Gritty Realism Productions won the New Business of the Year awarded by Caerphilly Business Forum to a business less than three years old with high growth potential. The award was made at an awards ceremony at Llancaiach Fawr Manor with eight categories and a Premier Award. Gritty Realism was nominated alongside two other local businesses.
Two animated films made with young people in Riverside, Cardiff are to receive their premiere in Chapter Arts Centre in December. Riverside Tales involved working in the South Riverside area of Cardiff and was funded by the Arts Council of Wales. Keep The Home Fires Burning follows the history of Riverside through the eyes of a famous resident the composer and actor Ivor Novello and Riverside Rollercoaster takes an imaginary animated funfair ride through the Riverside of the future. Both films developed out of discussions with young poeple in the area.
Bob Apple the film Gritty made with a group of young people with learning difficulties from Cardiff People First has been nominated for the final Film Nation Awards. It’s one of only 8 films shortlisted as best film of the month with the winning film to be shown at the 2012 Olympics in July. The awards ceremony will be held at the BFI Southbank in London on the 4th July with a number of the young people attending.
Gypsies in Auschwitz the film Gritty made with young Travellers in West Wales has been selected to participate in this year’s Videotheque at the Sheffield Documentary Festival in June 2012.
Sheffield Doc Festival invites up to 70 specially selected films to participate in the Videotheque from this year’s submissions. These films are invited with market, broadcast and festival acquisitions in mind.
The film follows the journey of a group of young Traveller girls on an emotional visit to Auschwitz and is part of a unique educational project that combines documentary footage and animation created by the young Travellers from The Priory Project, Monkton in Pembrokeshire. The film was funded by the Film Agency for Wales.
Watch the film on Vimeo here
Gritty Films had an emotional premiere of its new film made with a group of young Travellers from the Priory Project, Monkton at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven. This was the outcome of a unique film education project funded by the Film Agency for Wales exploring the the history of the Gypsy community during the Holocaust.
The film documents their harrowing journey to Auschwitz to find out more about the story of what happened to Europes Gypsies during the Second World War. Gerald Conn and artist/filmmaker Chris Elliott also worked with the young people to create animation sequences that form part of the finished film.
Take a look at the BBC Wales website where they featured the story with an extract of the film here.
