Aberfan: The Green Hollow
- Submitting institution
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Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 35999
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- creative writing collection
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- December
- Year
- 2016
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- My research process consisted of seven months of interviews with individuals and groups effected by the Aberfan disaster along with online and archival research. Several of these interviews were with people who hadn’t previously shared their memories. Over five months I wrote the script for an original hybrid form 60 minute film-poem based on these interviews, the first time Aberfan events have been dramatically represented on TV. I also worked with designers at Faber & Faber to create a 102 page book, including use of graded text to indicate a voice moving between older and younger versions of a character.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- My creative intentions for The Green Hollow, a 60 minute BBC film to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, was to create a voice-led work for TV that would act as a lyrical tribute built upon first-person accounts and a counterpoint to the anonymising influence of the disaster; a piece that looked further back than 1966 to portray not just what happened but also what was lost in terms of village’s character and life. Within the frame of the disaster I also wanted to portray the village today and for the work to travel along a progression of ownership - from acted composite characters towards an increasing number of real villagers voicing their experiences. My research began with archival research of news footage, arts programmes and documentaries about Aberfan together with a complete reading of the Aberfan papers in Merthyr library and other published histories of the village. The vast majority of my research comprised of seven months of first person interviews with survivors, rescuers and villagers in Aberfan and across Wales, approximately 35 in total. Drawing upon these interviews and my archival research I wrote a film-poem in three acts with individual rhythmic monologues underpinned by rhyme building to a choral work representing the voice of the village across time. These voices are often temporally fluid, moving between younger and older versions of themselves to illustrate how the traumatic memories of the past exists within the lives of individuals and the community with the immediacy of present experience. I wrote a 5,000 word article about my creative process for The Observer and the film was broadcast on BBC One Wales and BBC Four in October 2016. In 2019 Faber & Faber published a 102 page book of the complete work.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/09/aberfan-50-years-owen-sheers-the-green-hollow-film-poem
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
