.

Earthfall also wanted the challenge of creating a choreographic piece in water akin to their work, Girl Standing by the Lake, performed at Cardiff Coal Exchange on 4.5 tonnes of coal!

The water provoked a new way of physical interaction and risk-taking which was high impact and incredibly exciting for an audience. The dancers had to discover different ways of attacking and exploiting the performance surface, as when they jumped, dived and landed, they continued aquaplaning across the performance space.

What is it about the piece that lends itself to being shown in the 360° "Dance Dome"? What sort of experience does it offer viewers?

Earthfall's live performance was essentially edited and adapted for the Dance Dome and provides different demands on an audience. The audience is in a semi-reclined position, as in a planetarium, and the film takes place all around them in a 360° environment.

The Dance Dome in Oxford. Photo: Janire Najera

The choreography and action is adapted to take place in the sea, on the beach, in the harbour, on the cliff-face and in the city streets, so we had to rework selected parts of the original elements from the live performance to adapt to the locations and the demands of 360° filming.

There are certainly challenges for the audience and us, the filmmakers. This form of presenting dance and physical performance on film is in its infancy. Close-ups are difficult as the image becomes distorted; the viewers have to be aware of a wider surround viewing screen as we are all so attuned to flat-screen cinema.

Nature looks very strong in this medium, and for Earthfall, the challenge was to get a narrative across to the viewer, as that was something we thought was important for the viewer in this medium.

Are the dancers that star in the short film the same as those who starred in the original production about?

Daniel Connor and Murilo Leite are the dancers featured in the Pal o' Me Heart film and they starred in Earthfall's live production. The revised soundtrack is composed by Earthfall's Sion Orgon and Frank Naughton.

Filming in City Hall in Cardiff. Photo: Janire Najera

What have you kept from the original production and what have you changed?

The choreography has been altered and adapted to exploit the nature, surroundings and physical features of the locations. We have the beauty of the Welsh landscape embracing and provoking the action. The strength of the boys' developing love and the integrity and strength of the choreography and narrative we have tried to keep intact. The rest is about editing the essential moments for the viewer - we had to make a 20 minute short film from a 65 minute live performance, originally adapted from a 1,000 page novel.

Do you have any plans to bring the film and the Dance Dome to audiences in Wales?

Plans are certainly being made to show the film in Cardiff and hopefully other parts of Wales to be confirmed.

Who directed Pal o' Me Heart?

It was directed by us - Earthfall's Jim Ennis and Jessica Cohen - and we also created and directed the live performance. We previously won a Bafta Cymru Award for Best Short Film, in collaboration with Paul Ilswyn Thomas, for our film Too Old To Dream and this is our sixth film. The team behind Pal o' Me Heart also included Justin Duval on 360° camera and Mathew Kistenmacher as Key-grip, two essential members of the team brought over from LA.

Pal o' Me Heart will be presented by the Dance Dome in association with Dance Base at the Grassmarket, Edinburgh between 19 and 26 August.

It is being shown alongside The Beautiful, an immersive metaphysical journey through some of the landscapes of South Wales choreographed by Tanja Raman, and The Sublime. This features site-specific live captured sequences of parkour and break-dance shot within the natural and urban spaces of Wales and is choreographed by Sandra Harnisch-Lacey and set to an original composition by Luke Harney.

Cardiff filmmaker among 30 to make Iris Prize shortlist

2013-08-16T10:43:20+00:00

The shortlist for the 2013 Iris Prize, the world's largest gay and lesbian short film award, has just been announced.

The line-up is dominated by US film-makers but includes a nine-minute film created by Jay Bedwani from Cardiff.

Film maker Jay Bedwani

My Mother is an intimate documentary about Gustavo Billarreal from California and what inspires him to live as his alter-ego Donna Personna.

Jay's film focuses on chats with Gustavo about his life, his preparations for performing as Donna and his many tender memories of his mother.

The pair met at a party in San Francisco and initially worked on a photography project together, but Jay felt Gustavo had so much personality and charisma that a film seemed the natural way to progress.

He said his production of the film aims to respond to Gustavo "unobtrusively and honestly".

Gustavo Billarreal in a still from the film My Mother. Image courtesy of Jay Bedwani

"It's my first documentary so a lot of it was learning by trial and error but it felt like a really organic process.

"I had no agenda for the film, it was just a pleasure spending so much time with him, whether I was shooting or not. He's an inspiring and really funny guy.

It was through conversations with Gustavo that Jay recognised the performer's deep love for the mother he lost a decade ago.

"He refers to her so often which is possibly a way of keeping her closer and also talks about turning into her."

Gustavo Billarreal. Image courtesy of Jay Bedwani

Jay said Gustavo is performing in a very competitive industry in San Francisco, but people are drawn to him for his sweetness and honesty and the delight he takes in performing.

"I think initially living as Donna may have been a form of escape, but it has turned into something more than that.

"As Donna he has so much freedom, and he gets so much attention, that it would be hard for him to leave it behind.

"But he thinks about his mother often, they were very close, and he really identifies with the way she had to live her life. I think he feels as close to her now as he ever has, and whether that's to do with living as Donna, I don't know."

Gustavo Billarreal as his alter ego Donna Personna. Image courtesy of Jay Bedwani

Jay, a documentary photographer and former student of Cardiff's Ffotogallery, said he was excited about being part of this year's festival, which takes place from 9-13 October in Cardiff.

"I came to last year's festival and it really inspired me – lots of great films, creative minds and friendly faces, so I am really looking forward to being part of it.

"It feels amazing to have been shortlisted, especially when the standard is so high."

The winner of the Iris Prize will be offered a chance to make a new short film with the prize valued at £25,000.

This year 15 countries are represented in the shortlist: Canada, Germany, Brazil, Israel, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Ireland, India, Sweden, Australia, US, Thailand and the UK.

Berwyn Rowlands, Iris Prize founder, said: "Once again the shortlist for the Iris Prize represents the best of the best.

"Half of the short-listed films have been nominated by our partner festivals – film festivals from around the world that have their fingers on the pulse of upcoming gay and lesbian film making talent.

"Iris is recognised for supporting talented film makers from all over the world. Four shorts, made with the prize, have been produced since we launched in 2007 and a fifth is just about to start production.

"Iris is more than just a trophy that gathers dust or a certificate that yellows on the wall. Iris is what film makers need – funding, support and guidance."

To see the full shortlist view irisprize.org/x2013.

Mobile cinema brings film back to Upper Afan Valley

2013-05-30T06:00:24+00:00

Built at the turn of the last century, the Blaengwynfi Hall was once the cultural centre of the Upper Afan Valley.

The cinema was open every night, showing the latest films as well as performances from choirs, opera and theatre companies.

Along with the popular classics of the day such as Gone With The Wind, silent films were often screened with a live piano accompaniment.

Now, more than 50 years since the last showing, film is to delight local audiences once more, via a mobile cinema programme which aims to put it at the heart of community regeneration.

The Film in Afan van travels the Upper Afan Valley showing monthly screenings for families at schools and community centres thanks to a £250,000 grant from The Big Lottery Fund Wales.

The Film in Afan mobile van

Following conversations with the committee of the former social welfare hall, which was recently renamed the Gwynfi Miners Community Hall, the pop-up cinema will be visiting for the first time next week.

The film of choice is Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, chosen to provide some local entertainment to children during the half term break.

Film in Afan project manager Caroline Lane said the idea of the project, which has been devised by Film Agency Wales, was to build trust and enthusiasm in communities which do not have easy access to cinema due to poor transport links.

She said: "Film in Afan is a three year project which has been going a year and has seen us screen films in various villages across the valley, at community halls and schools.

"We have had good turnout so far with up to 60 people at a screening which shows there is a real appetite for it.

"It's been particularly pleasing to bring film back to the Gwynfi Miners Hall because of its long history and connection with cinema."

Cinema tickets at a Film in Afan event

One person who is delighted to see the return of cinema to the village is 84-year-old Olive Phillips.

Olive was married to the cinema's projectionist Phillip Ronald Phillips and would accompany him on trips to Cardiff to find films to screen in their village.

Phillip, or Roy as he was affectionately known, started working at the picture house aged 14 and remained as the projectionist until its closure in the 1960s.

"The first film I ever saw there was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and I cried all the way through it," said Olive.

Former cinema projectionist Phillip Ronald Phillips. Photo: Ron Hill

There is currently a big push to restore the hall to the heart of the community, after a committee of people from the neighbouring villages saved it from demolition by the council by proposing regeneration and securing a 25-year lease.

Committee member Peter Bowyer told me: “We are planning to show a series of films at the hall to coincide with the school holidays, and ticket sales for next Wednesday are going well.

"There is a big renovation planned as there is flood damage to the basement where the gym currently is and where the cinema used to be.

"We are hoping that in the next two years we will have upgraded downstairs and can return the cinema to its original home which will be great for the village.

"The plan is to set up a monthly film club because it is practically impossible for people from here to get to the cinemas in Port Talbot and Maesteg."

As well as a cinema service, the three-year Film in Afan scheme will offer training opportunities and work experience from filmmaking to venue management.

Caroline added: "We are training people to use the equipment and when the project ends we will gift it to the local communities in the hope they can keep the pop-up cinema going.

"We do charge a small cover fee for the films in the hope that that money can be used to help with screenings in the future.

"The feedback so far has been really positive. And with some of the films we have shown, like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, we have had younger people helping with teas and coffees and enjoying the film along with older people which has made it inter-generational."

Film in Afan's screening of Wreck-It Ralph takes place on Thursday 30 May. The film starts at 3pm and tickets can be bought on the door or in advance from filminafan.com, with concessions and family deals available for the half term.

The life and times of Ivor Emmanuel

2013-03-11T16:51:51+00:00

People may not know about the heroic defence of Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War of 1879 when more Victoria Crosses were won in a single day than in any other military action.

It was a terrifying battle, with just over 100 British soldiers – many of them Welsh – defending the mission station against 4,000 Zulu warriors. But the one thing people will certainly remember is the 1964 film Zulu. And in particular they will remember the stirring scene when Stanley Baker persuades Welsh baritone Ivor Emmanuel to sing Men Of Harlech at the advancing enemy.

The incident was, of course, totally fictitious but it gave Emmanuel, in his role as Private Owen, immediate credibility and instant stardom. Not that he needed it. Ivor Emmanuel was already a star.

Ivor Emmanuel with The Gentlemen Songsters, 1967

Emmanuel was born in Pontrhydyfen, just outside Port Talbot, on 7 November 1927. The son of a miner, he was orphaned during World War Two when a stray German bomb killed his father, mother, grandfather and sister.

He was just 14 years old and was sent to live with an aunt in the village. In due course the young Ivor left school and went down the mines to earn his living. He might have had to make his living underground but his heart was always in music. He loved singing and, from an early age, it was clear that he had a marvellous voice.

It is said that he used to take an old wind-up gramophone onto the hills above the village and play the songs of the great Caruso where only he and the wheeling birds could hear them. Apocryphal, probably, but a great story.

Ivor Emmanuel was certainly a member of the Pontrhydyfen Operatic Society for several years and, with ambitions to succeed on the professional stage, in the early 1950s he auditioned for the famous D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in London.

The audition was unsuccessful and he sought solace in the company of his friend, actor Richard Burton – also from Pontrhydyfen – who was then appearing in a play in the West End. After pouring out his woes, Emmanuel went back to south Wales and thought no more about it until, two weeks later, a telegram arrived, asking him to audition at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Burton had used his influence to get Ivor a second chance.

This second audition was successful and he gained a part in the theatre's prestigious production of Oklahoma. He was on his way, although for a while the roles were small. Emmanuel was soon taken on by the D'Oyly Carte and gradually the parts became bigger.

Ivor Emmanuel

Emmanuel's career on the London stage was both long and distinguished. But he also found time to appear on Broadway and to make many television appearances. He was, for six years, a regular on the Welsh TV show Dewch I Mewn but for the people of Britain he was the face – and voice – of the popular show Land Of Song. He also appeared on the Royal Variety Performance and was a regular at summer shows across the land.

Ivor Emmanuel made many recordings, his rich brown voice being perfect for the medium. He remained popular long after the advent of the Beatles had consigned many singers of his type and style to obscurity.

His appearance in Zulu was really the highlight of his career, however. It was a sterling performance, one that remains in the imagination and the memory – indeed, it is hard to think of the battle around Rorke's Drift without conjuring up the image of the singing Welshman. He has become part and parcel of the whole affair.

Ivor Emmanuel retired to Benalmaderia in Spain in 1982. Ten years later he lost most of his life savings in the collapse of his savings bank. He struggled on, dying of a stroke on 20 July 2007. Married three times, his image at the rampart walls of the mission station in South Africa remains a quintessential part of Welsh history – in its own way as important and as lasting as the battle itself.

Former miner and campaigner stars in new Ken Loach film

2013-02-25T12:47:27+00:00

It's not often you can say that an 83-year-old has given you a new lease of life. But after chatting to lifelong social activist and anti-war campaigner Ray Davies about his passion for politics, I feel strangely inspired.

Davies, who is still a sitting member of Caerphilly Borough Council and chair of CND Cymru, plays a starring role in the latest film by acclaimed director Ken Loach.

The Spirit Of '45 is a documentary which aims to capture the zeitgeist of a generation who had seen their country brought to its knees by war, yet never stopped dreaming of a fairer future and a kinder, more united society.

Britain was on the brink of economic ruin, yet the beginnings of a welfare state were emerging and the idea of society as a collective rather than a series of individuals was being embraced.

Under the new Labour government led by Clement Attlee, Health Minister Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan took responsibility for establishing the National Health Service. Soon after moves were made to bring utilities and transport into public ownership.

Clement Attlee on the Labour party's victory night in 1945, taken from The Spirit Of '45. Photo: People's History Museum

Loach's documentary is a tapestry of interviews from people who lived through that era, interweaved with films and sound recordings from Britain's regional and national archives.

Davies, who stars alongside the pioneering valleys GP Dr Julian Tudor-Hart and Tony Benn, is featured in conversation with Keri Curtis, a community project worker from the Welsh valleys.

The film sees him describing the moment his political soul was galvanized amid appalling personal tragedy, what he and his friends hoped for as the war ended and why, in his 80s, he still feels the need to campaign for change.

Davies told me: "When I was 13, my mother died in childbirth.

"She was in labour with her ninth child and I heard the doctor tell my father that if there had been a hospital bed or a blood transfusion available, she would have survived.

"I was screaming and my father was crying and something changed in me - I couldn't believe she could die like that and I was politicised from that moment on.

"I saw all my younger brothers and sisters taken off in a van to the orphanage and two months later I went underground in the mines to work."

It was in Llanbradach Colliery that he first experienced that collective optimism and spirit of unity that Loach attempts to capture in the film.

"The miners all wanted a new world and they felt hopeful that this new generation of politicians could deliver that," he said.

"I was underground with around 40 others when we were waiting for the election result. When we heard it was going to be a landslide all these big, strapping men had tears rolling down their cheeks.

"I asked one of them why he was crying and he said: 'This means we will take control of our own lives for the first time and have a better hospital service and people like your mother won't die like that anymore'."

Davies admits this is when he realised his burning desire to be part of that radical future, and after a brief flirtation with the Communist party, he joined the Labour party in 1958.

His passion to bring about social change has seen him thrown in prison several times – three times for refusing to pay his poll tax, once in Palestine as he campaigned for peace there and twice for acts committed in protest against the second Iraq war.

Ray Davies, who stars in Ken Loach's The Spirit Of '45

He first met Ken Loach when the director visited him on the picket line during the steel strike of 1980 and Loach was so impressed by his political fervour that he asked him to star in his documentary about the strike, A Question Of Leadership.

Davies will join Loach and Dr Tudor-Hart for the Welsh première of the film, which takes place at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Wednesday 6 March, ahead of the film's general release on 15 March.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the men.

At the same time as the showing in Chapter, The Spirit Of '45 will be screened at The Factory in Tonypandy. After the film the Q&A will be streamed live from Chapter so the audience in the valleys can also ask questions.

On Sunday 17 March, there will also be a special UK-wide satellite screening of The Spirit Of '45, followed by a Q&A event.

Speaking about the film Ken Loach said: "The achievements of the 1945 Labour government have largely been written out of our history.

"From near economic collapse we took leading industries into public ownership and established the welfare state.

"The consciousness was: we've achieved things and we have things that will never be taken away from us, like the health service, like public ownership of the mines, of the transport, of the gas, electric - it was ours.

"And now, that's gone, we've just given it away... Allowed politicians to give it to their friends."

He refers to the current trend as "the cult of the individual", something, which emerged from 1979 onwards, which New Labour followed, and which dominated the party.

"So the consciousness now is not: "How can we work together?" It's: "How can I get on, at the expense of you?" So that's pretty horrible."

The Spirit Of ’45 is on at Chapter on Wednesday 6 March at 6pm. For more information visit www.chapter.org.

The preview is presented by WOW One World Film Festival, which runs from Friday 15 March to Wednesday 3 April. A partnership between Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Chapter and Taliesin Arts Centre Swansea, WOW gives audiences throughout Wales the opportunity to enjoy world cinema.

Saddle up for evening of pedal powered cinema

2013-02-18T14:49:39+00:00

Theatre company Cytser is not shy when it comes to unusual settings for screening cinema. They've previously invited audiences to don hard hats and venture into deep slate caverns and now they are planning an evening of cinema about bikes powered entirely by bikes.

The event is taking place at the Coed y Brenin mountain bike centre in the heart of Snowdonia's forest on Saturday 23 February.

The power for the output source, projectors and sound for the screening will come entirely from the whirring of pedals and members of the audience will be asked to help by hopping aboard an energy trailer supplied by Dan Gifford of Machynlleth.

Audiences will then be treated to an evening of cycle-themed cinema from emerging young Welsh film maker Will Sanders and the international daredevil bike rider Lucas Brunelle.

Film maker Will Sanders

At just 15, Will has the sort of talent which makes us older, more technophobic people green with envy.

A keen mountain-biker who spends all his spare time whizzing around the muddy trails of Snowdonia, he has chosen to document his favourite activity for a series of short videos he then uploads onto the web.

The films, many of which are viewable via the website Pink Bike, capture the thrills of the trail, the speed, atmosphere and camaraderie with other riders.

It is perhaps no surprise that Will, from Machynlleth, loves free-wheeling - his father is the famous motorcycle adventurer Nick Sanders and holds the record for riding around the world in 19 days and also the double transit of the Americas in 46 days.

I spoke to Will ahead of the screening and he told me has created around 50 short films and has largely trained himself to shoot and edit and now helps his dad to edit his films.

"We go out on mountain bikes together - Dad used to be professional racing cyclist but he’s not as fit as he used to be so I enjoy racing him.

"I'm out on the trails as often as I can be and film pretty much every weekend. My friends are always really happy to help out.

"Recently I have been developing my photography skills and I'm about to start working on a longer documentary about the history of mountain biking in the area, focusing on people who have been involved since the start."

Will Sanders during filming

The evening's feature presentation is Line Of Sight by the American filmmaker and adventurer Lucas Brunelle.

Filmed from Brunelle's helmet camera it shows the inside story of underground bicycle racing in countries across the globe.

Watching the trailer, it's not for the faint-hearted as many of the alley cat racers seem to be taking their lives in their own hands, cycling headlong against the flow of traffic, narrowly missing pedestrians and apparently hell-bent on victory at any cost.

Cytser's Artistic Director, Ian MacKenzie-Thurley said they hope the evening will prove popular with cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

"So many people are into biking for fun, to get around and also to keep fit.

"These short films, as well as Line Of Sight, are going to appeal to everyone who enjoys cycling, and it should be a very entertaining evening."

Cytser – The Constellation Project has joined up with the Forestry Commission in Wales and the Film Agency for Wales for the project.

For more information and tickets phone the Coed y Brenin Visitors Centre on 01341 440 747.