Film star Rhys Ifans will join members of a youth-led film project in North Wales when they showcase “priceless” footage of Welsh music icons at a top festival.
The young creatives from Blaenau Ffestiniog have been chosen to show the rare archive material from Wales’ Cool Cymru era at the British Film Institute’s Rip It Up festival at the Southbank Centre in London on May 3.
The group, part of the CellB youth programme, will screen rediscovered film of some of Wales’ most influential 1990s bands, including Catatonia, Ffa Coffi Pawb and the Super Furry Animals.
Hollywood actor Rhys Ifans, who hails from Ruthin and is a long-term supporter of CellB, makes a brief cameo appearance in one of the films which features a photograph of him taken in the early 1990s.
He was briefly a member of the embryonic Super Furry Animals band before he found fame with his breakthrough role in the cult classic Twin Town which helped spark the Cool Cymru cultural revolution.
The film project, called Video Hud: Have You Seen Your Culture Baby, Standing in the Shadows?, forms part of CellB’s 10th anniversary celebrations, marking a decade since the community cinema was founded in a former police station in the heart of the town.
What began as a youth-led initiative has since grown into a major cultural hub, championing independent Welsh and international films while keeping young people firmly at its core.
The building retains many of its original features, with the auditorium located in the old court room with a cafe in another large room once used by police officers. he cinema is located in the old cells and is equipped with a state of the art projection system.
Other initiatives include creating a hostel in the superintendent’s former home and opening a music rehearsal room in the garage which once housed police vehicles, along with the Pizza ‘Stiniog venture housed in a converted shipping container kitted out with three pizza ovens.
The organisation’s anniversary programme features weekly independent films, workshops, question and answer sessions with filmmakers and family activities. The film project, led by Gwenno Llwyd Till, Cian ‘Clinc’ Roberts, Yannick Hammer and Rhys Roberts, explores Welsh youth culture through film, music and life experience.
Gwenno, a freelance film director, said the 18 short films about late 20th Century Welsh language rock music features footage compiled from a wide range of formats shot by pioneering record producer Emyr Glyn Williams including Super 8, 16mm, 35mm, VHS-C and Digi beta.
Better known as Emyr Ankst to his many friends, he died in January 2024 from cancer aged 57 years.
CellB founder Rhys said the invitation to participate in the BFI festival was a major milestone for the young creatives but also for CellB.
“This is about young people from Blaenau taking their culture to a national stage, on their own terms. What started it here in the Welsh mountains is now part of a UK-wide project.
“The programme captures a moment when Welsh youth culture reshaped music, film and identity — a period now widely recognised as Cool Cymru.
“It brings together archive footage and live discussion, with Rhys Ifans — a defining figure of that era — joining the panel to reflect on the cultural moment that shaped a generation.”
According to Gwenno, the videos depicted a time before Welsh music was considered ‘cool’ capturing raw, self-made culture from that period.
“Emyr called the film Saunders Lewis v Andy Warhol and it’s been shown at several venues across Gwynedd in recent months including CellB, Galeri Caernarfon and Storiel in Bangor,” she said.
After being founded in Aberystwyth, the Ankst label released a handful of low key cassette albums before relocating to Cardiff and becoming a more serious concern.
Until the company split into two separate parts in 1997, the label released around 80 albums.
Ankst Management was run by Alun Llwyd and Gruffudd Jones and was responsible for managing several top acts while Ankstmusik was run from Emyr’s Anglesey home.
In his role as cinema co-ordinator at Pontio in Bangor Emyr was responsible for bringing international and cultural depth to the city and was a leading light in the Wales One World Film Festival (WOW).
A shorter version of the film will be shown in London along with a 20-minute video shot by the CellB group.
“Yannick and I worked with CellB to create some videos about some of the new bands in Wales. It’s called Glasbren and features lots of young people, some as young as 12 who are playing music in bands. Some of them are so new they don’t even have names yet. The music is fresh and inventive.”
As part of the anniversary celebrations, CellB is also planning to recreate a 1990s art installation, creating a “time capsule” from before the Cool Cymru period.
“It would be like a living museum where you can go and sit down and listen to music from different eras and we would be very grateful if anyone can offer material to help create the room,” said Rhys, the bass guitarist from the iconic Welsh rock-band Anweledig.
“As part of the celebrations, CellB will host a special premiere of Effi o Blaenau and an informal Q&A session in June. Based on Gary Owen’s much lauded and widely performed monodrama, Iphigenia in Splott, the movie is director Marc Evans’ cinematic interpretation set against the wide open landscapes of North Wales.
CellB Cinema is supported by Film Hub Wales as part of the BFI Film Audience Network, made possible through National Lottery funding. Additional support is provided by Ffilm Cymru Wales.
