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A pioneering film showing life and times of two villages in the Clwydian Range during the 1940s and 50s has had the final edited and narrated version screened publicly for the first time.
The film has been produced using cine footage captured by W.H Crawford and contains a substantial amount of material unusually shot in colour of communitty activities in Llanarmon yn Iāl, Llanferres, Maeshafn and Tafarn y Gelyn.
Over the past four years, staff from Denbighshire Countryside Service and the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have worked with Mr Crawford's family to safeguard these films and ensure they are available for future generations. Pupils from Ysgol Bro Famau at Llanarmon and Llanferres have also worked with community film makers Lal and Huw Davies and Lorna Jenner to bring the historic footage to life in a modern day chronicle.
An edited version of some of the original film footage was shown to local groups in 2006 and 2007 and generated considerable interest. Up to 200 people also packed Llanferres Community Centre recently to see the fully narrated final version of the film.
Children from the school recorded interviews with older members of the community who themselves featured in the original films as children. The pupils then used clips of the original footage to illustrate their interviews and this has resulted in a 47 minute film narrated by local resident Anne Woodward.
Headteacher of Ysgol Bro Famau, Sian Hilton, said: "The film forms the basis of a range of educational materials the school is helping to produce, based around the Crawford cine-films and linking to the National Curriculum. Our children have benefitted tremendously from this inter-generational skills exchange and have become budding creative film-makers, developing their interviewing, film-making and research techniques."
David Shiel of the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, said: "We were delighted with the response to the public showing of the film. It has been fascinating to see local youngsters working with a team of professional film makers and local residents to produce a valuable piece of history with a strong education theme. None of this could have been possible without the expertise of W H Crawford and his family's support to bring this fascinating footage to life for local communities to share and enjoy.
“Over the coming months, we hope that more people in the community will get the chance to see the film and step back in time for an exciting chapter in their community’s history.”