Audiovisual Representations of National Identity for Small Nations: Web 2.0, BBC Wales, S4C, ITV Wales, Welsh TV and Film, Modern Writers from Wales, Welsh-North American, Cymreig Culture, Scottish Films, British Films, Sinema Cymru, Celtic music and movies, UK Filmmakers, Irish TV and Film, Cymru. Celtic Folk Music, Welsh Hymnology and Poetry. Le Cinéma Québécois, le cinéma Bretagne et des autres pays Celtiques. Tutte le cose celtiche, britanniche, gaeliche, scozzese e gallese.
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.
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.
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
[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
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.
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]
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.
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.
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/
[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;
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).
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.
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."
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.
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.
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
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.
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"
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!
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)'.
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).
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:
"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."
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.
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.
Celtic Cult Cinema Blog expands to new Welsh Film Symposium site:
Mark Woods says:
"Croeso i drafodaeth 'da fi ar y we, gyda newyddion cerddoriaeth, ffilmiau, barddoniaeth, ffuglen, dramau, a storiau byr y Gymru."
"Welcome to my online symposium, your one source for news and reviews about new and old, Welsh Music, Film, Poetry, Fiction, Dramas, and Short Stories."
In June 2007 I completed my Ph.D. in Film Studies at the University of Glamorgan in Wales, and for the past five years I have watched and reviewed over 100 Welsh films and television products, as part of my research.
While there is extensive research in the field of Welsh national cinema by Berry, Blandford, Ffrancon and others, there is also a paucity of qualified scholarship in important areas of this field.
Welsh national cinema is a national cinema, which has struggled to survive, has struggled to overcome systemic and historic obstacles to scholarship, as well as funding, production, exhibition and distribution of its products, related organizations, agents and services.
Consequently, the National cinema of Wales will only benefit from further scholarship, and the implied enhancement of exposure to new and different audiences, from both and industrial and cultural perspective.
Each month I hope to share my findings and reviews with you, and I hope you'll tell me about your favorite films, as well!
Gyda bob hwyl i bawb,
Mark
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 Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, 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's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.
Come and join us at the Small Nations Festival - a celebration of the music of Wales and other small nations. Here you will find the best of Welsh and International music in all its wonderful variety, all packed into one week-end in the most idyllic setting. This is, and will remain, a small festival with a total capacity of 1500.
Glangwenlais Farm half mile from Cilycwm in the upper Towy Valley, Cilycwm, Wales Cost : Early Bird week-end ticket £40
A celebration of the music of Wales and other small nations. Early Bird week-end ticket £40 Youth week-end ticket £35 Week-end ticket £50 Friday 16 Saturday all day £28 Saturday evening £16 Sunday £16 Cars £5 Campers £10 Caravans £15 Information Line: 01558 650127
Featured guests include the Bard of Ely 14 Jul 2007, 23:00
Also enjoy: Boys from the Hill -- Swanea favourites 'The Boys' are one of the most innovative bands to emerge from an increasingly confident Welsh traditional music scene. They have developed their own innovative brand of Welsh Urban Folk, combining many influences, musical, social and political to create new acoustic music relevant to their time and place.
Dom Duff (Brittany) -- Pagan Pop/Folk Guitarist, singer, songwriter from Brittany, "when Dom sings his native langage, it sounds like an international one". Rock'nFolk Magazine.
Dom was raised in a farming district by the sea and says, "those little farms by the sea were my entire life, the language and local songs were in my ears everyday". He has plays in Breton bands for 15 years, being the driving force behind the famous fest-noz band 'Diwall', which toured Europe and far beyond. Dom is no stranger to Welsh audiences, and has even learnt some Welsh!
Eleanor McEvoy (Ireland) -- A return visit for one of the best singer songwriters ever! Eleanor McEvoy achieved star status in Ireland in 1992 when her song "Only A Woman's Heart" inspired the title for and appeared on, the "A Woman's Heart" anthology album. It has since become the best selling album in Irish history, even eclipsing records by such legendary Irish artists as Van Morrison and U2. "A Woman's Heart" stayed in the Top 10 for over a year.
Fraser Fifield (Scotland) The steadily growing overlap between the Scottish folk and jazz scenes has been a rich source of invention in recent years, but even in this context, multi-instrumentalist Fraser Fifield has emerged as one of today's outstanding talents. His mastery of the soprano saxophone, compositional gifts and fluency in both traditional and jazz idioms have prompted comparisons with Norwegian legend Jan Garbarek. Fifield, though, is also a brilliant exponent of the low whistle and the Scottish smallpipes, and will be playing here with his regular band.
Oherwydd bod yr iaith Gymraeg a’r diwylliant Gymraeg yn gymuned y credwn ni y dylai cael ei chydnabod a’i dyrchafu drwy gael ei Parth Lefel Uchaf noddedig (sponsored Top Level Domain - PLU) ar y Rhyngrwyd. Gyda PLU noddedig .cym byddai’r cyrff, cwmnïau a’r bobl hynny sydd am fynegi eu hunain yn yr iaith Gymraeg neu/ac am hyrwyddo diwylliant Gymraeg yn gallu cofrestri a chael eu hadnabod yn glir.
Because the Welsh language and culture is a community that we believe should be identified and enhanced by having its own sponsored TLD on the Internet. Under a .CYM sponsored TLD those organisations, companies and people that express themselves in the Welsh language and/or wish to encourage Welsh culture will be able to be registered and will be clearly identifiable.
