Celtic Cult Cinema

Matthew Rhys confirms Iris Prize Festival line-up for 2009! Iris Prize

2009-08-24T15:40:00.004Z

24 Aug 2009
Matthew Rhys confirmes Iris Prize Festival line-up for 2009!

The full programme for the Iris Prize Festival has been announced today by Iris Prize Patron Matthew Rhys. The Festival takes place from 7 - 10 October 2009 at Cineworld and Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Wales (UK).

To read more:
Matthew Rhys confirmes Iris Prize Festival line-up for 2009! Iris Prize

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"The Iris Prize with lightening speed has become a significant event on the international film festival circuit by focusing on gay and lesbian film making talent.

The 2009 programme of feature films and talks, as well as the shortlisted 30 short films for the Iris Prize, looks very impressive and confirms that Cardiff is the place to be this October," said Matthew Rhys, Iris Prize Festival Patron.

The 2009 programme includes 3 European premieres of new and exciting US features:

Redwoods (Dir: David Lewis, USA, 2009)

Matthew Montgomery who plays Chase in Redwoods will be at the screening in Cardiff to introduce the film. He will also be contributing during the festival on a number of panels sharing his experience within the independent film market, having produced 4 feature films.

"The Iris Prize Festival is a wonderful and reputable avenue to see new work as it's known for bringing together the best of the best. It's exciting for the audience to see new movies, but during a festival such as The Iris Prize, we also have the opportunity to meet the many talented individuals involved in bringing films to life.

This is one of the many reasons why festivals like Iris and her global network of partner festivals are so important," said Matthew Montgomery.

[Pictured above: Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who plays the gay character in 'Brothers & Sister' made the cover of the world's most read gay magazine, The Advocate.]

"The Festival has become quite reputable in supporting filmmakers alike. I'm thrilled to be sharing some of my own experiences within the independent film market during the informal and formal sessions taking place throughout the festival.

During these strenuous economic conditions, I'm convinced that by unifying and sharing our experiences of best practice we will build a stronger gay and lesbian filmmaking community," he added.

The Big Gay Musical (Dir: Casper Andreas and Fred M Caruso, USA, 2009)

Manhattan based actor Daniel Robinson who plays Paul in the film will be visiting Cardiff for the first time to introduce the film.

"I’m so excited about visiting Cardiff I’ve heard such a lot about Iris. This will be my first visit to Wales, I’ve heard it’s a beautiful country. I’m also honoured to be presenting The Big Gay Musical at the festival.

This will be the film’s first screening outside of the US so I’m quite excited to see how a European audience will respond to the film," said Daniel Robinson.

"I enjoyed working on the film, Casper, who was on the Iris jury last year, and Fred were very generous directors.

We also had a great cast. I had one scene with Brent Corrigan which is quite sensitive and not what people might expect. Its great news that Brent is also attending the festival and I’m looking forward to meeting up with him in Cardiff," he added.

Hollywood Je t’aime (Dir: Jason Bushman, USA, 2009)

Jason Bushman returns to Cardiff to introduce his first feature film. He attended the inaugural Iris Prize Festival in 2007 with his short film Serene Hunter staring Eric Debets, who also plays the lead in Hollywood Je t’aime.

"I’m very excited to be able to open the features strand of this year’s festival with Hollywood Je t’aime. Not only is this a wonderfully entertaining and magical film but it offers us a chance to invite Jason Bushman back to Cardiff. He made such a big impression with his short film Serene Hunter during our inaugural festival in 2007.

It’s fantastic to see Jason going from strength to strength and for Iris to be a small part of that, we feel very proud of what he has achieved" said Berwyn Rowlands from the Iris Prize.

The full programme of 6 features also includes Fiona’s Scrip (Dir: Florencia Manovil) and two accomplished films from France, Highly Strung Jet e mangerais (Dir: Sophie Laloy) and the International Festival Favourite Give Me Your Hand Donne-moi la mains (Dir: Pascal-Alex Vincent).

Confirmed guests attending the Iris Prize Festival to introduce their feature films are: Jason Bushman (director Hollywood Je t'aime), Florencia Manovil (director Fiona's Script), Matthew Montgomery (actor Redwoods), Daniel Robinson (actor The Big Gay Musical), Brent Corrigan (The Big Gay Musical) and Pascal-Alex Vincent (director Give Me Your Hand).

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Cyfrwng 2009 Welsh Media Conference hosted by BBC Cymru Wales, Cardiff 7-8 May 2009

2009-05-03T17:49:00.003Z

CYFRWNG 2009 CONFERENCE

hosted by BBC Cymru Wales, Cardiff

7-8 May 2009

‘Audiences’

The Cyfrwng 2009 conference will be held at the BBC Cymru Wales Broadcasting Centre, Cardiff on 7-8 May and this year’s theme is ‘Audiences’.

During the two day event, an array of speakers, papers and panels will consider many different aspects of media Audiences in Wales from the changes in audience usage of media to issues of regulation and accountability.

Emphasis will be on the specific needs of Welsh audiences in a range of areas including children’s programming and theatre audiences. Attention will also be paid to the impact of new media technologies within the multiplatform era.

The future of news in Wales will also be considered with the plurality of news a key aspect for discussion. The conference aims to bring together scholarly voices and industry professionals and to encourage dialogue between the academy and the media industry.

[Pictured above: Menna Richards, Director, BBC Cymru Wales]

Confirmed speakers include:

Menna Richards, Director of BBC Cymru Wales

Alun Ffred Jones, AM and Welsh Assembly Government Heritage Minister

Professor Sylvia Harvey, Professor of Broadcasting Policy, Lincoln School of Media

Judith Isherwood, Chief Executive of the Wales Millennium Centre

Alun Davies, AM Labour

Alan Edmunds, Editorial Director of Media Wales and Western Mail Editor

Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas

Elis Owen, Controller of ITV Wales

Professor Kevin Williams, Swansea University

John McGrath, Artistic Director, National Theatre Wales

Elwyn Williams, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru

Simon Popple, Director of the Louis Le Prince Centre, University of Leeds

Dr Cynthia Carter, Cardiff University

Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales

Tony Wearn, Research Director, BARB

Sangeet Bhullar, Wise Kids

Mandy Rose, BBC Cymru Wales, Creative Director, Multiplatform

Tony Jordan, Red Planet

Nick Beasley, Chief Executive of Audiences Wales

Professor Hamish Fyfe, University of Glamorgan

Simon Marshall, First Light

Siân Eirian, Head of Children’s Service, S4C

Hywel Wiliam, Ofcom Head of Broadcasting & Telecommunications, Wales

Dr Ceri Sherlock, BBC Cymru Wales Commissioning Executive, Arts

Nia Ceidiog, Cynyrchiadau Ceidiog Creations

[Pictured above: Alun Ffred Jones, AM and Welsh Assembly Government Heritage Minister]

The conference programme and registration form are available at

www.cyfrwng.com

The programme will be updated regularly.

For further information, contact Dr Rebecca Williams, Swansea University at r.s.williams[at]swansea[dot]ac.[dot]uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Study Abroad in Britain, Europe and the U.S.A. / Canada Website.

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Doctor Who and Torchwood -- Participants required for research project: Screening The Nation: Wales and Landmark Television

2009-03-29T07:13:00.000Z

Dear all,

You may be aware of a BBC Trust project being conducted at CCI by Professor Steve Blandford, Professor Stephen Lacey, Dr. Ruth McElroy and Dr. Rebecca Williams on the topic of ‘Screening The Nation: Wales and Landmark Television'.

Torchwood BBCi Teaser

We are collecting questionnaire responses to representations of Wales, primarily in Doctor Who and Torchwood. We therefore invite anyone who is interested to complete an online questionnaire for the project which can be found at

Questionaire English

If you prefer to respond in Welsh please visit

Questionaire Welsh

We hope that some of you will be able to take part in this research and we look forward to reading some of your responses. We also encourage you to pass these links onto anyone else who might be interested.

Doctor Who Season 4 Trailer

Dr. Rebecca Williams

Research Assistant

Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries

University of Glamorgan

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Study Abroad in Britain, Europe and the U.S.A. / Canada Website.

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Cardiff: BBC National Orchestra of Wales Records Soundtrack for Doctor Who at new home

2009-03-26T16:56:00.005Z

[Pictured above: David Tennant as Dr Who]

BBC National Orchestra of Wales Records Soundtrack for Doctor Who at new home

Dyddiad Rhyddhau: 24 March 2009

Time Travelling Orchestra BBC National Orchestra of Wales is currently recording the soundtrack for BBC Wales' new episodes of Doctor Who.

The Orchestra's music will be heard adding drama to the filmed action of David Tennant and the programme's other stars later this year beginning with the first of four Doctor Who specials on air at Easter.

Some of the Orchestra players took time out during the session to do some time travelling of their own as Doctor Who's TARDIS made a timely stop in Cardiff Bay.

Doctor Who theme tune by Nigel Kennedy - BBC Proms 2008

The Orchestra are performing and recording the music at their new home and venue BBC Hoddinott Hall at Wales Millennium Centre where they moved in January.

The Orchestra are recording the soundtrack for the first time in their new facilities since they began performing the Doctor Who theme tune and soundtrack back in 2005.

Their new studio provides the perfect conditions for them to record, purpose built for their recordings for TV, BBC Radio 3 and for concert performance.

Director of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, David Murray said "We are thrilled that the Orchestra records the soundtrack for this special programme and is associated with excellent BBC Wales' series.

National Orchestra of Wales

As well as being tremendously exciting for the players and the Orchestra team, the opportunity to perform a different style of music helps to showcase the diversity of the Orchestra.

It is also particularly exciting to be recording a soundtrack in our new home for the first time since our move here in January with the excellent recording and performing facilities that BBC Hoddinott Hall offers to the Orchestra".

BBC National Orchestra of Wales received a Beacon Award for Excellence by the Arts Council of Wales in 2008.

Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC yn Recordio Trac Sain Doctor Who yn ei chartref newydd

Dyddiad Rhyddhau: 24 Mawrth 2009
David Tennant fel Dr Who

Ar hyn o bryd mae Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC yn Teithio drwy Amser yn recordio trac sain penodau newydd Doctor Who ar gyfer BBC Wales.

Clywir cerddoriaeth y Gerddorfa yn ychwanegu drama at anturiaethau ar ffilm David Tennant a sêr eraill y rhaglen yn ddiweddarach eleni gan gychwyn â'r gyntaf o bedair rhaglen Doctor Who arbennig ar yr awyr dros y Pasg.

Cymerodd rhai o chwaraewyr y Gerddorfa hoe fach yn ystod y sesiwn i deithio drwy amser eu hunain pan roddodd TARDIS Doctor Who dro amserol am Fae Caerdydd.

Mae'r Gerddorfa'n perfformio ac yn recordio'r gerddoriaeth yn ei chartref a'i hoedfan newydd, Neuadd Hoddinott y BBC yng Nghanolfan Mileniwm Cymru lle'r ymfudodd ym mis Ionawr.

Dyma'r tro cyntaf i'r Gerddorfa'n recordio'r trac sain yn ei chyfleusterau newydd ers iddi ddechrau perfformio arwyddgan a thrac sain Doctor Who dro'n ôl yn 2005.

Gallifrey - Doctor Who

Mae ei stiwdio newydd yn cynnig yr union amgylchiadau iddi recordio, wedi'i chodi i'r pwrpas ar gyfer ei recordiadau i'r teledu, BBC Radio 3 ac ar gyfer perfformio cyngherddau.

Meddai Cyfarwyddwr Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gymreig y BBC, David Murray "Rydym wrth ein bodd mai'r Gerddorfa sy'n recordio trac sain y rhaglen arbennig yma a'i bod ynghlwm â'r gyfres ragorol ar BBC Wales.

Ar ben bod yn aruthrol o gyffrous i'r chwaraewyr a thîm y Gerddorfa, mae'r cyfle i berfformio gwahanol fath o gerddoriaeth yn helpu i roi stondin i amryw ddoniau'r Gerddorfa.

Mae hefyd yn arbennig o gyffrous cael recordio trac sain yn ein cartref newydd am y tro cyntaf ers i ni ymfudo yma ym mis Ionawr a chennym y cyfleusterau recordio a pherfformio rhagorol sydd gan Neuadd Hoddinott y BBC i'w cynnig i'r Gerddorfa."

Enillodd Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymreig y BBC Ddyfarniad Cwmni Disglair gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru yn 2008.

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Cardiff's Queer Iris Prize Expands International Reach Says Matthew Rhys

2009-03-22T09:43:00.006Z

[Pictured above: Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who plays the gay character in 'Brothers & Sister' made the cover of the world's most read gay magazine, The Advocate.]

Not only do the Welsh continue to lead the acting and film world, providing an endless parade of talent, but Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, has become a must-visit hot spot on the annual calendar for Gay & Lesbian Film production.

Here's the most recent news, directly quoted from the Iris Prize website:

"Brothers and Sisters star Matthew Rhys today (19 March 2009) confirmed that Melbourne Queer Film Festival and REELING - The Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival have become partner festivals for the Iris Prize.

Brothers & Sisters - Jason Lewis and Matthew Rhys first kiss

"They join the global network of gay and lesbian film festivals who nominate a short film to compete for the Iris Prize, the world’s largest gay and lesbian short film prize.

"I’m delighted that Iris has two new partner festivals located in Chicago and Melbourne. Having both these respected festivals join the family brings the total number of partner festivals to 16.

"The global network of film festivals who feed into Iris is hugely important in allowing Iris to identify and support the very best film making talent from all over the world," said Festival Patron, Matthew Rhys (pictured right).

"As the second oldest LGBT film festival in the world, Reeling: The Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival is delighted to participate in identifying the next recipient of the coveted Iris Prize.

B&S 2.01: Good Morning Kiss

"The Iris Prize not only recognizes excellence in LGBT filmmaking, it also makes possible the creation of new work, each year supporting a deserving filmmaker as they embark on their next short film adventure.

"We are thrilled to be part of this process," said Joe Sprague, Operations Director, Reeling.

To learn more about this fantastic festival, created by the Welsh wunderkind Berwyn Rowlands [having already placed Wales on the world stage, having established Ffresh, The Student Moving Image Festival of Wales (2002) and the Welsh International Film Festival (1989)]:

Click here to go directly to the Iris Prize website.

Iris Prize Festival 08 Montage

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Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Cardiff ATRiuM: George Ewart Evans Centenary Fête April 1, 2009

2009-03-12T08:00:00.006Z

[Pictured above: George Ewart Evans (1909, Abercynon, South Wales – 1988) was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and produced eleven books of collections of these materials.]

My esteemed colleague Professor Hamish Fyfe writes to us:

Dear Colleagues,

A date for your diaries

The 1st of April 2009 marks the centenary of the birth of the writer and pioneer oral historian George Ewart Evans. His name is eponymous to the Centre for Storytelling here in CCI. George was born in Abercynon but completed most of his seminal work in Suffolk.

The gathering here in Atrium on the 1st of April will bring together significant figures to consider his life, his work and his legacy..

These will include his son the former Faber and Faber Chairman Matthew Evans, David Gentleman the artist, Colin Thomas the film-maker our colleague the historian Gareth Williams who is Evans’s biographer.

If you know about Evans’s work come and join us in celebrating, if you don’t come and learn more about the man and his work from those that knew, read and have been influenced by him . . .

Hamish Fyfe

Professor Hamish Fyfe,

Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries

Atrium, University of Glamorgan

Adam Street, Cardiff, CF24 2XF

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Ireland-Wales Symposium 'Romantic Nations' at Cardiff University Oct 24-25 2008

2008-09-02T05:15:00.006Z

Dear all,

We are writing to let you know that our next AHRC-funded Ireland-Wales symposium will take place on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th October, on the topic of Ireland and Wales: Romantic Nations.

We have attached the provisional version of the programme. Registration details to follow. (The event will be free and open to all and will include lunches, teas and coffees).

Among the highlights of the event is a public lecture by the award-winning Welsh animator Mike Young -

http://www.mikeyoungproductions.com/

- the title of whose talk is "'Taking on the Mouse': Wales, Ireland and the Animation Trade'.

Ticket bookings for this talk have not yet opened, but we'll keep you posted.

Finally, the Cardiff University Wales-Ireland seminar continues into 2008-9.

The autumn lectures will be given by Dr Kirsti Bohata (Swansea University);

Michael Houlihan (Director General, National Museum Wales);
Dr Eamonn Hughes (Queens University Belfast).

Details as follows:

Oct 14 – Kirsti Bohata (Swansea University) ‘George Moore and Caradoc Evans’
Nov 25 – Michael Houlihan (National Museum of Wales) ‘Cultural memory and history in national museum spaces’
Dec 9 – Eamonn Hughes (Queen's University, Belfast) ‘Celtic Crime Fiction’

Seminars take place in Room 2.47, Humanities Building (off Colum Drive), Cardiff University on Thursdays at 5.15 p.m.

Parking in the Colum Drive Car Park is free from 4.30 pm.

For Location Guides, visit

Cardiff University Map

Please note change of day - from our usual Monday slot to Thursdays in the coming year.

We'd be most grateful if you could forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best wishes,
Claire Connolly, Katie Gramich, Paul O'Leary

AHRC Ireland-Wales Research Network

Related news:

Dr. Mark Leslie Woods's recommended Irish and Celtic Studies reading for September 2008:

Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland
Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes
by Martin McLoone

This collection of essays from Martin McLoone takes a new look at
contemporary culture in Ireland through the filter of three main
developments – the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy in the South, the peace
process in the North and the general rise in Ireland of ‘diasporan
awareness’.

The book considers the impact of these three factors on
the film, television, and music produced in Ireland, mostly since the
1990s, and speculates on how this popular culture reflects both what
has been gained in the new Ireland but also what has been lost.

Specific concerns of the book are the secularisation of Ireland and
popular culture’s assault on the Church generally (and the priest in
particular); the changing cityscapes and landscapes of the new Ireland;

the ‘death’ of politics; sexual freedom and personal liberation; the problem of representing unionist culture in the North; Van Morrison’s Belfast and the rise of ‘possessive individualism’ in Ireland.

The book celebrates the new Ireland but also raises issues about the loss of aspects of Irish identity that were valuable and suggests the need for a new ‘collective imaginary’ that might reinvigorate Irish identity in the new millennium.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

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Channel Four Film Head David Rose Talks to Cardiff ATRiuM Film Students about BBC, British Film & TV Dramas

2008-05-12T05:16:00.004Z

[Pictured above: David Rose, former head of Channel Four Drama.]

David Rose at the ATRiuM

Event Date May 14, 2008 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Location – ATRiuM, Cardiff

David Rose, one of the most significant figures in the history of British film and television drama will be visiting the ATRiuM in May.

The evening will start with a glass of wine at 5.30 in the ATRiuM then moving to the Auditorium where a compilation of David’s work will be shown, followed by an on-stage discussion and question and answer session ending at 8pm.

During a long and distinguished career in drama, first in the theatre and then in film and television, David Rose has been involved with a quite remarkable list of projects, as producer, executive producer or commissioner, which reads like a history of ‘quality’ British television drama, and latterly feature film at both the BBC and Channel Four where he was the first head of film.

In a remarkable career David Rose has worked with and helped nurture some of the key figures in British film and television of the last forty years including Troy Kennedy Martin, Ken Loach, Alan Plater, Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale, Alan Clarke, David Hare, Mike Leigh, Neil Jordan, Peter Greenaway and Stephen Frears.

The event is free and open to all. If you would like to attend contact Naomi Wells at njwells[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

[Pictured above: The ATRiuM in coloured floodlights, as searchlights, limousines and and the celebrity redcarpet create a celebrity splash in sexy Cardiff city centre. The BBC Wales covered the event. Photography by Mark Leslie Woods © 2008]

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

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Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Cyfrwng Welsh Media 2008 Holds Annual Seaside Resort Conference at Aberystwyth University May 1-2, Follows Gala April 27 BAFTA Cymru Awards

2008-04-03T09:47:00.009Z

[Pictured above: Aberystwyth overlooks the Irish Sea.]

CYFRWNG 2008 CONFERENCE

Aberystwyth University
1-2 May 2008

New Platforms :: Convergence

The Cyfrwng 2008 conference will be held in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, on 1-2 May and this year’s theme is ‘Convergence – Cydgyfeiriant’. During the two day event, a range of speakers, papers and panels will consider how the media in Wales are rising to the challenge of a digital, multiplatform world.

The conference programme will be published on this website shortly but we are urging people to register as soon as possible and to book their place at the conference dinner which will follow the Cyfrwng 2008 award ceremony on Thursday night 1 May.

The dinner will be hosted at the Council Chamber in the National Library but space is limited! Come back to the website soon for full programme details but speakers include:

[Pictured above: Dr David Barlow, University of Glamorgan]

Dr Mike Cormack, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

[Pictured above: Phil George, National English Language Theatre]

[Pictured above: John Geraint, Green Bay Media Limited]

Rhian Gibson, S4C Director of Commissioning

Janet Lewis Jones, BBC Trust

Prof. Tom O’Malley, Aberystwyth University

Elis Owen, Managing Director ITV Wales

[Pictured above: Prof. Mike Pearson, Aberystwyth University]

Arshad Rasul, Director of Technology, S4C

[Pictured above: Dr Heike Roms, Aberystwyth University]

Mandy Rose, Creative Director: Multiplatform, BBC Wales

[Pictured above: Ceri Sherlock, Multiplatform Commissioning Executive, BBC Wales]

[Pictured above: Prof. Elan Closs Stephens, Aberystwyth University]

Prof. Ioan Williams, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru

Rhodri Williams, Ofcom Wales

For further information, contact Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones or Rhodri ap Dyfrig on 01970 622533.

Cyfrwng Welsh Media Conference May 2008

BAFTA CYMRU

CYNHADLEDD CYFRWNG 2008

1-2 Mai 2008

Prifysgol Aberystwyth

Llwyfannau Newydd :: Cydgyfeiriant

Bydd cynhadledd Cyfrwng 2008 yn cael ei chynnal yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru yn Aberystwyth rhwng 1-2 Mai a’r thema eleni yw ‘Cydgyfeiriant – Convergence’. Dros gyfnod o ddau ddiwrnod, bydd amrywiaeth o ddarlithoedd a phaneli difyr yn trafod sut mae cyfryngau Cymru yn ymateb i her yr oes ddigidol, aml-lwyfan.

Caiff rhaglen y gynhadledd ei chyhoeddi ar y wefan hon cyn hir ond rydym yn annog pobl i gofrestru mor fuan â phosib ac i sicrhau lle yng nghinio’r gynhadledd fydd yn dilyn seremoni wobrwyo Cyfrwng 2008 ar nos Iau 1 Mai.

Y bwriad yw cynnal y swper yn Ystafell y Cyngor y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol ond mae nifer y llefydd yn gyfyngedig, felly cyntaf i’r felin! Dewch nôl i’r wefan am fanylion llawn y rhaglen ond dyma rai o siaradwyr y gynhadledd:

Dr David Barlow, Prifysgol Morgannwg
Dr Mike Cormack, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Phil George, Theatr Genedlaethol cyfrwng Saesneg
John Geraint, Green Bay
Rhian Gibson, Cyfarwyddwr Comisiynu S4C

Janet Lewis Jones, Ymddiriedolaeth y BBC
Yr Athro Tom O’Malley, Prifysgol Aberystwyth

Elis Owen, Rheolwr Gyfarwyddwr ITV Wales
Yr Athro Mike Pearson, Prifysgol Aberystwyth

Arshad Rasul, Cyfarwyddwr Technoleg S4C
Dr Heike Roms, Prifysgol Aberystwyth
Mandy Rose, Cyfarwyddwr Creadigol: Aml-lwyfan, BBC Cymru
Ceri Sherlock, Gweithredwr Comisiynu BBC Cymru
Yr Athro Elan Closs Stephens, Prifysgol Aberystwyth
Yr Athro Ioan Williams, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru
Rhodri Williams, Ofcom Cymru

Am fwy o wybodaeth, cysyllter ag Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones neu Rhodri ap Dyfrig ar 01970 622533.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

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Bagpipes Annually Recall 600 Irish Warriors Hailed as Mexican Martyrs

2008-03-11T07:39:00.008Z

From the article entitled, "Bagpipers honor Irish who fought for Mexico"

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

"MEXICO CITY — Every month, a wail of bagpipes reverberates through a plaza in downtown Mexico City, causing startled passersby to stop and stare.

Then, from behind the bullet-scarred walls of an old fortress, a platoon of Mexican bagpipers emerges through the gates — paying tribute to an obscure but divisive chapter of history involving Mexico, Ireland and the United States.

The ceremony honors the St. Patrick Battalion, a group of 600 Irish-American soldiers who switched sides to fight for Mexico in the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War.

On St. Patrick's Day, many Mexicans will raise a glass to commemorate the "Irish martyrs" who are regarded as heroes in a war that still arouses passions here.

"It's a little bit of a weird twist on history … and quite romantic for the Irish community," said Myles Doherty, the Irish consul in Mexico City.

[Pictured above: brutal branding of Irish soldier / male sado-masochism depicted as a reality of war in One Man's Hero (1999) starring Tom Berenger, Don Wycherley, Ilia Volokh, Wolf Muser, Luke Hayden, and Gredd Fitzgerald]

The battalion's story begins with Ireland's Potato Famine of the 1840s, which forced thousands of Irish to emigrate to the USA and other countries."

Read the entire article here:

Bagpipers honor Irish who fought for Mexico

You might be asking, with such a bizarre story, had anyone made a film, yet?

The article tells us:

"The San Patricios were seen much differently in the USA, even by fellow Irish immigrants, said Ian McGowan, archivist at the Institute for Irish-American Studies at the City University of New York.

"For a good 40 or 50 years, they were almost completely forgotten about," McGowan said. "The unofficial position of Irish who were looking to become Americans in the 19th century was not to discuss them."

"Recently, Americans have begun to pay more attention to the battalion. Several books have been written in the past decade and the 1999 movie One Man's Hero was about Riley."

Plot summary for One Man's Hero (1999):

"One Man's Hero" tells the little-known story of the "St. Patrick's Brigade" or "San Patricios," a group of Irish immigrants who deserted to Mexico after encountering religious and ethnic prejudice in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War.

The plot centers around the personal story of John Riley, an Irishman who had been a seargent in the American Army who leads the brigade, as he leads his men in battle and struggles with authorities on both sides of the border.

One Man's Hero (1999) at the IMDB

One Man's Hero, directed by Lance Hool was nominated for the 2000 'Outstanding Director of a Feature Film' ALMA Award (American Latino Media Arts Awards).

En Espanol: Héroes sin patria (1999)

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

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2 Week Gaelic Immersion April 14 - 25th, Cape Breton Gaelic Society Nova Scotia

2008-03-06T07:46:00.005Z

[Pictured above: Oi Polloi were the first punk rock band to record a single Carson in Scottish Gaelic.]

2 WEEK Gaelic Immersion
Speak and understand more Gaelic with this intensive 2 week course!

WHEN: Monday APRIL 14 to Friday APRIL 25
10am till 4pm 1 hr lunch break

WHERE: Cape Breton Gaelic Society
296 George Street, Sydney

Instructors: Angus MacLeod and Beth MacNeil

The classes will be in the TIP (Total Immersion Plus) methodology.

It is total Gaelic immersion during class time. You learn through hands-on interaction with the tutor and fellow students.

You will learn practical and useful language in a fun and comfortable setting.

The tutors have a wonderful sense of humor which makes your learning experience more enjoyable.

It is recommended that you bring a recording device as there is no reading or writing taught.

Gaelic show about Cape from 70's

By listening to your recordings at home you will learn and progress much faster.

Bring your lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.

[About this video: this is a very old show called Se' Ceap Breatainn Tir Mo Graidh which was prodiced by scottish television about Gaelic in Cape Breton. It is the only footage I've ever seen of Joe Neil MacNeil and other old timers. This segment features Maxie MacNeil and his daughters as well as a Gaelic mass in Glendale. Its a rough copy. ]

For registration or more info
call Peggy Gillis 902-828-2218

WEEKLY CLASSES

WHEN: Every Saturday until April 12 (with the exception of Easter Saturday March 22)
10am till 3pm 1 hr lunch break

WHERE: Cape Breton Gaelic Society
296 George Street, Sydney

Instructors: Beginners Beth MacNeil
Intermediate Shannon MacDonald
Advanced Angus MacLeod
The teaching method used is TIP (Total Immersion Plus).
Bring lunch, tea and coffee provided.
Call Peggy with any questions
828-2218

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Robert Carlyle stars in Justin Kerrigan's feature film 'I Know you Know' Now Shooting in Bridgend and Port Talbot, Welsh Valleys

2008-02-18T08:54:00.006Z

[Pictured above: Emmy nominee Robert Carlyle stars in Justin Kerrigan's newest film currently being shoot in South Wales.]

Emmy nominee Robert Carlyle, who found fame in 'The Full Monty' and 'Trainspotting' and whose credits have since included 'Carla's Song', 'The World is Not Enough' and '28 weeks later' is currently filming Cardiff born, Justin Kerrigan's new feature film 'I Know you Know' in Bridgend, and Port Talbot.

Carlyle takes the lead role of Charlie in the coming of age drama, in which a boy relishes the excitement and challenge of his father's espionage work; until the 'spy game' turns real.

Jamie, a young teenager, is fascinated by his father Charlie's espionage work until the world of spies becomes all too real.

Charlie lives in his own reality—an undercover agent, always on an important mission, always on the move.

Life for Charlie is highly charged and on the edge.

He is unpredictable, explosive, yet kind hearted and fiercely protective of his Jamie who hero-worships his father until he slowly begins to understand that his father is occupying a quite different reality.

Making his screen debut alongside Carlyle as Jamie is Cardiff school boy, Arron Fuller who was picked to play Carlyle's son in the movie.

The 13 year-old is a pupil at lady Mary Secondary School, Cardiff.

Kerrigan is best known for his 1999 hit 'Human Traffic' for which, amidst several other awards, he won a BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Director and was nominated for a Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer at the BAFTA 2000 awards in London.

Human Traffic Trailer -- Miramax Films

Kerrigan is working alongside the experienced and award winning producer Sally Hibbin of Screen East sponsored Parallax Independent, whose extensive list of credits include 'Yasmin'.

'Liam' starring Ian Hart and 'Carla's Song' that was directed by Ken Loach and starred Robert Caryle. He also appeared in her 1990 hit 'Riff Raff', winner of the Cannes Critics prize.

'I Know you Know' has the financial backing of the Film Agency for Wales, on behalf of the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery and the Wales Creative IP Fund, managed by Finance Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, in association with Limelight, Post Republic and the Screen East Content Investment Fund.

Worldwide sales are being handled by LA based, The Little Film Company, helmed by the acclaimed sales agent, Robbie Little.

[Pictured above:Pauline Burt, Chief Executive of the Film Agency for Wales]

Pauline Burt, Chief Executive of the Film Agency said:

"We operate our lottery finance as a talent fund rather than a location fund, placing a particular focus on Welsh born and/or resident writers, directors and producers.

We have been involved in the development of Justin's feature, which is close to his heart and for which he has a particular and engaging vision, and we are delighted to additionally contribute significantly to the production financing to help get this film made.

The Twang - Two Lovers -- Also directed by Justin Kerrigan

This story is original, touching, evocative and has, in our opinion, the potential to travel at an international level and put Justin firmly back on the talent map for filmmakers of international repute.

Additionally of course, we hope that the film can be a showcase for a previously undiscovered talent, in the form of Arron Fuller."

"This is one of seven features that we're currently supporting with production finance – each of which is distinctive, and we have a further 15 features in development, each of which have key Welsh talent that we're keen to platform to the wider film industry."

Linda James of the Wales Creative IP Fund, said:

"The commercial potential of 'I Know You Know' as a film destined for a global marketplace is a reflection of its star power with Robbie Carlyle in the lead, and the talents of Cardiff-born writer/director, Justin Kerrigan, and producer, Sally Hibbin.

We are delighted to have been instrumental in the film happening and from the footage that has been shot to date, It already looks to be a jewel.

"The export potential of projects, the inward investment to Wales and the development of Wales' Creative Industries all feature in the investments made by the Wales Creative IP Fund."

"The film is the 15th investment made by the £7million Wales Creative IP Fund which has invested £4.7million million since it was established in May 2005."

"We would like to acknowledge the support of CIRIC at Swansea Institute and in particular two of their staff Chris Buxton and Chris Holtom.

CIRIC supports economic development in the Objective One area of Wales through their support of creative practitioners. They have been a huge help," finished Sally Hibbin.

CIRIC is funded by The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), Swansea Institute and private sector finance to re-invigorate the creative industries sector within Wales.

The Film Agency for Wales is funded by the Arts Council for Wales, the UK Film Council and the Welsh Assembly Government, via Creative Business Wales, the latter of which was set up to support, encourage and increase the range and number of films being produced in Wales and to foster the abundance of creative talent in Wales.

Read more here:

Film Agency for Wales

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Funky Victorian Welsh Performance Artists' Enclave in Llandaf North Continues to Provoke and Impress with Sexy Exhibits

2008-02-06T10:24:00.000Z

When I arrived in Wales almost four years ago to begin my doctoral studies, one of the first places I wandered into was the old Victorian laundry turned into a combination studio and gallery, called Tactile Bosch, located in Llandaf, which I reached by biking along the Taff Trail.

We have a similar enclave in South Florida called the Bake House and I knew several of the Welsh artists after promoting their work at a gallery show in Manhattan, so I was keen to see what all the excitement was about in South Wales.

Apparently South Wales has a long and established pedigree as British artists' preferred place for living and working, going back to the 1960s art explosion associated with the Barry College Summer School, which Dr. Heike Roms has documented in her recent research.

Read more about Dr. Roms remarkable investigation here:

What's Welsh for Performance? - 40 years of Performance Art in Wales

When I'm lucky enough to be relaxing at our home in Miami Beach during the annual winter Basel Art Festival, my fashionable or Bohemian NYC artist friends tell me that if they moved to Europe they would move to Berlin, for its cheap cost of living and high standard of living related to the growing cluster of artists who have moved there from around the world, along with Berlin's great mix of unverisities, museums, and quirky neighborhoods, etc.

From what my Welsh artist friends tell me, Cardiff and South Wales have a similar appeal (albeit on a smaller scale when compared to Miami Beach or Berlin) for British artists who want to live and create somewhere in the UK that's both affordable and stimulating, but aren't quite ready to learn to speak German . . .

Which brings me to back to those wild and crazy but extremely talented folks who create and exhibit at Llandaf's Tactile Bosch.

Check out their latest exhibit, you won't regret it!

Exhibit background notes:

Trace / Taenu opened in London on the 23rd of May 2007 in the Woburn Studios, Bloomsbury, and ran until the 26th of May 2007.

Organized by MA students from the SLADE School of Fine Art, the exhibition featured those from the ‘media’ department, who work and experiment with photography, film, performance, video, installation and sound.

After the success the London show the SLADE collective retained a hard-core group of 28 practitioners taking the exhibition to Stolzestrasse 11, [Konstablerwache] in Frankfurt.

They will showcase a site specific version of the new work produced during 2007 @ tactileBOSCH from Sat 16th - Sat 24th Feb. Opening @ 6.30pm on Saturday 16th Feb.

[Pictured above: Situated in a reclaimed Victorian Laundry in the Llandaff North section of Cardiff UK, opened as a fledgling art facility in June 2000. Primarily used as artists studios and an alternative exhibition space filling that time honoured tradition of artist led space . . .]

Recognising common subjects of investigation, which had emerged in the preceding months, the general term ‘contrast’ was selected as a working title by the artists.

The term referred to obvious formal contrasts explored such as black and white and light and shadow, and regarding content- contradictions and exaggerations, fiction and reality.

After in-depth discussion emphasis was placed on the play with light, use of black-and-white studies and a sense of theatricality, as the major themes or interests of the exhibition.

The title "Taenu" [meaning trace elements or dust left covering remains] was developed, capturing the essence of the "quiet" statements observed in all participating artists and their work.

Showing experimental films, videos, installations, photographs and drawings.
The exhibition highlights the strong shift in creative expression and social sensitivity seen in the last few years.

Young artists are no longer interested in using complex interweaving, aggressive methods and shock tactics in their art but follow a more rigid, calculated and understated direction: although leaving traces quietly, they are no less determined.

The work appears "natural", its casualness is convincing, as art should not be any more exerted; but is volatile, surprising, precise and significant.

Since the participating artists originate from many different countries, it will be a chance to see international post graduate students evolve work in situ @ the studio before taking the exhibition up to Liverpool to showcase their endeavours further during Liverpool’s’ City of Culture 2008.

[Pictured above: An old photograph of the late Victorian laundry while it still operated, and before being turned into an eclectic-cum-Early-Edwardian-minimalist-centre for a local Welsh art explosion.]

Several participants intend to take the exhibition to their home cities.

Which range from Korea – Japan, Poland to Spain drawing attention to the wide range of talent emerging from the Slade School of Fine Art to the international art arena.

Trace / Taenu
An Exhibition @ tactileBOSCH
by the SLADE MA Fine Art & Media Collective.
Opens: Sat 16th Feb @ 6.30pm

If you go:

tactileBOSCH is located on Andrews Rd, Llandaff North Cardiff Tel. +44 07951 256255

Arrivals by train to Cardiff Central Station plus a local link up to Llandaff Station;

Local Bus #25 takes you from town centre up Cathedral Rd and drops right at the end of Andrews Rd opposite Glan Taff School;

Bike Ride up the Taff Trail but don't forget to pull off at Hayley Park [by the Tennis Courts]

Take a sweater the heating in the old building is funkkier than the folks who perfrom and exhibit there -- of course, there's usually a wine bar or cuppah to be had. Tell them I sent you . . .

Tactile Bosch Cardiff art Studio and Gallery Space

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

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Here's a GREAT Christmas Gift!!! Many World Cinema Lovers Thrilled As Famous Irish Film Scholar Martin McLoone Launches New Book

2007-12-20T19:02:00.001Z

Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland
Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes
by Martin McLoone

This collection of essays from Martin McLoone takes a new look at
contemporary culture in Ireland through the filter of three main
developments – the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy in the South, the peace
process in the North and the general rise in Ireland of ‘diasporan
awareness’.

The book considers the impact of these three factors on
the film, television, and music produced in Ireland, mostly since the
1990s, and speculates on how this popular culture reflects both what
has been gained in the new Ireland but also what has been lost.

Specific concerns of the book are the secularisation of Ireland and
popular culture’s assault on the Church generally (and the priest in
particular); the changing cityscapes and landscapes of the new Ireland;

the ‘death’ of politics; sexual freedom and personal liberation; the problem of representing unionist culture in the North; Van Morrison’s Belfast and the rise of ‘possessive individualism’ in Ireland.

The book celebrates the new Ireland but also raises issues about the loss of aspects of Irish identity that were valuable and suggests the need for a new ‘collective imaginary’ that might reinvigorate Irish identity in the new millennium.

Contents:

Introduction: An Irish Monument in a Foreign Field: The Changing Configurations of Irish Studies 1900-2005

􀂙 Strumpet City in Post-modern Times: The Return of the Oppressed?

􀂙 Cinema, City and Imaginative Space: 'Hip Hedonism' and recent Irish Cinema

􀂙 Topographies of Terror and Taste: The Reimagining of Belfast in Recent Cinema

􀂙 Celtic Cities, Celtic Landscapes

􀂙 Haunted Landscapes and the Irish West

􀂙 December Bride: A Landscape Peopled Differently

􀂙 Settling Old Scores? Religion,
Secularisation and recent Irish Cinema

􀂙 The Political Power of the Feisty Colleen: Contradiction in the Screen Persona of
Maureen O'Hara

􀂙 Irish Soundscapes: Hybridity and National Musics (with Noel McLaughlin)

􀂙 Rootedness and Transcendence: Van Morrison's Belfast

􀂙 Irish Soundscapes: Punk Music and the Political Power of 'What-Might-Have-Been'

􀂙 Representing the Unionists

Martin McLoone is Professor of Media Studies (Film, Television and Photography) in the Centre for Media Research at the University of Ulster, Coleraine.

He has written extensively on all aspects of the media in Ireland and Britain (including radio and popular music).

He is the author of Irish Film: The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema, published in 2000.

November 2007 224 pages illus
978 0 7165 2935 4 cloth €60.00 / £45.00
978 0 7165 2936 1 paper €24.95 / £19.95

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

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Glamorgan Conjures Spring Film Conference, "Witches and Queens, Whores and Libertines: Early Modern History on Screen" 3-4 April 2008

2007-12-12T06:57:00.000Z

Historical films and TV series set in the early modern period abound, yet historians have only recently begun to trouble themselves with these popular representations of the past.

Even in film and TV studies, discussion is more about form, technique and aesthetic context than content and message.

What is lacking is a critical dialogue appraising these films and what their choice of subject matter and the way in which it is presented says about contemporary society and its relationship with the past.

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to bring together scholars from the fields of early modern history and literature, media and cultural studies and modern cultural history to discuss the representation of a particular period of history (c.1500-c.1800) on screen (whether in the cinema or on television).

Participants are invited to offer papers on the heritage-film debate, historical film and collective memory, the role of historical productions in making history and its debates accessible, adaptations of early modern texts, the use of historical documentaries, or any other aspect of early modern history on screen.

Please send abstracts of not more than 300 words and a brief CV to the address below.

Papers will be of 20 mins. duration and aimed at promoting discussion.

Deadline for abstracts: 11 January 2008.

Dr Jonathan Durrant
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
CF37 1DL
United Kingdom

jdurrant[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Cardiff Chapter Arts Centre's Film Expert Tony Whitehead Publishes Important New Book on British TV & Film's Mike Leigh

2007-12-08T08:07:00.000Z

Tony Whitehead is Cinema Programmer at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. He also works as a part-time lecturer in film at the University of Glamorgan. His book on Mike Leigh has just been published by Manchester University Press.

Read the British Film Magazine Online Review of Tony Whitehead's newest book on Mike Leigh here.

Tony Whitehead in among the film students' favourite lecturers at the University of Glamorgan, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries ATRiuM (CCI) Film & Media department, currently teaching 'Screen Language' and other courses.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

[Pictured above: Director Mike Leigh 1943-]

Read Tony Whitehead's article in Screen Online about Mike Leigh.

Read Tony Whitehead's article in Screen Online about Mike Leigh!

Amazon Review:

Tony Whitehead's new book on Mike Leigh is actually enjoyable, not to mention that Leigh himself endorsed it.

It's a wonderful trip down memory lane, revisiting every character and hilariously tragic line of dialogue from Bleak Moments to Vera Drake. Vanessa Gildea, Film Ireland --Vanessa Gildea, Film Ireland

Tony Whitehead writes for the the Irish Film Institute about MIKE LEIGH’S TV FILMS

Amazon Synopsis:

Mike Leigh may well be Britain's greatest living film director; his worldview has permeated our national consciousness.

This book gives detailed readings of the nine feature films he has made for the cinema, as well as an overview of his work for television.

Written with the co-operation of Leigh himself, this is the first study of his work to challenge the critical privileging of realism in histories of the British cinema, and place the emphasis instead on the importance of comedy and humour:

of jokes and their functions, of laughter as a survival mechanism, and of characterisations and situations that disrupt our preconceptions of 'realism'.

Striving for the all-important quality of truth in everything he does, Leigh has consistently shown how ordinary lives are too complex to fit snugly into the conventions of narrative art.

Developing characters and narratives through meticulous processes of improvisation in preparation and rehearsal, Leigh has led his collaborators in creating a body of work that is utterly distinctive.

From the bittersweet observation of "Life is Sweet" or "Secrets and Lies", to the blistering satire of "Naked" and the manifest compassion of "Vera Drake", he has demonstrated a matchless ability to perceive life's funny side as well as its tragedies, establishing a unique niche in the British cinema as both humorist and humanist.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Manchester University Press (1 May 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0719072379

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Celebrated in the U.S. Abergavenny Poet Wendy Mulford Returns to Welsh Valleys Mon. Dec. 10 for Glamorgan Afternoon Readings

2007-12-07T18:49:00.000Z

P O E T R Y R E A D I N G

UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN

(Treforest Campus)

In association with academi literature promotion

Wendy Mulford

Reading her poetry, and in conversation with Alice Entwistle

Monday December 10th 2007

2pm – 3:15pm

Room G311

All welcome!

Wendy Mulford is the author of eight collections of poetry and several works of prose.

Probably best known for her poetry, which started to appear in the mid-seventies, in the context of the rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Wendy Mulford was raised near Abergavenny; she spent most of her childhood there and in the Usk valley in Wales.

She now lives in Suffolk having spent many years living and teaching in London and Cambridge.

She has worked inter alia as a croupier, publisher, printer, lecturer, researcher and counsellor, founding, among other things, the influential experimental publishers Street Editions Press in 1972.

Over the years she has given many readings and taken part in numerous literary Festivals in Britain and abroad. She is currently in training to be a Jungian analyst.

Recent/forthcoming publications:

Selected Poems: and suddenly, supposing (Etruscan Books, 2002)

The Land Between: Poems 2000-7 (Reality Street Editions, 2008)

Listening through the nightwood, with Anne Beresford, Herbert Lomas and Pauline Stainer (Orphean Press, 2008)

Wendy’s poetry has been included in Out of Everywhere: linguistically innovative poetry by women in North America and the UK ed. Maggie O’Sullivan (Reality Street, 1996) and will appear in The Shearsman Anthology of Innovative Women Poets ed. Carrie Etter (forthcoming).

It has been discussed in a variety of critical texts, including A History of British Women’s Poetry by Jane Dowson and Alice Entwistle (Cambridge, 2005); her work will also be featured in Alice Entwistle’s forthcoming critical study In These Stones: Women poets writing in and out of Wales (Seren). New poems will appear in issues of Poetry Wales and Artworld.

Poetry by Wendy Mulford:

Poetry :
Bravo to Girls and Heroes – Street Editions, Cambridge , 1977
No Fee: A Line or Two for Free (with Denise Riley) – Street Editions, Cambridge , 1978
The Light Sleepers – Mammon Press, Bath , 1980
Reactions to Sunsets – Ferry Press, London , 1980
River Whose Eyes – ADVOCADOTOAVOCADO, London , 1982
Some Poems (with Denise Riley) – Cambridge , 1982
The ABC of Writing and other poems –Torque, Southampton , 1985
Late Spring Next Year: Poems 1979 – 84 – Loxwood Stoneleigh, Bristol , 1987
Lusus Naturae – Circle Press, London , 1990
Nevrazumitelny – Poetical Histories, Cambridge , 1991
The Bay of Naples – Reality Studios, London , 1992
etruscan reader VII: Alice Notley, Wendy Mulford, Brian Coffey – etruscan books, Buckfastleigh, 1997
The East Anglia Sequence – Spectacular Diseases, Peterborough , 1998
and suddenly, supposing: Selected Poems – etruscan books, Buckfastleigh, 2002

Prose:
This Narrow Place : Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland: Life, Letters and Politics – Pandora Press, London , 1988
The Virago Book of Love Poetry (Ed.) – Virago, London , 1990, 1998
Virtuous Magic: Women saints and their meanings – with Sara Maitland, Mowbray/Cassell, London 1998

Translation :
The Brontës Hats by Sarah Kirsch (with Anthony Vivis) – Street Editions, Cambridge , 1992
T by Sarah Kirsch (with Anthony Vivis) – Reality Street Editions, London , Suffolk , 1995

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Friday Night Hungarian Poet George Szirtes Glamorgan Free Twilight Lecture Series Starts 7 December 2007

2007-12-06T09:26:00.000Z

Professor Tony Curtis at the University of Glamorgan English & Creative Writing courses has announced the guests lecturers for the coming term:

Here are the guest writers for this year: all are at 6.30 in Glamorgan Business Centre, located on the main University of Glamorgan campus in Treforest, Pontypridd on Fridays and are FREE -

Dec 7th, 2007 George Szirtes - poet and translator

[Pictured above: George Szirtes - Hungarian poet and translator]

George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956. He was brought up in London and studied Fine Art in London and Leeds.

His poems began appearing in national magazines in 1973 and his first book, The Slant Door, was published in 1979. It won the Faber Memorial prize the following year.

After the publication of his second book, November and May, 1982, he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Since then he has published several books and won various other prizes including the T S Eliot Prize for Reel in 2005.

Having returned to his birthplace, Budapest, for the first time in 1984, he has also worked extensively as a translator of poems, novels, plays and essays and has won various prizes and awards in this sphere.

His own work has been translated into numerous languages.

Beside his work in poetry and translation he has written Exercise of Power, a study of the artist Ana Maria Pacheco, and, together with Penelope Lively, edited New Writing 10 published by Picador in 2001.

George Szirtes - Hungarian poet and translator

Feb 29th, 2008 Grahame Davies - poet, novelist and BBC executive

[Pictured above: Dr Grahame Davies - poet, novelist and BBC executive; photograph courtesy Mauro Philip Conti Photography London-Miami-NYC.]

"One of the clearest public poetic voices of his generation," Emyr Lewis

"An unequalled satirist,” John Gruffydd Jones.

“He sees through the deception and falseness of urban media life better than anyone, and he’s scathing in his vision of the emptiness of city existence...this poet has sufficient mastery of language to disturb and reach the roots of the soul.” Alan Llwyd.

"Poems which brilliantly describe Welsh life in the capital." Peter Finch.

“There’s a new world-view on our everyday lives here, overloaded with memorable images and phrases,” Menna Elfyn.

“He has an incredible gift of expression. There’s scarcely a poem in the volume that doesn’t contain truly original and clever phrases.” Meirion MacIntyre Huws.

Poet, editor and literary critic, born in 1964 and brought up in the former coal mining village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham in north east Wales.

After gaining a degree in English Literature at CCAT (now Anglia Ruskin University) Cambridge, he qualified as a journalist with the Thomson Organisation at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and worked on newspapers in south Wales from 1985 until 1991, since when he has worked for BBC Wales.

His career as a journalist and producer has brought him a number of Welsh and UK industry awards. He is currently Editor Broadcast development for BBC Wales.

In 1997, he was awarded a doctorate by the University of Wales for his study, written in Welsh, of the work of R.S.Thomas, Saunders Lewis, T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil, whom he identified as part of an anti-modern trend in Western culture in the 20th Century.

In 1997, his first volume of poetry, Adennill Tir, (Barddas,) a book arising from the 10 years he spent in Merthyr Tydfil in the south Wales Valleys, won the Harri Webb Memorial Prize.

In 1998, he was second to Emyr Lewis in the competition for the National Eisteddfod Crown.

In 1999, his study of Wales and the anti-modern movement, Sefyll yn y Bwlch, (University of Wales Press, 1999), the product of his doctoral research, was published. It went "straight to the front rank of criticism of our day," according to the critic Dr Dafydd Glyn Jones (Barn), and was described as “a signal book” by the critic Dr Angharad Price (New Welsh Review).

In 2000, he co-edited Oxygen, (Seren) a bilingual anthology of Welsh poets aged under 45.

In 2001, his second volume of poetry, Cadwyni Rhyddid, (Barddas) appeared . It went to a second edition within a few months of publication, won the Wales Arts Council's 2002 Book of the Year award at the Hay on Wye Festival of Literature, together with a prize of £3,000.

In 2002, Seren press published his literary anthology, The Chosen People, which details the relationship of the Welsh and the Jewish people as reflected in literature.

Also in 2002, he edited a 160-page edition of the Bulgarian literary magazine Plamak (“Flame”) dedicated to Welsh literature, the first such anthology of Welsh writing in the Balkans.

In 2002 Ffiniau/Borders appeared from Gomer press, a bilingual volume of poetry jointly with Elin ap Hywel.

In 2003, he chaired the panel of judges for the Welsh Book of the Year Awards. The first prize of £5,000 went to Jerry Hunter's Llwch Cenhedloedd.

In 2004 his first novel Rhaid i Bopeth Newid, was published by Gomer. It was longlisted for the £10,000 Book of the Year prize, 2005, and was described by Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas in Taliesin as 'the first post-national novel.'

Also in 2004, his selection of Welsh poetry in Asturian translation appeared in Spain from Kêr ar Mor press under the title Nel país del borrina (The Country of the Clouds).

In 2005, his selection of Welsh poetry in Galician translation appeared under the title of No país de la brétema from VTP Editorial.

In 2005, Seren published The Big Book of Cardiff, an anthology of contemporary writing about Cardiff, co-edited by Peter Finch and Grahame Davies.

Also in 2005, his third volume of original Welsh-language poetry appeared from Barddas, under the title Achos (Cause).

In 2006, his anthology of work by and about refugees and asylum seekers in Wales, Gwyl y Blaidd / Festival of the Wolf, appeared from Parthian/Hafan, edited jointly with Tom Cheesman and Sylvie Hoffman.

In 2007, Seren published Everything Must Change, an English-language novel based on the successful Rhaid i Bopeth Newid.

Also in 2007, Seren will be publishing Real Wrexham, a work of psychogeography in the Real series edited by Peter Finch.

He is a full member of the Welsh Academi and was the Welsh-language editor of Poetry Wales magazine for several years until 2002. He won the vers libre prize in the National Eisteddfod in 1994, the sonnet prize in 2004 and the Welsh Academi’s Stomp competition in 2001.

His work has been translated into several languages, including English, German, Latvian, Maltese, Bulgarian, Polish, Asturian and Galician, and is widely anthologised, appearing in publications as diverse as The Times, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry London, the Literary Review in America, Orbis (#136 Spring 2006) and the Yearbook of Welsh Writing in English.

He is a frequent contributor of articles and reviews to journals such as Poetry Wales, Barn, Taliesin, Planet and New Welsh Review, and his poetry is on the syllabus for school pupils in Wales.

Dr Grahame Davies - poet, novelist and BBC executive

May 9th, 2008 Niall Griffiths - novelist.

[Pictured above: Niall Griffiths - novelist]

The BBC Wales Profile on Niall Griffiths writes that:

"Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool and has since moved to Aberystwyth. Both towns have a strong hold on his imagination. His first two novels were set on the west coast of Wales, his third re-visited his native city."

"His novel Stump traces a trajectory of violent retribution between Liverpool and Aberystwyth, following two shell-suited gangsters on their journey from Merseyside to the seaside town to settle a score."

"There has always been a strong Welsh influence in Griffiths' life. He was born to a Toxteth family with Welsh roots, in 1966."

Niall Griffiths Official Website

Academi -- Welsh Academy of Writers

Many prestigious published and award-winning authors and poets
teach on our the University of Glamorgan English & Creative Writing , so students and colleagues can be confident they’re getting the best teaching and support.

We also use our experience to help students forge working relationships with industry professionals.

The university has an outstanding reputation for creative writing. The subject was one of 12 areas rated “Excellent” by the Government’s Teaching Quality Assessment body.

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), English was awarded a grade 4 rating, equivalent to national excellence in all areas.

For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

ATRiuM Public Lecture on Small-Nation Filmmaking by Professor Mette Hjort 5.30pm Weds 28th November 2007

2007-11-26T09:36:00.000Z

The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations Announces the next upcoming Cardiff Academic ATRiuM Event . . .

The Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries has moved from the University's Treforest campus to our new ATRiuM home in Cardiff city centre.

With ‘state of the art’ facilities this will offer exciting opportunities for joint work with new partners.

Public Lecture on Small-Nation Filmmaking by Professor Mette Hjort, 5.30pm Weds 28th November 2007

Distinguished academic Professor Mette Hjort will be speaking at ATRiuM on Wednesday 28th November. In her only public appearance in Wales, Professor Hjort will deliver a lecture on The ‘Advance Party’ Initiative: Scottish/Danish Solutions to the Problems of Small-Nation Filmmaking.

‘Advance Party’ is a Scottish Dogme project which sets out to do for Scotland what director Lars von Trier’s Dogme 95 had done for Denmark. Professor Hjort will examine how this unique model of transnational filmmaking helps to provide solutions to the problems of small-nation filmmaking.

Distinguished academic Professor Mette Hjort will be speaking at ATRiuM at 5.30pm Weds 28th November. In her only public talk in Wales, Professor Hjort will deliver a lecture on The 'Advance Party' Initiative: Scottish/Danish Solutions to the Problems of Small-Nation Filmmaking.

'Advance Party' is a Scottish Dogme project which sets out to do for Scotland what director Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 had done for Denmark. Professor Hjort will examine how this unique model of transnational filmmaking helps to provide solutions to the problems of small-nation filmmaking.

Professor Hjort is the Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Film Studies at St Andrews in Scotland and Professor of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She has published Small Nations, Global Cinema, and co-edited volumes including The Cinema of Small Nations, Cinema and Nation, The Postnational Self and Purity and Provocation: Dogme 95.

About one of the newest books by Professor Mette, The Cinema of Small Nations:

Synopsis: Within cinema studies there has emerged a significant body of scholarship on the idea of 'National Cinema' but there has been a tendency to focus on the major national cinemas.

Less developed within this field is the analysis of what we might term minor or small national cinemas, despite the increasing significance of these small entities with the international domain of moving image production, distribution and consumption.

"The Cinema of Small Nations" is the first major analysis of small national cinemas, comprising twelve case studies of small national - and sub national - cinemas from around the world, including Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Written by an array of distinguished and emerging scholars, each of the case studies provides a detailed analysis of the particular cinema in question, with an emphasis on the last decade, considering both institutional and textual issues relevant to the national dimension of each cinema.

While each chapter contains an in-depth analysis of the particular cinema in question, the book as a whole provides the basis for a broader and more properly comparative understanding of small or minor national cinemas, particularly with regard to structural constraints and possibilities, the impact of globalization and internationalisation, and the role played by economic and cultural factors in small-nation contexts.

This book includes the first major study of a range of small national cinemas. It provides detailed and informative studies of particular small national cinemas from around the globe.

It features an implicit comparative element that reveals major similarities and differences across the case studies.

It also features a strong line up of international contributors including a number of major internationally recognised experts in the field.

It is written in an accessible style to appeal to students, academics and the general reader alike.

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries / ATRiuM
The University of Glamorgan Adam Street Cardiff CF24 2XF

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Prof Hamish Fyfe Inaugural Professorial Lecture ‘Cycles of Affirmation – Art and Community in the New Century’

2007-11-13T12:36:00.000Z

[Pictured above: The Glamorgan Business Centre at the University of Glamorgan, Treforest campus, where Professor Hamish Fyfe of the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries will deliver his lecture tonight.]

Event Date November 13, 2007 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Location – Glamorgan Business Centre, Treforest Campus

‘Cycles of Affirmation – Art and Community in the New Century’ given by Professor Hamish Fyfe of the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

“What I’d like to do in this inaugural lecture is to frame three questions – about the value of the arts in people’s lives, about the elements required to make creative space for people and about some of the ways that we might move our work forward in the next decade to ensure that these spaces continue to develop.”

Refreshments will be served at 5.30pm and following the Lecture a buffet will be served in the Glamorgan Business Centre.

For further information or to book a place contact June Landeg on 01443 482788 or email: researchoffice@glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Welsh Capital's Newest Neighbour: Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations Announces Exciting Cardiff ATRiuM Calendar of Events

2007-11-03T09:11:00.000Z

The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations Announces Cardiff ATRiuM Calendar of Events . . .

In the Autumn Term and beyond we will be building on our research work through an exciting series of lectures, symposia, publications and other projects.

ATRiuM move:

The Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries has moved from the University's Treforest campus to our new ATRiuM home in Cardiff city centre. With ‘state of the art’ facilities this will offer exciting opportunities for joint work with new partners.

Symposium: ‘The Representation of Welsh Identity Abroad’ 13-14th November 2007

On 13th and 14th November 2007 the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations is hosting a symposium on The Representation of Welsh Identity Abroad. The Keynote Address will be delivered by First Minister, Rhodri Morgan AM, on the evening of Tuesday 13th November.

[Pictured above: Welsh National Assembly First Minister: Rhodri Morgan]

On Wednesday 14th November, a diverse group of arts and cultural practitioners and academics will address the symposium theme through a series of focused conversations and group exercises. These discussions will be set within the context of what is now a key economic sector, the creative and cultural industries.

[Pictured above: The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.]

We are most fortunate to have Dr Betty Belanus, Curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, as a participant at this symposium. Dr Belanus is currently a Visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations.

The symposium will be held in the ATRiuM, the University of Glamorgan’s new faculty in Cardiff city centre.

Please contact Jackie Aplin (address below) for a registration form and further details.

Public Lecture on Small-Nation Filmmaking by Professor Mette Hjort, 5.30pm Weds 28th November 2007

Pictured above: Dr. Mette Hjort]

Mette Hjort was born in Denmark but educated in Kenya, Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Canada and France. She did her B.A. and M.A. at McGill University in Quebec, Canada, where she did a thesis on Kant and art under the supervision of the Canadian philosopher and political theorist, Charles Taylor.

She holds a so-called ‘nouveau doctorat’ from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. Her dissertation, entitled ‘Le procès du spectacle’ was written under the supervision of Louis Marin and focussed on anti-theatricality (pamphlet literature and treatises) in seventeenth century France and sixteenth century England.

Mette Hjort was for many years Associate Professor of English at McGill university, where she was Director of Film and Communications.

She moved to Denmark in 1997 for personal reasons and is currently on leave from her position as Professor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Aalborg University.

Professor Mette Hjort Official Website

Mette Hjort is interested in the history of drama, critical theory, philosophy and literature, and minor cinema. She has published The Strategy of Letters (Harvard UP) and, with Ib Bondebjerg, an interview book entitled The Danish Directors: Dialogues on a Contemporary National Cinema (Intellect).

She is editor or co-editor of Rules and Conventions (Johns Hopkins UP), Emotion and the Arts (Oxford UP), Cinema and Nation (Routledge), The Postnational Self (U of Minnesota P) and Purity and Provocation: Dogma 95 (British Film Institute Publications).

'Small Nation, Global Cinema', a book focusing on the challenges faced by small nations in an increasingly globalized media culture, was recently published by the University of Minnesota Press, in the Public Planet series.

A monograph on Stanley Kwan's 'Center Stage' is forthcoming with the University of Hong Kong Press, in the Hong Kong Film Classics Series.

Mette Hjort is Series Editor, with Peter Schepelern, of a new Nordic Film Classics Series that will feature books by James Schamus (on Dreyer's Gertrud), John Hall and Charles Lindholm (on Bent Hamer's Kitchen Stories,) and many others.

Distinguished academic Professor Mette Hjort will be speaking at ATRiuM at 5.30pm Weds 28th November. In her only public talk in Wales, Professor Hjort will deliver a lecture on The 'Advance Party' Initiative: Scottish/Danish Solutions to the Problems of Small-Nation Filmmaking.

'Advance Party' is a Scottish Dogme project which sets out to do for Scotland what director Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 had done for Denmark. Professor Hjort will examine how this unique model of transnational filmmaking helps to provide solutions to the problems of small-nation filmmaking.

Professor Hjort is the Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Film Studies at St Andrews in Scotland and Professor of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She has published Small Nations, Global Cinema, and co-edited volumes including The Cinema of Small Nations, Cinema and Nation, The Postnational Self and Purity and Provocation: Dogme 95.

Smithsonian Institution Visiting Fellow

Folklorist Dr Betty Belanus, Curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, has joined the Centre as a Visiting Research Fellow and is undertaking preparatory work for the Smithsonian Festival's focus on Wales in 2009.

2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, DC

Since arriving, Dr Belanus has been engaged in an active period of fieldwork which has also involved consultative planning visits around Wales.

Smithsonian Internship

Glamorgan postgraduate student Dr Aparna Sharma has successfully completed an internship which was developed in collaboration between the University of Glamorgan and the Smithsonian Institution.

[Pictured above: Madhvi Dalal, 31, a dancer of Indian origin who currently lives in Cardiff, who is featured in research and articles by Dr. Aparna Sharma]

Please click here to read: A Step Ahead by Aparna Sharma

Aparna, who recently completed her PhD, is a documentary filmmaker and journalist with a particular interest in the visual representation of minority cultures and national and cultural identities.

Centre 'Round Table'

The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations held its first Round Table working lunch event in June. Expert practitioners with an interest in the Centre’s concerns were brought together to share their thoughts and inform future work.

[Pictured above: Patricia Aithie "Valleys, Wales" oil on canvas 2007 40 x 50cm sold}

The guests were photographer and painter Patricia Aithie; Artist and commentator Iwan Bala; Broadcaster and former BBC Wales arts correspondent Jon Gower; and Electoral Commissioner, Ofcom board member and former BBC Wales & ITN political editor Glyn Mathias.

A wide ranging discussion covered links with other minority cultures, particularly Galicia, cultural diversity, tribalism, faith, the decline of ideologies, democratic engagement and more.

Another event with new guests is planned for the Atrium in early 2008.

Other items of interest . . .

Channel 4: The First Twenty-Five Years

BFI / Channel 4 Conference, 17 –18th November 2007

Professor Steve Blandford, Associate Dean, Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, will present a paper on C4 and National Voices - S4C and Cinema at the British Film Institute's conference on the first 25 years of Channel Four.

British Film Institute's conference on the first 25 years of Channel Four

Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media

This volume, edited by Dr Vian Bakir and Dr David Barlow, includes 14 international contributions which examine a number of media genres and media forms.

Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media

To make your reservation for the conference you must quickly contact Ms. Jackie Aplin, at the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations:

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries / ATRiuM
The University of Glamorgan Adam Street Cardiff CF24 2XF
Email: jsaplin[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk
Web: http://culture.research.glam.ac.uk/

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/feature-news/2006/11/22/small-nations-big-subject-91466-18137212/

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

How Liminal is My Coastline? ‘On The Edge: Margins and Peripheries in Welsh Writing’

2007-11-02T08:23:00.000Z

[Pictured above: Conference Organizer Dr. Katie Gramich, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University]

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2008

The focus of the twentieth annual conference of the Association for Welsh Writing in English at Gregynog Hall in Powys, Wales, UK from April 4-6, 2008 will be ‘On The Edge: Margins and Peripheries in Welsh Writing.’

The theme is open to a range of interpretations, both literal and symbolic.

On the literal (littoral?) level, Welsh writers have long been engaged in representing the coastline and islands of Wales, from Allen Raine’s Cardiganshire cliffs and caves to Dylan Thomas’s Rhossili and the marginal estuary town of Under Milk Wood . . .

More recently, Brenda Chamberlain and Christine Evans have provided powerful poetic accounts of living on the edge in Bardsey Island, while R. S. Thomas spent his later years probing life out on the limb of the Llŷn peninsula.

Other writers, like Emyr Humphreys and Kate Roberts, have seen Wales on the uncomfortable edge of Empire, while many Welsh works, like Raymond Williams’s Border Country, have explored the liminal spaces between nations, and between the rural and the industrial.

International artistic movements are often interpreted differently by writers of ‘marginal’ status, such as the Welsh Modernism of Glyn Jones or the Anglo-Welsh Romanticism of Felicia Hemans or Ann of Swansea.

Welsh identities, too have frequently been represented as edgy and fractured, such as in the multiple selves projected in the work of David Jones, Dannie Abse, or Charlotte Williams.

More recently, Welsh writers have explored cultural, ethnic and linguistic margins in productive experiments with form and symbolism, as in the writing of Lloyd Jones, Gwyneth Lewis, or Peter Ho Davies.

This conference will be an opportunity to explore the various edges of Welsh writing: those places where the self comes up against the something else which, arguably, defines it as what it is.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers are invited on any aspect of the theme ‘On The Edge: Margins and Peripheries in Welsh Writing.’

Both short papers (c. 20 minutes) or longer ones (c. 50 minutes) will be considered; a brief abstract should be submitted to the organizer for consideration by the deadline of December 14th, 2007.

Organizer: Dr. Katie Gramich, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU. Email: GramichK@cf.ac.uk;

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Rediscovery of Noel Coward Play by Glamorgan’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries Scholars Excites International Theatre World

2007-10-21T06:44:00.000Z

[Pictured above: Professor Mike Wilson, CCI Head of Research; Prof Richard Hand Professor of Theatre and Media Drama, CCI, backstage in Glasgow with Dr Paul Carr Principal Lecturer in Popular Music, CCI.]

Coward Play Rediscovered

September 2007

A Noel Coward play, which has remained untouched for almost 90 years, has been rediscovered by academics at the University of Glamorgan’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries.

[Pictured above: Sir Noël Peirce Coward, 16 December 1899 -- 26 March 1973.]

The play, ‘The Better Half’, was discovered in the Lord Chamberlain’s archives in the British Library by Professors Richard Hand and Mike Wilson during research for their latest book, ‘London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror’, which includes the text of Coward’s previously unpublished play.

The one-act play was last performed in 1922 by ‘London’s Grand-Guignol’ company, which involved Sybil Thorndike and her husband Lewis Casson.

Professor Wilson explained, “We were conducting research for our book on ‘London’s Grand-Guignol’, a theatre which combined horror and comedy plays on the same bill and were thrilled to have found the manuscript to the play that Coward wrote for the company.

It was probably the only surviving copy of the play and has not been published before.

“This play will no doubt arouse the interest of Coward fans worldwide, especially as it was written at a time when Coward was on the threshold of achieving critical acclaim and fame.”

Now for the first time since the 1920s the play will be performed in London by theatre company ‘The Sticking Place’ as part of their annual Hallowe’en season of horror theatre.

Sticking Place Theatre

Noel Coward Performance (Noel Coward performs some of his song on "Noel Coward & Mary Martin: Together With Music")

This will be a unique opportunity to see the play performed in its original context.

Hand and Wilson’s new book, due to be published in November by the University of Exeter Press, focuses on the attempt to establish a permanent Grand-Guignol theatre in London between 1920 and 1922, an experiment that was ultimately undermined by the censorious eye of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, the official public censor.

The research was co-funded by The British Academy and the Society for Theatre Research.

tagged: cci research

Issued by: University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL
Contact: Press Office on 01443 483362
E-mail: press@glam.ac.uk

Noël Coward Society

For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Celtic Media Festival 2008 Calls for Entries

2007-10-08T04:37:00.000Z

Celtic Media Festival 2008 Calls for Entries

Oct 2007

The 29th Celtic Media Festival, which takes place in Galway from 16th-18th April 2008, is calling for entries for its 18 award categories across film and television.

The festival is an annual celebration of film and broadcasting talent from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, with the primary aim of promoting the languages and cultures of the Celtic countries on screen and in broadcasting.

The festival has 18 categories including Animation, Arts Documentary, Drama Series, Feature Length Drama, Short Drama and Education, with ‘Best of Category’ being chosen from each.

In addition, the festival will present the Frank Copplestone First Time Director Award to the best first TV programme or film, and a Spirit of the Festival award to a film or programme wholly or substantially in the Celtic language.

Applicants can apply online at www.celticmediafestival.co.uk or by post, by downloading an application form at:

www.celticmediafestival.co.uk/call-for-entries/

The Closing date for entries is Friday 2nd November 2007.

Galway city is unique among Irish cities because of the strength of its Irish language, music, song and traditions - it is often referred to as the 'Bilingual Capital of Ireland'.

The city is well known for its ‘Irishness', and mainly due to the fact that it has on its doorstep the Galway Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area).

The language is visible on the city streets, with bilingual signage on display on shops and road signs, and can be heard by locals around the city.

Irish theatre, TV production and Irish music are an integral part of Galway city life, with both An Taibhdhearc, the National Irish Language Theatre, and TG4 and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta headquarters in Galway.

This has brought an Irish-speaking young professional population to the city and county, and has generated a renewal of interest in the language and in language-related activities.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Cardiff Rocks This Weekend With Short Filmmaker Fest / Short Filmmakers from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales Showcased in BBC Film Network

2007-10-05T08:32:00.000Z

[BREAKING NEWS: Cardiff the Capital of Wales inundated with world-reknowned filmmakers for Iris Prize awards this weekend! Hint: If you go out, take along your autograph book and digital camera, and send us your fotos of visiting celebrities!!! Read about it here:

'Iris Prize' comes to Cardiff, with £25,000 up for grabs for the winner of the best short film.]

Speaking of using your short film to become famous . . .

Silence Is Golden trailer on the BBC Film Network Showcase

[About the video: A trailer for Chris Shepherd's latest film, a period drama called SILENCE IS GOLDEN. It mixes live action with animation and follows on from his other shorts, DAD'S DEAD and WHO I AM AND WHAT I WANT. The whole 15 film is on BBC FILM NETWORK site and is going to be released on DVD later in the year.]

If you would like the chance to showcase your short film on the BBC Film Network, then this is what you need to do:

We cannot guarantee to publish every film, but we do guarantee that your film will be watched. We expect a certain level of production standards to ensure that your film is seen in the best possible environment. See our submission criteria for more information.

what you get from us
If your submission is successful you'll get:

your film showcased on bbc.co.uk
a dedicated film page, with links to you and your cast and crew's profile pages, allowing people who see your film to find out more about you and your work
feedback on your film from other Film Network members
your film seen by our Industry Panel.

what we need from you
To submit your film, you need to be registered with Film Network. It'll take less than 5 minutes to create your membership.

Once you're a member, you need to fill in the online submission form. Please read and check you're happy with the submission rules before you do so.

The information that you need to give is:

your contact details
your film's details - including length, funding details, production company, distribution information and weblinks
a synopsis (of less than 100 words) and log line or short description (20 words)
festival screenings and award details
crew and cast names
a short fact about the making of your film

You'll need to supply us with a hard copy of your film on either VHS or DVD (not DVD-ROM) - we'll give you address details at the end of the submission process.

If we decide to show your film, we'll then need a broadcast quality copy and copies of any stills you have associated with the film, preferably supplied as high-resolution JPEGs on CD-Rom.

Please note: We regret that we cannot return submission tapes and we do not guarantee to publish your film. If we do publish your film though, we will return any Digibetas by registered delivery.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Scottish Parliament Poised to Debate BAFTA Oscar Controversy Over Alleged Snub of Gaelic Language Feature Film

2007-10-04T07:34:00.000Z

{Pictured above: publicity still from the Gaelic Language feature film, Searchd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007).]

Scottish film director Simon Miller has put out an appeal for help, as it's been reported to Celtic Cult Cinema that the Scottish Parliament is poised to debate BAFTA Oscar Controversy over the alleged snub of the Gaelic Feature Film 'serachd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007).

Simon Miller's Gaelic language feature film opens across Scotland this week, just as the BAFTA Oscar nomination controversy has caught fire.

It’s a film specifically about storytelling, and about the firm location of old stories in particular landscapes."

"A fitting theme for the first ever feature film in Scottish Gaelic."

[Quoted above from the programme book of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007]

What the critics are saying:

"Gorgeously-realised blend of magic realism and family drama" THE HERALD
"Dramatic, funny, spectacular and steeped in Gaelic mythology" THE LIST
"Glows with warmth and humanity" THE OBSERVER
"Visually breathtaking" BBC

Simon Miller writes:

"As you may have seen in the Seachd group blurb on facebook BAFTA (The UK's film academy) has failed to put forward any non-English language films for the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Oscars - which includes Seachd."

"THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP, PARTICULARLY THOSE OF YOU FROM OUTSIDE THE UK..."

"Of 18 Western European countries invited by the Academy to put non-English language films forward for the Oscars, the UK is the only one to fail to do so."

"BAFTAs decision is sensless and really could not have been made on some measure of the "quality" of the film, given the strong early reviews we have had (“excellent” The Sunday Times, “breathtaking” BBC, “tender, graceful…gorgeously-realised” The Herald, “worth shouting about” The Scotsman, “dramatic, funny and spectacular” The List, and “an astonishing production” Eye For Film). And surely they wouldn't have put forward such obviously English language turkeys as they have in recent years if quality really was the issue?"

"BAFTA is an institution designed to promote British film - in whatever language - and their decision feels dangerously close to censorship and it will mean - ultimately - that less people will get to see the film in the UK internationally."

"YOU CAN HELP CHANGE THAT..."

"We have been able to gather a great deal of support to help overturn their decision within the film industry in the UK, and also from the Academy who have written to BAFTA asking for an explanation. And we have just learned that this issue is on the agenda to be debated in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday this week."

"HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP..."

Read the entire story here:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2177934,00.html

Searchd: The official Website

New Club Starting for Cardiff ATRiuM Arts & Media Students, Faculty and Friends

2007-10-02T09:14:00.000Z

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers in media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, online innovations, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media and dramatic performance.

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Are you a member of the AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media? Why not? It’s free and some your friends are joining – so what are you waiting for?

Just what are the Five Primary Aims of AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media?

Our Five Primary Aims

1) We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers.

2) We devise and launch events and projects related to media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, festival and special events promotions, online innovations, presentational graphics, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media, dramatic performance, public speaking, performance art, individual or collaborative projects and other diversions.

3) We assist each other in developing and perfecting our art forms and professions.

4) We sponsor, attend and promote artistic, educational and social events, including imagined, narrated, fictional, real and virtual.

5) We assist one another in developing our artistic and professional portfolios, and we share these creations at various networking opportunities; with all these activities, we commit ourselves to the promotion and refinement of our own as well as our colleagues’ artistic portfolios and professional dossiers.

Is AIM a political or religious organization?

While it’s true that our ultimate goal is WORLD DOMINATION balanced with INTRINSIC FULFILLMENT nuanced with MEANINGFUL / MEANINGLESS PLEASURE enhanced by INCREDIBLY GREAT STYLE / LACK OF STYLE, and the inevitable material / spiritual gains / losses that accompany these goals, AIM respects the fact that we’re all on similar / different and interesting / mind-numbingly-boring paths; to this end, we neither affirm, deny or espouse any one political view or religious / non-religious, irrational / rational viewpoint.

Is AIM an arts club, a social fetish, a secret society, or a Cult of Personality?

It’s all of these things and none of these things. It has never existed and it has always existed. If it ceased to exist tomorrow, in the GREAT UNIVERSAL SCHEME OF THINGS, hardly anyone would care.

How do I join?

Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on Face Book

What happens next?

When Dr. Mark collects a sufficient number of interested students’ names and details, he will announce an initial organizational meeting.

He’ll probably call or write to you before the end of October 2007, just in time to plan your Halloween costume.

Please include at least your name, alias, email address, mailing address, interests, Zodiac sign, your favourite ice cream flavour and hat / rollerblade size. Dr. Mark will use his extraordinary intuition to guess in which century you were born.

Where will the meetings be held?

The first meeting will be held at either ATRiuM or Ty Pont Haearn in the Cardiff City Centre. ATRiuM students and Ty Pont Haearn residents will host the first meetings to assist the launch of our collective.

Later meetings will held in Newport, London, Aberystywth, Port Meirion, Castle Harlech, Salisbury Plains, among the Roman ruins of Caerleon and the Norman ruins of Ogmore Castle, online, via pod-casts and video-conferences, in eventually in Copenhagen, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto, Prague, Southern Italy, Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Conversations will take place in the past, present, future, conditional, imperative, pluperfect, and in other dimensions.

Can anyone be a member of this collective?

Well, the collective intends to include all interested residents of Ty Pont Haearn and other local student residences, communes, and shared living arrangements in the Cardiff City centre area.

Students or faculty can be affiliated with ATRiuM, UWIC, Coleg Glan Hafren, Cardiff University, Swansea University, Swansea Institute, Newport School of Art, Media and Design, or other institutions. Enthusiastic, dynamic and artistic friends and families of these students are also welcome to join.

What will be the social and political ethos / mythos of this collective?

Our collective will vacillate between historical notoriety and contemporary obscurity. We will foster greatness and encourage Misfits and other Outcasts. Invariably power struggles, nepotism, clicks, sub-groups, spin-offs, copycats, crass commercialism and other controversies will overtake our collective.

Does any of this strike your fancy?

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Continuing Controversy Blusters About Gaelic Language Feature Film 'Searchd: The Impossible Pinnacle' (2007) while Audiences and Movie Critics Rave

2007-10-01T07:15:00.000Z

Pictured above: publicity still from the Gaelic Language feature film, Searchd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007).]

A major controversy surrounding the Gaelic Language Film Searchd: The Impossible Pinnacle (2007) --

“No one can tell the truth – just stories.”

So concludes Aonghas’ enigmatic grandfather (played by renowned poet and storyteller Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul) as he approaches the end of his life in this Scottish Gaelic tale about a childhood on the Islands.

It’s a film specifically about storytelling, and about the firm location of old stories in particular landscapes."

"A fitting theme for the first ever feature film in Scottish Gaelic."

[Quoted above from the programme book of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007]

What the critics are saying:

"Gorgeously-realised blend of magic realism and family drama" THE HERALD
"Dramatic, funny, spectacular and steeped in Gaelic mythology" THE LIST
"Glows with warmth and humanity" THE OBSERVER
"Visually breathtaking" BBC

And now, according to the Guardian:

"He knew some people would think he was taking a risk in making his film in Gaelic. According to the 2001 census, only 1.2% of the population of Scotland speaks the language, some 58,600 people; and that's a 15% decline over the previous decade."

"Most are in the Western Isles. That said, the language is enjoying a status it has not been afforded for many years, with concerted efforts at a political level to sustain this ancient tongue, first introduced to Scotland from Ireland in the fifth century."

"Less than 100 years ago, children were beaten into speaking English at school. Now, Gaelic-medium education is championed. A national plan has been launched, aiming to stabilise the number of speakers over the next few years, and increase them to 100,000 by 2041."

"There has been an increase in funding for education, media and development, and moves to create the first dedicated Gaelic TV channel."

"'For me, the question is not why make a film in Gaelic but why not make a film in Gaelic?' says Young, who is self-taught in the tongue and whose children are fluent. 'It seemed strange that a culture so full of storytelling didn't particularly have a tradition of cinema. I have never been to a cinema to see a film in Gaelic.'"

"'There is plenty of Gaelic drama but it does seem to have suffered from stereotype. It tends to have been period works. There is a feeling that Gaelic is old-fashioned. I wanted to tackle that head-on.'"

"'Film is the kind of thing that, if you get it right, it does not matter what language it is in,'" says Miller. 'Mel Gibson has proved that more than anyone in recent years. You don't have to know the language to experience the film.'"

"For both men, authenticity was the key. So they collaborated with Gaelic writers, co-directors and a local Gaelic amateur crew and actors. The soundtrack features noted Gaelic musicians, and the whole thing was shot on the island of Skye for £650,000."

[-- Quoted from The Guardian --The movie at the edge of the world -- They found their lead actor up a tree and they held the premiere in a cinema on wheels. Kirsty Scott travels to the Western Isles to catch a little piece of film-making history; Thursday September 27, 2007; The Guardian]

Read the entire story here:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2177934,00.html

Searchd: The official Website

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

New Exhibit Opens Tactile Bosch Old Victorian Buildings Andrews Road Cardiff Sept. 22nd - Oct. 21st

2007-09-29T21:20:00.000Z

Addiction: How Many Steps?
Old Victorian Buildings Andrews Rd Cardiff Sep 22 nd - Oct 21 st

The second of 3 exhibitions; How Many Steps to…ADDICTION @ tactile BOSCH - takes us from sketch to installation before Dark Victory reveals the final outcome in November 07…asking how long does it take this addiction & how does it manifest itself inside the social order through installation?

I nstallation is made up from multiple disciplines including sculpture, architecture, new media and performance. The many facets of historical and contemporary art have exercised their influence.

The integration of different disciplines including science, technology and architecture has resulted in a new way of exploring and engaging with art resulting in a hybrid discipline.

As a universal term, Installation, incorporates a broad domain of practice within contemporary art, transcending the notion of exhibition / plinth to become a more sophisticated and engaging response to the concept of audience participation and the interaction between things and their contexts.

For the show “ How Many Steps… “ tactile BOSCH has drawn together a select group of multi disciplined artists whose diverse and experimental approach will undoubtedly provoke, inspire and question the complex & multi-faceted notions that make up ADDICTION .

e.g. Teresa Mills ' Lost Object of Desire refers to…

‘The term addiction eludes to the situation where drug procurement and administration appear to govern the individual's behavior, and where the substance seems to dominate the individual's motivational hierarchy.

Two features that distinguish addiction from other behaviors are its extreme motivational strength and its motivational toxicity.

Motivational strength refers to how hard the individual will work to obtain the substance, while motivational toxicity describes the substance's ability to disrupt the individual's normal motivations' (http://addictionscience.net)

How many Steps? Allows each artist full reign to augment, gestate & conceptually breath life into the fabric of the Old Victoria Buildings that house tactile BOSCH. Walls are removed, newly ventilated areas created, attics enhanced all to express that compelling process to produce new work…its obsessive!

The exhibition will be opened @ tactile BOSCH on Sat 22 nd Sept @ 6.30pm with the help of Mr Michael Tooby – Director of the National Galleries & Museum of Wales.

& includes: Tasos Asprou, Phil Babot, Matt Blackler, Samantha Cross, Mr & Mrs Clarke, Andrew Cooper, Ed Elliot, Simon Fenoulhet, Kim Fielding, Tom Harrup, Alison Harris, Richard Higlett, Shani Rhys James, Neil Jefferies, Michael Murray, Teresa Mills, MelvilleMitchell, Jason Pinder, Dave Shepherd, Matt Skelley & Oliver Townsend.

With special guests Endangered Andy Taylor & the Heavy Quartet

NB: NB : In addition – LAPSE - an evening of LiveArt is scheduled for Tues 16 th Oct starting @ 7pm . Designed as a preview for Experimentica 07 [starting @ CHAPTER Arts Centre on Wed 17 th Oct] LAPSE showcases emerging, experimental LIVEart within the frame Addiction… How Many Steps?

LAPSE in time with Tim Bromage, Nezakret Ekici, Beth Greenough, Sam Hassler Rufus Orsborne, Rachel Parry, Karl Price & his Dutchness - Joost Nieuwenburg - LAPSE kick-starts @ 7– 11pm on 16 th Oct [Yep! that's a Tuesday!]

The results of these conceptual explorations can be seen in situ @ tactile BOSCH inside The Old Victorians Buildings , Andrews Rd, Llandaff North, Cardiff, UK [CF14 2JP] from 22 nd Sept - Oct 21 st 2007

e. kim@tactilebosch.org / andrew_cooperrca@hotmail.com

t. studio on +44 [0] 7951 256255 / [0] 7811 387922

Addiction is supported by:

Arts Council of Wales - National Probation Service –

National Museum & Galleries of Wales - 10/10 Architects - copyhousewales

University of Glamorgan – HOS Construction

CIRIC – VisibleArt - Scweeji.com - Regan Fine Art Printers

Taylor Fine Art Framers - Beacon Printers & UWIC.

Tactile Bosch Cardiff art Studio and Gallery Space

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

For October More Experimental Films Screened at Cardiff Chapter Arts

2007-09-29T08:47:00.000Z

You are invited to a screening of a short film
(a collaboration between various CCI staff):

CROSSING (2007)
Dur: 24 ½-minutes
Directed by: Wyn Mason & Ian Wiblin
Music by: Ben Challis & Rob Smith

A man and a woman take a short cut across a scarred landscape. Despite treading the same ground and seemingly sharing the same space, they remain quite separate, absorbed in their own emotional worlds. Without the aid of dialogue to unlock the characters’ thoughts, viewers can only scrutinize the locations they journey through. Slowly, step-by-step, through closely observing the shape and texture of rock, the lie of disregarded railway sleepers or wind blown grass, we begin to delineate the contours of their inner landscapes.

The film is accompanied by live music.

Exhibition: Experimentica
Venue: Chapter Arts
Date: Saturday 20th Oct 2007
Time: 4 pm

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

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Cardiff Cinema and Art Scene Explodes For A Fortnight With Queer Cymru Fabulous GLBT Films, Mardi Gras Dance Music, Live Theatre Performances

2007-08-27T09:28:00.000Z

QUEER CYMRU 2007 is a series of performances and films to coincide with this year's Cardiff Mardi Gras.

Based at Chapter, Cardiff, Wales, UK from Straight, gay, bi sexual and trans gendered performers that challenges stereotypes and celebrates and explores diversity.

There is something here for everyone whatever your orientation, and we hope to provide a safe and alternative, stimulating environment outside of the usual 'scene.'

QUEER CYMRU FILMS - you can buy tickets online at: http://www.chapter.org and they're a lot cheaper. NB.

Exhibitions are FREE.

Special Iris Prize preview
Itty Bitty Titty Committee 8.30pm
Fri 31 Aug
USA/2007/87 mins/ctba. Dir: Jamie Babbit (who also made 'But I'm a Cheerleader').

The story of Anna, an insecure, apolitical girl who encounters a radical political art group, falls in love with its leader, Sadie, and transforms from a girl into a woman.

A favourite on the festival circuit the film has secured many awards including South by South West, Berlin, Melbourne and the audience award in Philadelphia. The film has yet to secure UK distribution – this preview screening officially kicks off Queer Cymru 2007 and is sponsored by the Iris Prize.

“An upfront call to action that takes no prisoners and pulls no punches… For anyone in despair over the state of the world or the movies, this posse of revolting dykes deliver a mega dose of hope.” – Sight and Sound.

A Year Without Love (Un Año sin Amor) 6.30pm
Tue 4 Sept
Argentina/2005/95 mins/subtitled/18. Dir: Anahí Berners.

A young HIV positive poet decides to document his attempts to cure both his failing love life and health. Eventually he becomes part of an intimate leather circle and begins to fully explore his fascination with S&M practices.

Unveiled (Fremde Haut)6.30pm
Wed 5 Sept
Germany/2005/97 mins/subtitled/15. Dir: Angelina Maccarone.

Fariba escapes from Iran to Germany, fleeing persecution because of her sexuality. When her neighbour in the internment centre commits suicide, she assumes his identity to evade repatriation and passes herself off as a man.

Beyond Hatred (Au-delá de la haine) 6.30pm
Thu 6 Sept
France/2006/86 mins/subtitled/ctba.* Dir: Olivier Meyrou.

François Chenu was killed by three young men in a pointless attack motivated by hate.

This considered and respectful film documents some of the aftermath of his death – the steps that French society takes to achieve justice via the courts and the incredible efforts his family make to feel a personal sense of justice and peace.

QUEER CYMRU PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS:

Fri 31 Aug • 8pm
Gareth Llyr
Sbïwch Arnai Rwan / Before I Fade
Drwy gyfnuo testun gwreiddiol a gwaith corfforol byrfyfyr, mae gwaith solo cyntaf Gareth Llyr yn darlunio pump llun ohono tra’n blentyn. Gyda cyferiadau at Sontag, Kushner, a Walter Benjamin, mae Sbïwch Arnai Rwan / Before I Fade yn archwilio’r berthynas rhwng natur diflanedig perfformiad byw a delwedd barhaus y llun ffotograffig, a’r gwirioneddau a ddaw i’r amlwg trwy edrych yn ôl.

“I am standing in my underwear. I am surrounded by a hundred and fifty blue Ty Nant water bottles and a few red ones. You are looking at me and I am looking at you. I am going to tell you about five photographs, and I hardly remember any of them.”

This intimate and revealing autobiographical work explores recollections of memory in Welsh and English through a series of portraits in movement drawn from childhood photos, in which the truths only emerge with hindsight.
A knowledge of Welsh is not essential for the understanding and appreciation of this performance.
£6/£4

Sat 1 + Sun 2 Sept • 8pm
uhhuh dance
Albedo
uhhuh dance follow last year’s audacious, controversial and critically acclaimed 'The Son the Lover & the Holy Spin' with a new performance that holds up a mirror to the work of Frida Kahlo and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Devised and performed by Jon Luxton, Kylie Ann Smith and Esme Addams with additional direction from Sarah Hall and Andy Marshall.
£8/£5

Tue 4 + Wed 5 Sept • 8pm
Burst
Ode to Morten Harket
Join your larger than life, glammed-up hostess and macho, rock star host (both played by Emily Underwood) for a generous cocktail and perhaps a vol-auvont or two. Take a riotous journey through one woman’s 20-year obsession with Morten Harket, the lead singer of ‘80s pop-band a-ha. Comedy, dressing-up, bad tap dancing and conversations with the audience combine in this exploration of gender identity and the first stirrings of sexuality. Expect a return to bright colours, quick costume changes and a DIY aesthetic.
Previous Burst shows at Chapter include 2270 Seconds, BPM and Do I Come Here Often.
Written and performed by Emily Underwood.
Directed by Jodie Allinson.
£6/£4

Thu 6 + Fri 7 Sept • 8pm
Ivan Coyote
Chapter presents two nights of live stories from the wonderful Vancouver-based writer and performer Ivan Coyote. Ivan was born and raised in Whitehorse Yukon and is the son of a welder and the daughter of a government worker. Over the last ten years she has become an audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals across North America and Canada.
“Canada. Good old fashioned kitchen table stories. Imagine you are drinking black tea with canned milk, and it is snowing outside. The kitchen smells like homemade soup, and you don’t have to work tomorrow so you can sit up all night talking and smoking cigarettes.”
£5/£4

http://www.myspace.com/ivancoyote

“What makes Coyote’s stories special - her humour, her humanity, her talent for sketching the bizarre in the everyday - soars beyond cliche.” - The Toronto Star

Fri 7 + Sat 8 Sept • 6pm
Cyw
gan Roger Williams
Bachgen, mamgu, a llond basged o wyau. Drama fer (10 muned) am yr ymosodiadau diweddar yn erbyn y gymuned hoyw ym Moscow.
Perfformir gan Ryan Chappell.
A new short Welsh language monologue inspired by the recent homophobic protests in Moscow.
Mynediad am ddim/Free

Sat 8 Sept • 7.30pm
Lucy Porter
The Good Life
Are you in your late twenties or older, and slightly worried that you’re not really a ‘good’ person? Worried that the legacy you’re leaving for future generations amounts to little more than a mountain of debt, a mountain of non-biodegradable rubbish, and a mountain of thoughts and opinions that add nothing to the advancement of the species?
Award-winning comedienne Lucy Porter is worried about all these things and plenty more besides. Can a drinking, gambling, allround hedonist ever consider herself to be morally good?
A Go Faster Stripe comedy production which will be recorded for release on DVD.
£10

http://www.lucyporter.info

http://www.gofasterstripe.com

Sat 15 Sept • 8pm
Peppermintpatti
Fake Tan
+ Emily Breeze
+ Vile Vile Creatures
+ Heck
Peppermintpatti returns after the summer break with some honest to goodness riot grrl action. Local outfit Heck kick off the night, followed by Manchester’s Vile Vile Creatures, much admired Bristol ‘badland’ rocker Emily Breeze and dance floor fillers Fake Tan.
£5/£4 in advance
£6/£5 on the door

http://www.peppermintpatti.co.uk

“Feel the grind, the husk and the rush of one of Bristol’s most unique and impassioned performers.” Venn (on Emily Breeze)

Tue 18 Sept • 8pm
Curious
(be)longing
Camouflaged in cowboy shirts with fancy stitches made to hide broken hearts and deflecting vulnerability with sequins and high heels, this is the award-winning, London-based Curious at their most personal and poignant. Beneath the neon glow of a highway road sign, their yearnings take them across vast desert landscapes in search of fulfilment and fitting in. Curious (Leslie Hill and Helen Paris) specialise in performance, film and video and are known for their edgy, humorous commentary on contemporary culture and politics, work which has been called ‘as smart as it is seductive’.
£10/£8/£6

http://www.placelessness.com

“the quiet power of Leslie Hill and Helen Paris’ performance lies in its low-key directness, its quirky juxtapositions and its understanding of the geography of loneliness and the myth of return.” — The Guardian

http://glam.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4644839846

http://www.myspace.com/queercymru

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

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Sexy Welsh Actress Emily Underwood Bends Genders in New Cardiff Stage Play

2007-08-22T05:58:00.000Z

Pictured above: the mad but enticing dramatic character creations of Welsh actor Emily Underwood.

I've had the privilege to live in so-called 'World Class Cities' including New York, Chicago, and Miami. One of the things that makes these cities 'World Class' is the presence of accessible, dynamic, cutting edge and evolving Lively Arts and Culture, along with thriving Artists quarters and even Bohemian 'incubator' enclaves.

For anyone inclined to complain about South Wales I would point them first to Chapter Arts Centre. For example, you might consider the talent and affordability of the up-coming one-woman play, 'Ode to Morten Harket'.

I haven't seen 'Ode to Morten Harket' yet, but I intend to, and I will do so because the talent of actress Emily Underwood and director Jodie Allinson deserve a sophisticated and hungry audience.

I'm hungry for exactly this type of cutting edge and entertaining live stage performances, and I'm glad that I don't have to incur the expense and time to travel to London to get it. Cardiff is bursting with arts and culture!

By the way, Emily and Jodie are both products of the incredible arts and drama coming out of the University of Glamorgan Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, which is about to move in September 2007 from Trefforest to the vicinity of Queen Street in Central Cardiff.

What does this mean for Cardiff in coming years? Expect more joint events between Chapter and Prifysgol Morgannwg, and hold on to your hats as the next 'wave' of creative stuff blasts through South Wales!

You should check it out, but don't delay, seats are limited, and events sell out fast:

Burst: Ode to Morten Harket

Tuesday, 4 September 2007 20:00 Theatre
Wednesday, 5 September 2007 20:00 Theatre

Join your larger than life, glammed-up hostess and macho, rock star host (both played by Emily Underwood) for a generous cocktail and perhaps a vol-auvont or two.

Take a riotous journey through one woman’s 20-year obsession with Morten Harket, the lead singer of ‘80s pop-band a-ha. Comedy, dressing-up, bad tap dancing and conversations with the audience combine in this exploration of gender identity and the first stirrings of sexuality. Expect a return to bright colours, quick costume changes and a DIY aesthetic.

Previous Burst shows at Chapter include 2270 Seconds, BPM and Do I Come Here Often.

Written and performed by Emily Underwood.

Directed by Jodie Allinson.

£6/£4

"I’ll be coming for you love O.K." — Morten Harket

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Welsh Opera and Symphonic Giant Karl Jenkins and Welsh Films' Marc Evans Add Hollywood Star Appeal to Morgannwg's Autumn Grand Opening

2007-08-21T06:56:00.000Z

Pictured above: Welsh composer Karl Jenkins and Welsh Film Director Marc Evans.

Stars Support new Cardiff School

August 20, 2007

When the University of Glamorgan opens the doors to its new Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries this September, some of the UK’s best known industry professionals will be at its helm.

The University has appointed an ‘Advisory Board’, made up of visiting Professors who will advise the school on industry demands.

These five people will be: Dr Karl Jenkins, musician and composer, Robin Lyons, creator of SuperTed, Marc Evans film director, Terry Hands theatre director and Welsh actor Daniel Evans.

The Visiting Professors have already voiced their support for the new School, which will be a state-of-the-art hub for all creative and cultural courses at Glamorgan.

Here’s what the new Visiting Professors had to say:

Dr Karl Jenkins

“Having examined the technical and physical specifications of the ATRiuM, I believe it will play an important role in the development of musicians and composers in Wales. Its prominent position in the centre of Cardiff provides close proximity to the numerous creative and cultural events in the City, and the configuration of the music provision is first class. Essentially, the interdisciplinary configuration of the ATRiuM building will enable budding musicians to study in a ‘real world’ environment.”

Karl Jenkins - Adiemus

Robin Lyons

“There are currently many courses in animation available, but few that are focused on the needs of the industry. We see the M.A. course at the new Atrium as an opportunity not just to train animators to work in our ever-changing industry, but to educate people who will help bring about change, and take our industry forward.”

Marc Evans

“For a small nation like Wales, a thriving film and television industry is vital and the opening of the ATRiuM can make a major contribution on the road to achieving that. It is especially exciting to see a facility where student writers, actors, designers and musicians can work on projects together.”

Snowcake clip "Dazlious" directed by Marc Evans and starring Sigourney Weaver

Daniel Evans

“The ATRiuM is a fantastic facility for up and coming young actors in Wales and beyond. The fact that actors will be able to train alongside creative people of other disciplines will not only enrich their education but also provide a great preparation for their future in the industry. I look forward to working with the faculty and to seeing the wealth of young talent which is generated there.”

Terry Hands CBE

“As theatre becomes more important, ATRiuM can play a significant role in developing future talent and future vision in Wales.”

tagged: cci

Content Issued by: University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL
Contact: Press Office on 01443 483362
E-mail: press@glam.ac.uk

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

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Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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BAFTA Scotland Winner Boyle Segues From Shallow Grave (1994) to Trainspotting (1996) to Twin Town to Fox's Futuristic Sci-Fi Satire 'Sunshine' (2007)

2007-07-23T06:26:00.000Z

According to

DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Sun Jul 22, 1:39 PM ET:

"In limited release, Fox Searchlight's sci-fi tale "Sunshine" opened to big numbers, pulling in $235,477 in 10 theaters."

"Directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later"), the film stars Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh as members of a space crew trying to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years from now."

"'Sunshine' expands to about 400 theaters Friday."

Plot Synopsis: The Sun is being destroyed from inside out by a type of highly stable form of matter that renders nuclear fusion impossible, by turning common matter on its own kind.

The only hope is to send a team of astronauts to detonate a massive, highly energetic bomb, able to destroy this strange matter and restore Sun's natural state.

British director Boyle is known for his films which agressively feature Scotland, as he has often uses places, characters, actors or references to and relating to Scotland.

He often casts Scottish actor Ewan McGregor in lead roles.

Boyle's grim futuristic horror flic 28 Days Later (2002) was produced by the British Film Council ands had a U.S. theatrical distribution contract with Fox Searchlight Pictures.

In 1997 he joined Andrew Mac Donald again to executive produce Welsh director Kevin Allen's Twin Town (1997), filming at various locations in and around Swansea, Wales / Abertawe, Cymru.

For more data on film releases and summer Box Office statistics, please check out:

Media By Numbers

Danny Boyle's newest feature film Sunshine (2007) Trailer:

For more information about famous Scottish movies, or about shooting your next film in Scotland, please see:

Scottish Screen

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

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American Twilight: Politics, Sex and TV Dinners

Czech Karlovy Vary A-List Film Festival's World Premiere of RTE Drama 'Damage' (2007) by 'Song for a Raggy Boy' (2003)'s Irish Director Aisling Walsh

2007-07-06T20:52:00.000Z

Pictured above: Steaming geysers nourish the lush red rose hedges along the icy mountain river in the center of Karlovy Vary's castle-lined boulevards, where once a year Hollywood goes 'Bohemian' at the world's most fabulous A-List Film Fest.

And this year, it's party time for the Irish in Bohemia!

42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Irish Director Aisling Walsh's new film Damage (2007) has its World Premiere at the 42nd Karlovy Vary Film Fest in the Czech Republic, which is among the top ten A-List Film Fests around the globe each year.

The Karlovy Vary IFF is one of the oldest film festivals of all time (the first year took place in 1946). For more than 40 years the festival was organized under the pressure of the political situation in socialist Czechoslovakia.

Aisling Walsh entered the public stage with her short films (such as Hostage, which was shot while she was studying at the National Film School and which won her awards at the Chicago Film Festival and the Tours Film festival).

She successfully made her way in television (with the serial Trial and Retribution, (1997), the homosexual love story Forgive and Forget, (2000), the story of emancipated mothers in the 1960’s, Sinners, (2002), and the drama Fingersmith, (2005), nominated for the BAFTA award, among others).

The talented director found success off the small-screen with the movie Joyriders (1989) and in particular with the dramatic tale of the fortunes of an idealistic teacher in a boy’s reform school set in 1930s Ireland, Song for a Raggy Boy (2002), in which the lead role was played by Aidan Quinn, and which was screened in competition at Karlovy Vary in 2003.

Colour, 35 mm
Ireland, 2007, 95 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Horizons

Director: Aisling Walsh
Screenplay: Aisling Walsh
Dir. of Photography: Simon Kossoff
Music: Niall Byrne
Designer: John Hand
Editor: Stephen O’Connell
Producer: Tristan Lynch, Dominic Wright
Production: Subotica Entertainment Ltd.
Contact: Subotica Entertainment Ltd.

Cast: Nathalie Press, Olivia Williams, Brendan Coyle, David O’Hara

Irish Director Aisling Walsh Damage (2007) Trailer (download from KVFF site):

Damage (1 x 90 mins or 2 x 1 hour) - produced for RTE - is a tense and pacy drama directed by Aisling Walsh (BAFTA-nominated Fingersmith, Trial & Retribution) in which a family's seemingly perfect life is shattered when the daughter, Emma, is raped by a family friend at her 21st birthday party.

With the key suspect released on bail, and dark family secrets coming to the fore, Emma's life begins to freefall until a chance meeting with her rapist convinces her that she needs to go to court and confront him before she can move on with her life.

Synopsis:

The Cahills would pass for a normal, happy, and all around successful family. Emma continues in the lifestyle of her father Aidan and mother Michelle, and begins trying to make it as a model.

Hardly anyone suspects that the husband and wife live separate lives, the most important people in which are actually Aidan’s secretary and their family friend John Ward, the father of their daughter’s friend Laurel.

The outward image of the socially well-positioned family changes however when the Cahills hold a party to celebrate their daughter’s 21st birthday in their home in an elegant Dublin suburb, and Emma is raped.

The girl refuses to silently reconcile herself with her traumatic experience. What chance does she have against her antagonist and his lawyers?

How will she find a way to come to terms with what happened to her? And will her friends and family be capable of banding together to help her?

This psychological drama by director Aisling Walsh tells of the dark shadows cast on the private and public image of one successful family.

Written and directed by Aisling Walsh, "Damage" stars Nathalie Press, Olivia WIlliams, David O'Hara and Brendan Coyle. International Sales are through Minotaur.

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

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Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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American Twilight: Politics, Sex and TV Dinners

Looking for Worldwide Celtic Music News and Discussions?

2007-07-05T21:33:00.000Z

There's a fabulous place to meet others interested in Celtic Music and Celtic Dance:

Yahoo! Celtic Cafe Group Forum

"The purpose of this list is to connect Irish dance and Celtic music fans all over the world, keeping list members informed about various events, musical groups, and Irish dance shows like Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger, Riverdance, Dancing on Dangerous Ground, Gaelforce Dance, Spirit of the Dance, Rhythm of the Dance, To Dance on the Moon, etc.

We encourage discussion of books as well, and in fact, anything that involves "Celtic culture" is welcome for discussion on the list."

You may also wish to bookmark the Celtic Cafe website at:

The Celtic Cafe

For a listing of many of our other Celtic Cafe mail lists, go to: http://www.celticcafe.com/Guides/onelist.htm

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Yn Mapio Ffilmiau Cymreig fel ‘an Irish Shangra-La’ / Mapping Cinematic Wales as ‘an Irish Shangra-La’

2007-07-01T10:54:00.000Z

Pictured above: New Welsh Film Book by Dr. Gwenno Ffrancon Jenkins, Swansea University

In her recent book, 'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951', film scholar Gwenno Ffrancon Jenkins points to the ‘othering’ of the Welsh by director John Ford in the film How Green was My Valley (1941).

Ford adapted an indigenous Welsh novel by author Richard Llewellyn, but directed and cast the script in such a way to create not a Welsh story, but an Irish story in a Welsh motif, what Berry has called ‘an Irish Shangra-La’ (Berry 1994: 17).

Ffrancon Jenkins reflects this in her statement:

'mai ffilm am Gymru drwy lygaid a lleisiau Gwyddelig a gynhyrchwyd yn y diwedd . . . A dyma un o'i diffygion pennaf.'

'It is a film on Wales through the Irish eyes and voices and direction right to the end.' (Ffrancon-Jenkins 2003: 18) [all Welsh to English translations by the author of this study, unless otherwise noted].

So in Ffrancon Jenkins’ opinion, Ford has rendered the Welsh as ‘contributors’ to his Irish fable, similarly to the ‘primitive’ but proper Welshwomen-known-as-Englishwomen in ‘Outsider’ François Truffaut’s film 'Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent' (1971), and she writes about ‘Welsh Cinematic Outsider’ Ford’s characterization of the Welsh people:

"Y canlyniad yw ‘darluniau afreal’ o'r Cymry fel ‘simple, primitive people’."

"Consequently it is an ‘unreal portrayal’ of the Welsh as ‘simple, primitive people.’" (Ffrancon-Jenkins 2003: 19)

Ford based his film upon Llewellyn’s novel. Llewellyn was a Welshman born into the London Welsh Diaspora, and he did sufficient ‘cultural tourism’ while visiting his grandfather in the South Wales mining community of Gilfach-goch, to base his novel on this village.

So while Ford and Llewellyn are both ‘Outsiders’ to varying degrees, Llewellyn is an important type of ‘Insider’ who went away from Wales and became an ‘Outsider’ (as a scriptwriter for the American studio, MGM), which permitted him to peddle his narrative wares to the global, cinematic imperial powers in Hollywood, in this case the iconic John Ford, best known for his Hollywood Westerns.

'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951' is a thorough and highly readable social and cultural study of the influence of the cinema on the lives of Welsh people between 1935 and 1951, and how Wales and her people have been portrayed by film makers. 25 black-and-white illustrations.

Mae 'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951' astudiaeth gymdeithasol a diwylliannol drylwyr a hynod ddarllenadwy o ddylanwad y sinema ar fywyd pobl Cymru rhwng 1935 a 1951, ac ar y modd y delweddwyd Cymru a'i phobl gan wneuthurwyr ffilm. 25 llun du-a-gwyn.

‘Robustly historical view of Welsh cinematic heritage . . . the first social and industrial study of the formative years of the genre in Wales . . . Gwenno Ffrancon has used every archive available to her, and she treats the ‘unknown’ with a great deal of empathy and understanding . . . this volume certainly succeeds in rediscovering the beginnings of the ‘forgetting chambers’ in Wales.’ (New Welsh Review)

Y mae Gwenno Ffrancon, brodor o Flaen-plwyf ger Aberystwyth, yn ddarlithydd ffilm yn Adran Cyfathrebu a’r Cyfryngau, Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor.

Gan Gwales: 'All neb ddadlau â honiad y broliant fod hon yn 'gyfrol arloesol'. Mae'r ymdriniaeth drylwyr, ddychmygus, amlonglog hon â detholiad o ffilmiau o Gymru ac am Gymru rhwng 1935 a 1951 yn gamp gyflawn ynddi'i hun, ond y mae hefyd yn agor maes enfawr a chyfoethog i eraill ymchwilio ynddo . . .'

'Mae hi'n gyfrol a fydd o ddiddordeb i rychwant llydan o ddarllenwyr, ond yr hyn sy'n rhoi rhuddin iddi yw ysgolheictod gadarn ac ymchwil fanwl ei hawdur.'

'Mae'r rhestr ffynonellau ar ddau gyfandir yn tystio i barodrwydd Gwenno Ffrancon i fynd yr ail a'r drydedd filltir er mwyn medru llunio darlun mor gynhwysfawr, mor gyflawn ei gyd-destunau â phosibl o'i phwnc. Mae ei gallu i wisgo het y beirniad ffilm a het yr hanesydd diwylliannol gyda'r un argyhoeddiad yn ei galluogi i wneud cyfiawnder â'i thestun.’

www.gwales.com

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Don't Miss Welsh and British Film Expert Steve Blandford Speak Tonight in Cardiff!

2007-06-29T09:24:00.000Z

Pictured right: Professor Steve Blandford, Associate Dean of Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, is an expert in British film and television.

Professor Blandford will discuss his new book, 'Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain' at tonight's film event at Chapter Arts Centre.

Special Film Event: Screening of the new film, 'This is England' plus a talk by Professor Steve Blandford (18)

Buy Tickets Now from the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff

Friday, 29 June 2007 20:15 Cinema 1
Fri 29 June / Gwener 29 Mehefin

UK/2006/100 mins/18. Dir: Shane Meadows. With Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley.

Shane Meadows’ most accomplished film to date is set in 1983, and focuses on a lonely 12-year-old who runs into a group of skinheads, but finds himself drawn into more uncomfortable territory when an older, overtly racist gang member is released from prison.

This screening will be preceded by a 30-minute talk on current British cinema by Steve Blandford, professor of theatre and media and associate dean of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan, and author of the new book 'Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain'.

Critics say that 'This is England' is "fizzing with energy and humour, powered by brilliantly engaging performances" -

BBCi

www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Getting a 'Reel' Job: CYFLE ANNOUNCES WALES FILM INDUSTRY TRAINING SCHEME FOR NEW ENTRANTS

2007-06-29T08:35:00.000Z

CYFNOD RECRIWTIO CYNLLUN LLAWN AMSER FFILM CYFLE 28 MEHEFIN - 19 GORFFENNAF 2007

Ewch i www.cyfle.co.uk

CYFLE FILM SCHEME RECRUITMENT PERIOD 28 JUNE - 19 JULY 2007

Go to www.cyfle.co.uk

WALES FILM INDUSTRY TRAINING SCHEME FOR NEW ENTRANTS

Full time training in FILM, based in Wales

Cyfle is offering exciting, full time training for 4 individuals who have a burning desire to develop further skills for a career in the film industry. Cyfle’s ‘Wales Film Industry Training Scheme’ is a twelve month vocational scheme.

This includes an induction course, placements on film productions throughout the UK, off-the-job short courses and an exit programme. Applicants are invited to apply for the following training posts:

Production Co-ordinator
3rd Assistant Director
Boom Operator
Art Department Assistant

Training Allowance Paid
Closing date for applications: 19 July 2007
Course start date: 24 September 2007
Applicants must be 18 or over

Cynllun Hyfforddi Diwydiant Ffilm Cymru ar gyfer Newydd Ddyfodiaid
Hyfforddiant llawn amser mewn FFILM, yng Nghymru

Mae Cyfle’n cynnig agoriad i 4 o unigolion sydd yn ysu am gael datblygu gyrfa ymhellach yn y diwydiant ffilm. Mae ‘Cynllun Hyfforddi Diwydiant Ffilm Cymru’ Cyfle yn gynllun hyfforddi galwedigaethol deuddeg mis o hyd.

Bydd y cwrs yn cynnwys cwrs rhagarweiniol, lleoliadau ar gynyrchiadau ffilm ar hyd a lled y DU, cyrsiau byrion allanol a rhaglen cloi. Gwahoddir ceisiadau am y swyddi canlynol:

Cydlynydd Cynhyrchu
3ydd Gyfarwyddwr/aig Cynorthwyol
Genweiriwr/aig (Bŵm)
Cynorthwyydd Adran Gelf

Telir Lwfans Hyfforddi
Dyddiad cau ar gyfer derbyn ceisiadau: 19 Gorffennaf 2007
Dyddiad dechrau’r cwrs: 24 Medi 2007
Rhaid i ymgeiswyr fod yn 18 neu hŷn

Mark Woods, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

For Immediate Release: The New Welsh Blog Awards 2007 Organizers Announce Internet Competition Launch Today

2007-06-22T11:52:00.000Z

Pictured above, Red Dragon Logo for the Welsh Blogs Awards and an image capture of the Welsh blog 'Blamerbell Briefs', recent winner of the prestigious "The Centre de Formation des Journalistes (CFJ) and CNN" -- "CFJ/CNN European award for the best student news blog"

For Immediate Release: Welsh Blog Award Organizers Announce Competition Launch

Wales, United Kingdom. His name is Sanddef (pronounced San-they) and he's fluent in at least four languages and lists Quantum Physics among his hobbies, as well as being a student in Bangor.

But online his blogosphere mates know him as the affable 'Ordovicius', and these days, with a blog by the same Latin name, he's dedicating a discrete amount of his energy to creating and launching the first Welsh Blog Awards 2007, or as it's called in Welsh, Yr Academi (the event and group are bilingual, Welsh/English).

Ordovicius

It's still not clear whose brainchild the Welsh Blog Awards is, but the online rumour mills also point to another Welsh wunderkind, Dr. Daniel Cunliffe at the University of Glamorgan. Cunliffe has a blog called Datblogu.com.

Datblogu.com

Other Welsh bloggers have already joined the group and are putting their energies and ideas into the launching the event.

Chris Cope is an American who taught himself to speak Welsh, and is now doing a degree in Wales, after relocating with his wife to South Wales.

Chris Cope

Another Welsh blogger involved in the awards is Cardiff University journalism student Ciaran Jenkins, aka "Blamerbell Briefs.com."

Blamerbell Briefs is the Welsh blog mentioned above, which is exemplary of the fine blogospheric world being generated by the tiny Celtic nation of Wales.

CFJ/CNN writes: "Ciaran's blog has become one of the most popular blog in the region of Cardiff. Politicians intervene on it, Medias respect it and the author is pretty amazed by his success which he would not have envisaged a few months back."

Blamerbell Briefs

Alan is a Welsh ex-pat in Brazil, fluent in Welsh and Portuguese, with a blog called Y Ddraig Goch, or Welsh for "The Red Dragon", the iconic symbol of the Welsh nation, going back to Roman times.

Y Ddraig Goch

Mark Woods lives in Miami Beach but has spent the past four years in Wales completing a Ph.D. in Film.

Woods says, "My film students forced me to become a 'New Media expert' since now we regularly digitally format and load our short films onto sites like YouTube and Yahoo Video. In today's world, Blogging and Film Studies go hand-in-hand."

Woods has a Welsh American Genealogy blog. Woods is using his background as a former owner of a public relations service in Miami, to help promote the fledgling group online.

Welsh American Genealogy

Woods says, "When I got to Wales I looked around and it reminded me of Microsoft in Seattle. The high quality of life, the mountains, the mild, wet weather and the obsession wth coffee bars and computer geeks is just like the Pacific Northwest, only it's in Western Europe!"

Woods says' "The group is in their early days and is looking for corporate sponsors and new members. Anyone can volunteer. We'd like to see local merchants and tourism companies from across Wales, all being encouraged to donate prizes and cash to assist the group."

Various social events and networking parties are being discussed, along with a showcase 'Awards Night'.

Many other Welsh bloggers, not mentioned here, have already helped to launch the awards project. Categories reflect the national bilingualism of Welsh and English, and include comic, political and cultural topics.

Group members tell how this is a reaction to other British blog awards centered mostly in London, which leave out the Welsh aspect, or miss the local talent.

Woods points to a similar situation with the film industry in Wales:

"There are the British BAFTA Awards and there are the BAFTA Cymru (Wales) Awards, and both are important to the worldwide valuation of films in Europe and abroad."

"The Welsh Blog Awards could easily grow to a similar global prominence as BAFTA Cymru," Woods predicts.

To join the Academy you will have to open a FaceBook account and then visit
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2393167778

Welsh Blog Awards 2007

NOTE: YOU WILL HAVE TO JOIN THE 'WALES' NETWORK

Bloggers who for any reason are unable to join this group but who wish to join the Academy should email Sanddef aka Ordovicius(at)gmail(dot)com

The Welsh Blog Awards 2007 have decided their set of categories and announced how you can become part of the "Academy" which enables you to nominate and vote.

Group Info: Yr Academi: The Welsh Blog Academy

Type: Internet & Technology - Cyberculture

Description: Bydd aelodau'r academi yn gallu enwebu blogiau ar gyfer y Gwobrau Blogio ac wedyn yn gallu bwrw eu pleidlais.

Members of the Welsh Blog Academy will be able to nominate blogs for the Welsh Blog Awards and later will be the ones who vote for the finalists.

Contact Info:
Email: Ordovicius(at)gmail(dot)com
Website: http://welshblogawards2007.blogspot.com/

Yr Academi: The Welsh Blog Academy

Press Contact:
Mark Woods, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Sexy Welsh God Again Tops America's Summer Weekend Hollywood Boxoffice

2007-06-21T08:35:00.000Z

Pictured above: Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, star of the Fantastic Four (2007)

Welsh actors dominate as Hollywood's Libido Lifeblood for four decades . . .

Is there ever a time when the 'Land of Song' doesn't dominate and control the starring roles of Hollywood?

Ifor Novello, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Bale, Siân Phillips, Emlyn Williams, Catherine Zeta Jones -- I'm running out of breath!

And now Ioan Gruffudd's sexy comic book character is 'stretching' across America!

According to the Hollywood Reporter

'Fantastic Four' scores with $57.4 million debut weekend
By Gregg Kilday
June 18, 2007

"20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" rode a commanding wave to the top of the North American boxoffice during the weekend, finding a broad-based audience with the help of a family-friendly PG rating."

"The original "Fantastic Four," with a PG-13 rating, opened to $56.1 million in 2005, and its sequel didn't lose any momentum and outgrossed its predecessor with an estimated bow of $57.4 million."

Didn't anyone see Ioan Gruffudd speaking Welsh on the Graham Norton Show a couple months ago?

More on the sexy Welshman later . . .

Here's one for your summer reading list: Professor Peter Stead's "Acting Wales, Stars of Stage & Screen" (2002) University of Wales Press.

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

The Foreign Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe called Wales -- Welsh Blogosphere: Part I

2007-06-20T10:12:00.000Z

Pictured above, image capture of the Welsh blog 'Blamerbell Briefs', recent winner of the prestigious "The Centre de Formation des Journalistes (CFJ) and CNN" -- "CFJ/CNN European award for the best student news blog"

Llongyfarchiadau / Congratulations to Ciaran!

Blamerbell Briefs aka Ciaran Jenkins -- Cardiff School of Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies

CFJ/CNN writes: "Ciaran's blog has become one of the most popular blog in the region of Cardiff. Politicians intervene on it, Medias respect it and the author is pretty amazed by his success which he would not have envisaged a few months back."

Blamerbell Briefs is the Welsh blog mentioned above, which is exemplary of the fine blogo-glossolalia being generated by the tiny Celtic nation of Wales.

Most of our readers are Welsh, but increasingly we get emails from folks in America and Australia or Canada.

If you've wandered into virtual Wales from Canada or Australia or the U.S. and you're trying to make sense of this quirky territory in the Internet, perhaps we can be of some help:

Rather than begin our introduction to the Welsh blogosphere by listing and criticizing specific blogs, let's instead establish some general ideas.

1) Wales is a European 'Small Nation' , which is bilingual English/Welsh. Welsh is a minority language with a few special protections in Wales and Europe (more are needed).

As you might think, it's easy to be a BIG FISH in a small pond with anything related to the culture of so-called 'Small Nations'. Relatively few folks in Wales have discovered the blogging world, if you compare Wales to India or China or North America.

Consequently, if you start a blog in Wales, you can more quickly distinguish yourself, than if you start a blog in New York City or in Bombay.

Here's an analogy: If you open an Thai Cuisine take-away (fast-food restaurant) in a remote Welsh village which has never had a restaurant that wasn't also a mews (horse stable) converted to a pub (beer garden or tavern), then you're going to be instantly famous in that village, and in that Welsh region.

[And the Welsh villagers are probably going to be amazed about Thai food (found on every street in Toronto, L.A., Miami or New York) since they are nuts about Indian and Pakistani food in the UK!]

So it goes with Wales. Start a Sci-Fi blog in California and everyone yawns. But start a Sci-Fi Blog in Wales, and you're one of the first!

2) Also, Wales is a country which has been deeply divided by language -- everyone speaks English, and about 20% of the folks also speak Welsh 'Cymraeg' as their first language.

People who speak Welsh are constantly on guard against the encroachment of English on their language. The Welsh have good reason to feel this way, since England as a country has had at times, what some might call 'arrogant' ways of forcing their English language on others, especially during their Imperial military / colonial history.

So if you wander into a Welsh-speaking blog and speak English, you might get blanked or ignored, since these folks built their blogs intentionally to support their minority language.

Some Welsh-speakers might even be rude and nasty to you, because they have a lot of pent up anger about English encroaching on their native language. Try to ignore the nasties.

3) The Internet is generally a tolerant, generous and welcoming place. This is mostly true for the Blogosphere of Wales, as well, but not always.

Some of the reasons you might experience intolerance in Wales, are that Wales has had this highly politicized issue of nationhood with England/Britain, and internal controversies about language.

There are also areas of Wales, where folks suffered great economic deprivation, and this has effected their knowledge, atttudes and reaction to outsiders.

There are also divisions within Wales of race, religion, economic status and educational status, just as there are in pockets of hatred and paranoia in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and North America.

Traditionally, folks in Britain (including Wales) tended to be more obsessed with 'class consciousness', a concept foreign to many in North America.

Quick Class Tanslator:

American "Middle Class" = British "Working Class"
American "Upper Middle Class" = British "Middle Class"
American "Pain-in-the-ass-rich-jerks" = British "Peerage"
American "a soft, privileged rich-boy whiner like George Bush" = British "Royals" (no offense to the Royals)

Attitudes, which folks from metropolitan areas of North America might associate with the parochial and exclusionary attitudes of 'Small Town mentality' and 'social incest', can sometimes prevail in Welsh circles, and even lap up onto the sophisticated shores of Cymru's blogosphere.

How does this effect the curious foreigner who is cruising the net, and fancies learning something about Wales, maybe even considering moving to Wales, doing business in Wales, or taking a vacation in Wales?

Assume you know nothing about the politics of Wales, and assume you will get it wrong if you try. Wales appears about as bizarre as the rest of Britain when it comes to parties and alliances, (at least in the minds of most Americans, used to the monolithic simplicity of two-party politics).

On the other hand, Wales and most of Britain is child's play compared to the fluidity of political groupings in the labyrinthine jungle called French or Italian politics.

Don't make the silly mistake of assuming that Wales is a 'part of England.' This will get you a lot of angry responses, since the question of nationhood for Wales is wrapped up in this ancient identity thing, summarized by some local historians this way:

"We're Welsh, which means first of, that we're NOT English."

To the outsider this can be confusing, since the geographical distance from Essex (East England) to Cardiff (capital city of Wales) is shorter than the geographical distance from Long Island to New Jersey, but humor the British, they can get very emotional about this national identity issue, at times.

There's even a party which advocates that England separate from the Union of Great Britain, which might seem physically impossible to the outsider!

I suggest that you do a little research and discover from say, Wikipedia, some of the quick, basic ideas about Wales and her long and complicated history and culture.

What you will discover is that, for a small nation, Wales is anything but 'small!' This tiny country is just bursting with vitality and near-geniuses! Most of the Welsh are extremely well-educated and well-read, and travel a lot.

As a people they are bright and warm and friendly, and they can be very entertaining, as well.

Be prepared to meet some of the most bizarre and eccentric people, and some of the most ordinary and lovely folks on the planet, in Wales.

About Welsh language and cliches: Welsh is an ancient and beautiful (some would even say 'magical') modern European language; If you don't understand something, or if someone says something, feel free to ask them to translate. You'll be glad you did!

For general stuff about Wales and other Celtic Nations (Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Manx, Breton) visit the Celtic Cafe.

Two places to begin finding Welsh blogs are here:

Blog Cymru.com

Brit Blog.com

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

The Future of Welsh Rugby Part I: Nude Ohio 'Babes' and Naked Frenchmen

2007-06-19T09:47:00.000Z

Pictured above: Agustin Pichot from 'Gods of the Stadium' French Rugby calendar 2004; The semi-nude women's rugby calendar that led to upset in the Maori community; Ohio Oberlin naked 'babes' crouched in a scrum.

[Welsh Rugby, Coal Miners and Male Choirs -- all sacred symbols of national identity? This is Part I of an article which examines the mythos of iconic athletic maleness in Wales.]

Much has been written about the importance of rugby in Welsh society, as part of the construction of masculinity for a post-industrial society.

Now the icon of the rough, scruffy, muddy-faced rugby male is being exploited and challenged.

David Beckham has turned the male footballer into a male object of desire, first plastered on walls in Paris and Milan, and soon to be exploited by Hollywood.

Is this the future of rugby in Wales?

And what does the apparent morphing of Welsh Male Rugby Icon into a male sex object have to say about modern Welsh nationalism?

For example, a French male rugby team's members have been producing a calendar for several years, which was first a run-away best seller with the worldwide female 'Play Girl' audiences.

The calendar is called the 'Gods of the Stadium' or 'Dieux de Stade' in French.

Seduced by their success the French rugby players have intentionally enlarged their appeal by filming two years of DVD documentaries called the 'Making of Gods of the Stadium'.

This has catapulted the French male rugby players to international stardom, mostly because of their popularity with gay men in North America.

Not to be out-done, women at Oberlin College in Ohio have been making their own rugby calendar for several years.

(Oberlin College is famous as being the small, liberal arts college in the U.S. which graduates the highest percentage of students who go on to finish Ph.D.s)

Rugby is important to the construction of the Welsh male identity, and has reached iconic statue, mostly carried by the unexpected commercial success of a film by BBC director John Hefin called 'Grand Slam (1978)'.

'Grand Slam (1978)'.

According to a synopsis written by Reece Lloyd for IMDB:

"A group of Welsh rugby fans go over to see Wales play France in the final match of the Six Nations rugby tournament. Caradog Evans (Oscar-winner Hugh Griffith) goes there also to seek an old flame from his wartime combat in the 1940s."

"His son, finds a love in Paris too. Contains very frequent nudity, some bad language, and brief violence."

In Welsh academic circles, a discourse about the shattering of the traditionally male and iconic identity of the rugby player, has been developing over time.

This specifically Welsh, filmic and gendered discourse has only just started, with the Cyfrwng Welsh Media Journal’s examination of Welsh masculinity in Stanley Baker’s ‘Welsh Western’, Zulu (1964) (Cyfrwng Journal -- Shail 2002: 11-25), and in Peter Jachimiak’s examination the Welsh film Grand Slam (1978) (Cyfrwng Journal -- Jachimiak 2006: 91-106).

John Hefin produced for the BBC, Grand Slam (1978).

Grand Slam has been called the ultimate Welsh 'Lads' video, and is celebrating its 30th anniversary with brisk DVD sales continuing unabated.

Many Welsh female partners tell stories about their husbands 'stocking up the house for the weekend with cider and sarnies', and then inviting a crowd of men over to watch Grand Slam 'several times in one weekend' -- almost like some modern, Welsh male tribal bonding ceremony -- a Welsh male rite-of-passage that re-affirms Welsh heterosexual maleness, while it reinforces a Welsh national and individual sense of 'Welsh Identity'.

Grand Slam is among the best-known Welsh films with domestic audiences, and holds an iconic place in Welsh history and culture Grand Slam (directed by John Hefin, 1978) is not only a film of Welsh origin primarily aimed at a Welsh audience, but – in relation to the reproduction of Welshness and Welsh masculinity in particular – is often seen as a celebratory cultural event (Jachimiak 2006: 91).

Jachimiak’s analysis and conclusions about Grand Slam are built upon some the same generalizations about constructions of masculinity described by John Beynon in his recent book on 'Masculinities', upon some specifically British imperial / post-imperial constructions described by Canadian scholar Christopher Gittings, and upon some specifically Welsh constructions, as described by Welsh scholars Charlotte Aull Davies and Stephanie Jones:

"I believe that in Blaengwyn, masculine identity formerly associated with mining in the community has been transmuted into a masculinity expressed through playing and supporting rugby, the identification of the rugby sport of Wales" (Jones and Davies 2003: 27).

Cyfrwng Welsh Media Journal Online

We mentioned the possibility of seeing in these Welsh films, evidence of a trajectory, revealing an evolution in the ways in which sexuality and gender are treated.

This trajectory might parallel or inform another longer trajectory of Welsh masculinity, as it relates to and constructs a sense of Welsh nationalism.

For example, Davies and Jones noted above, their theory that the fiercely independent and proudly autonomous coal miner, (which was a long held construction of Welsh masculinity, which has come to symbolize Welsh nationalism and historic degrees Welsh political and economic independence), and has since morphed into the activities and male-centric mythos of rugby.

So we have Frenchmen appealing to their gay audience with videos and posters on E-Bay, and even women in New Zealand have stripped off their rugby jerseys for charity.

The New Zealand women went too far, and offended native national identity:

According to the BBC:

"An English women's rugby team caused upset in New Zealand's Maori community when their fund-raising calendar included a picture of a topless haka. The team said the image was based on the ceremonial war dance but they did not mean to offend, and apologised."

Read about the semi-nude Oberlin College women who play rugby here in the Oberlin Review

According to an article in the Oberlin Review, the mission of the female rugby players was to challenge the 'male myth' of what constitutes 'female beauty':

"Part of this statement (which is on the cover of the calendar) disassociates the rugby calendar from stereotypical Playboy calendars:

“In a society that brands female competitive sports athletes as masculine, this calendar parodies the standard beauty myth, by juxtaposing the concept of the seductive and submissive pinup with images of women who assert themselves not only as strong athletes, but also as empowered women.”

The Oberlin women are intentionally shattering the myths around male-dominated rugby, and perceptions of women in sports. But what does this do to the traditional Welsh icon of maleness, wrapped in male rugby jersey (or now, shirtless men in France)?

Some men in Wales might be asking, "Is nothing sacred?"

Others might ask, "What could be next? Gay Welsh Rugby?" More in Part II . . .

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Sci-Fi Fans Debate BBC Wales Dr. Who: Lazy Low-Budget or Funky British 1950s meets 2007 Retro-Futurism?

2007-06-18T11:55:00.000Z

Pictured above: the current BBC Wales retro-futuristic 1950s British Police Box TARDIS Time Machine and comic book cover of H.G. Wells' Time Machine.

In the Sci-Fi blog called

Difference Engine,

pgrehan writes:

"I’ve learnt that you have to look past the sillier aspects of a Russell T.Davies Doctor Who story. Like, for example, at the very end of the Universe, countless billions of years in the future, you will find human beings as we know them today."

pgrehan also tells us that :

"Human beings driving 21st century trucks and firing 21st century weapons, just before they board their interstellar (can you still say that when there aren’t any stars left?) spacecraft. The explanation given for this is that human beings have somehow re-evolved into their favourite form, but this smacks of a lazy writer using technobabble to reduce science fiction to a branch of fantasy."

So we see that the writer 'pgrehan' (above) makes some good Sci-Fi Theory / critical points, but from an American perspective, Dr. Who has always reminded me of a broadcast British sci-fi style which smacks of intentionally low-budget retro-futurism.

Kubrick’s low-key approach to ‘Future Britain’ in Clockwork Orange (1971) is probably the best British example of intentional retro-Futurism, but Woody Allen also uses it to comic effect in Sleeper (1973).

In other words, not attempting to create futuristic verisimilitude, and settling for what you describe as ‘lazy’, is actually a self-reflective activity of the film’s author.

European filmmakers observed how Japanese Monster films played in the post 1960s U.S. television market, and resisted being pushed (by budgetary limits) into becoming a similar caricature of themselves.

To accomplish this, directors like Hitchcock opted for a minimalist understatement, which masked the relatively low-budget, low quality special FX of their productions, and The Birds (1963) is a good example.

Dr. Who on the other hand, has always been read as a ‘Jules Verne’-style retro-Futurism by American audiences, and that funky and clunky lack of attention to details has made the story more important than the FX and mise-en-scene.

Willy Wonka is the height of self-deprecating Victorian retro-Futurism, displayed in the first film (1971), but sort of parodied by Tim Burton in a gritty, timeless past/future Industrial reality in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

The current Dr. Who might be seen as derivative of Terry Gillam’s Brazil (1985), which trademarked funky Brit retro-future sci-fi for good.

So from our perspective, Russell is simply following an established tradition, and giving his larger U.S. audience what they expect of this brand of Brit Sci-fi.

Our North American readers who are fans of Dr. Who should be sure to check out the UK Sci-fi blog

Difference Engine,

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Marc Miami ym Mhontypridd

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Ble mae'r Sinema Cymraeg? Gaelic Language Makes Big Comeback in New Scottish Feature Film 'Searchd'

2007-06-16T08:52:00.000Z

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the first feature film in Scottish Gaelic.

It is a film from the Scottish Gaelic community starring local Gaelic-speaking actors from the Highlands and Isles and was filmed entirely on the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) off the West Coast of Scotland.

Seachd is not a Hollywood film. The film was shot across just 25 days on a tiny budget, but it is a film with a big heart and it represents the lives of people living in a part of the world that has yet to be shown on the big screen.

The soundtrack to Seachd features some of Gaeldom's greatest living vocalists and musicians - and ancient Gaelic instruments such as the Carnyx (Celtic battle horn), the metal strung Clàrsach (Gaelic harp) and the triplepipes (the predecessor of the bagpipes).

As it's said in Gaelic: Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil -- The truth is in the story. When a young man, Angus, visits his dying Grandfather in hospital he cannot hold back his boyhood quest for the truth - the truth behind the death of his parents and the truth behind his Grandfather's ancient, incredible, fearful stories.

Stories from the whole swathe of Gaelic history of poisoned lovers, bloody revenge, water-horses and Spanish gold.

His Grandfather hijacks Angus' life for one last time leading him to one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, The Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, and an ancient truth he never expected to find.

Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil. Tha Aonghas air a bhith air tòir na fìrinn o òige, miann a tha a' teannachadh na inntinn 's na chorp nuair a thuigeas e gu bheil am bàs gu laighe air a Sheanar.

Tha fios aig Aonghas gu bheil an t-àm dha eòlas a chur air an fhìrinn mu bhàs a phàrantan 's cuideachd mu sgeulachdan a Sheanair. Sgeulachdan iongantach, eagalach a thug air cuairt tro eachdraidh nan Gaidheal iad le gaol, sabaid, eich-uisge agus òr Spàinnteach nam measg.

Tha Aonghas 's a Sheanair a' gabhail aon chuairt eile còmhla, cuairt a tha gan toirt gu mullach Sgùrr Dearg 's gu fìrinn ris nach robh dùil sam bith.

Simon Miller's Searchd Official Website

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Ellis's Sexy Welsh Tale of Ancient Milford Haven Court Sizzles on Miami Coral Gables Summer Stage

2007-06-14T05:39:00.000Z

Time and place:
Cymbeline's Court, Britain; near Milford Haven, Wales, Britain; Rome, Italy

CYMBELINE @ the New Theatre. June 7 - July 1

Adapted and Directed by Kathi E.B. Ellis
Cymbeline revels in the disparate characters and plot-lines that intersect and collide across ancient Britain, Rome, and a pastoral Wales.

"Love betrayed; threatened invasion; advice from beyond... and yet when all find themselves brought together can we be surprised by the cascade of reconciliation and revelation that ensues."

The New Theatre, 4120 Laguna Street, Coral Gables, (305) 443-5909

Cymbeline revels in the disparate characters and plot-lines that intersect and collide across ancient Britain, Rome, and a pastoral Wales. Innogen's marriage to a young man liked by her father, King Cymbeline, but not approved of as heir to the throne precipitates a series of choices and actions that threaten to unravel the kingdom, the marriage, and family bonds.

The weak king, the unprincipled step-mother, the cloddish step son, the loyal servant, the noble but exiled subject, and more, are all highly recognizable characters and yet in Shakespeare's romantic tragicomedy we encounter them in fresh ways. From comedic to gruesome, from supernatural to poignant, we are invited on a perilous journey that culminates in a cascade of reconciliation and revelation.

Cymbeline's Court
CYMBELINE, King of Britain Steve Gladstone*
QUEEN, wife to Cymbeline Barbara Sloan*
CLOTEN, son to the Queen by a former husband Frank Rodriguez*
INNOGEN, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen Annemarie Rajala*
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS, a gentleman, husband to Innogen Frank Rodriguez*
PISANIO, servant to Posthumus Robert Strain
CORNELIUS, a physician Larry Robinson
GENTLEMEN of the Court Ryan Capiro+, Matthew Leddy+, Ricky Waugh+
DOROTHY, a lady attending on Innogen Ashley Fernandez+

The Romans
PHILARIO, Italian, friend to Posthumus Stephen Neal*
IACHIMO, Italian, friend to Philario Chris Vicchiollo*
A FRENCH GENTLEMAN, friend to Philario Ryan Capiro+
CAIUS LUCIUS, General of the Roman Forces Ricky Waugh+
ROMAN CAPTAIN Ryan Capiro+
ROMAN SENATOR Larry Robinson

In Wales
BELARIUS, a banished lord, disguised under the name of Morgan -- Stephen Neal*
GUIDERIUS, son to Cymbeline, known as POLYDORE, supposed son to Belarius -- Meshaun Lebrone Arnold
ARVIRAGUS, son to Cymbeline, known as CADWAL, supposed son to Belarius -- David Perez Ribada
A JAILER -- Larry Robinson
FIRST BRITISH CAPTAIN -- Matthew Leddy+
SECOND BRITISH CAPTAIN -- Ryan Capiro+

* member of Actors' Equity Association
+ member of the New Theatre Apprentice Program

Set Designer: Sean McClelland
Costume Designer: K. Blair Brown
Sound Designer: M. Anthony Reimer
Lighting Designer: Patrick Tennent
Fight Choreographer: John Manzelli*
Movement: Ricky J. Martinez*
Voice: Jennifer Smith-De Castroverde
Set Construction: TLC Events Group
Photography: Eileen Suarez* (marketing & publicity), Dr. Norman Gorback (Lobby display)
Stage Manager: Betsy Paull-Rick*
Assistant Stage Manager: Michael Heitzler

* members of Actors' Equity Association

Meet me in Miami, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.