Date:

From Wednesday 9th May for two weeks

Online – Hannah Ellis’s blog @ www.discoverdylanthomas.com

Hannah will be sharing a series of interesting films, videos and recordings ‘inspired by Dylan Thomas’ to celebrate International Dylan Thomas Day on May 14th.

The Colour of Saying

by Anthony Shapland and Richard James

During 2013 Musician and song-writer Richard James (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and artist and filmmaker Anthony Shapland met for the first time to take part in a project, initiated by James that was truly experimental. It was an open ended process with only a few perameters – it would build during a series of visits to the sites where Dylan Thomas spent his formative years – Llansteffan, Laugharne, Swansea and the Gower and New Quay.

During these pilgrimages the duo walked and camped and talked – one with a microphone, the other with a camera and tripod – responding to the way in which Thomas worked. The project was never going to be a biographic or literary narrative film, it found its path as the two artists read more and more about the man at the centre of the film. Experts were consulted, book after book was read, surviving family and friends gave their insights and pub experts freely shared their views as the places that shaped the words that formed the poems began to filter into the project. The two way dialogue between Shapland and James found a third voice chipping in, Thomas, through his letters, poems, stories and myths was inescapable.

The result is a short original film and music score exploring the vocal, lyrical, rhythmic and literary strands of Dylan Thomas’ west Wales world. It documents the locations on film and in original site recordings as well as an original music score inspired by Thomas, his work and the urban, rural and cultural landscapes that inspired him. The title comes from Dylan Thomas, chosen as a perfect marriage of the sonic, saying with the visual, colour which perfectly fits the project.

2013, Title: The Colour Of Saying Duration: 24’00” Single Channel, Colour. Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Sound: Dolby Stereo