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Low-cost and portable video technology facilitated the growth of community-based video making in the 1970s. Grassroots video groups set up across the UK, disrupting the narratives of broadcast television and giving voice to those marginalised, misrepresented and ignored by mainstream media. From addressing hyperlocal struggles to national concerns including housing, unemployment, discrimination and industrial disputes - video became a radical tool for activism. Based at Chapter, the Community Video Workshop was one of the first video workshops in the UK. It was set up in 1974 as Cardiff Street TV, by Terence Dimmick, Steve Gough and Jane Hutt, following the loan of a portapack video camera from the Welsh Arts Council. It later secured funding and additional members, enabling it to provide video equipment, training, editing facilities and distribution strategies to community groups, individuals and communities of interest across South Wales. From 1983 it became a franchised workshop, receiving funding from Channel 4 to develop and make independent documentaries for television.
The Community Video Workshop was one of several workshops in Wales during the 1970s and 80s, others included: Chapter Film Workshop, Powys Video Project, Gweld Video, Black Video Workshop Wales, South West Glamorgan Video Workshop and South Wales Women’s Film Group, some members of which went on to form Red Flannel, the first women’s film workshop in Wales.
This exhibition offers a starting point to explore the under-researched area of independent film and video production in Wales and draws primarily on the archives of the Community Video Workshop. It brings together a series of videos and archival materials to reflect on community video making as a dynamic practice of empowering marginalised groups and individuals with a new emerging technology.
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Bu i dechnoleg fideo cost isel a chludadwy hwyluso twf mewn creu fideos cymunedol yn y 1970au. Sefydlwyd grwpiau fideo llawr gwlad ledled gwledydd Prydain, gan darfu ar naratifau’r teledu darlledu a rhoi llais i’r rhai oedd yn cael eu hymyleiddio, eu camgynrychioli a’u hanwybyddu gan y cyfryngau prif ffrwd. O fynd i’r afael ag anawsterau hynod leol i bryderon cenedlaethol fel tai, diweithdra, gwahaniaethu ac anghydfodau diwydiannol, daeth fideo yn arf radical ar gyfer ymgyrchu.
Wedi’i leoli yn Chapter, roedd Community Video Workshop ymhlith y gweithdai fideo cyntaf yng ngwledydd Prydain. Fe’i sefydlwyd yn 1974 fel Cardiff Street TV gan Terence Dimmick, Steve Gough a Jane Hutt, ar ôl benthyg camera fideo Portapack gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru. Yn nes ymlaen, cafodd gyllid ac aelodau ychwanegol, gan ei alluogi i ddarparu offer fideo, hyfforddiant, cyfleusterau golygu a strategaethau dosbarthu i grwpiau cymunedol, unigolion a chymunedau o ddiddordeb ledled y de. O 1983 ymlaen daeth yn weithdy masnachfraint, cyn cael cyllid gan Channel 4 i ddatblygu a chreu ffilmiau dogfen annibynnol ar gyfer y teledu.
Roedd y Community Video Workshop yn un o sawl gweithdy yng Nghymru yn ystod y 1970au a’r 80au, gyda’r lleill yn cynnwys: Chapter Film Workshop, Powys Video Project, Gweld Video, South Glamorgan Video Workshop a South Wales Women’s Film Group, ac aeth rhai o’u haelodau ymlaen i ffurfio Red Flannel, y gweithdy ffilm cyntaf i fenywod yng Nghymru.
Mae’r arddangosfa yma’n cynnig man cychwyn i archwilio’r maes cynhyrchu ffilm a fideo annibynnol yng Nghymru, sydd heb ei ymchwilio ddigon, ac mae’n defnyddio archifau’r Community Video Workshop yn bennaf. Mae’n dod â chyfres o fideos a deunyddiau o’r archif at ei gilydd i fyfyrio ar waith creu fideo cymunedol yng Nghymru fel arfer deinamig o rymuso grwpiau ac unigolion wedi’u hymyleiddio gyda thechnoleg newydd.
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Market Road, Canton, CF5 1QE Cardiff, United Kingdom, 27 Market Road, Cardiff, CF5 1QE, United Kingdom
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