Taff Tales is a fun app using humorous animations created by children now available on the App Store. Watch the entertaining short animations made by young people to tell the story of the development of the communities along the River Taff in an innovative way using the fluid medium of sand and silhouettes combined with timelapse video.

The app was developed working with young people in communities in Merthyr, Senghenydd and Riverside, Cardiff that are interwoven into an interactive app following the ongoing story of the river from the development of the industry in Merthyr based on the childhood reminiscences of residents who grew up along the river.

Artwork from Heart of Darkness and the pilot for the film are showing at an exhibition of new approaches to drawing ‘An Expanded View of Drawing’ at the Riverfront Arts Centre, Newport.

Gritty films have featured in a number of different programmes at the Intergalactique Film Festival in Brest, France this month which focussed on films from Wales this year. Two screenings of community based films were shown to audiences of children and a screening of short films by Gerald Conn were shown as part of the festival programme. Additionally Gerald ran a sand animation workshop based on ‘Symbols of Wales’.

Gerald Conn has worked as artist in residence with Engage Cymru and Pen-y-Dre School to digitally bring to life paintings from the collection of Cyfarthfa Museum in Merthyr. The project called ‘Letting in the Light’ involved pupils from the school who chose paintings donated by the Contemporary Art Society for Wales and created animation sequences for their 80th anniversary of the society.

The premiere of Gritty’s second film based on Die Fledermaus made for Welsh National Opera was launched at the Millennium Centre, Cardiff. A WNO singer performed extracts from the opera and pupils from the schools involved attended and the film was screened accompanied by a live oboe performance.