Celtic visions in a digital age

Have we Homer's vision to see the universal in the local, and the strength of imagination to bring it to the wider world? So Pat Loughrey, Director of Nations and Regions at the BBC, challenged the Celtic nations on the second day of the 22nd Celtic Film and Television Festival, held this year at the Alverton Manor Hotel in Truro, Cornwall.

Regionalisation and digitalisation were the main issues under discussion. In a festival dominated by the mainland Celtic nations, broadcasting issues dealt largely with the BBC and ITV and their regional shares. In the first keynote session, Janet Anderson, the British Government Minister for Tourism, Broadcasting and Film outlined the Government's Communications White Paper.

The major components are that all public service broadcasters will be required to agree on future targets for regional production and programming with the proposed new regulatory body OFCOM. "It is important for regional and national - including Celtic-creative - talent to be recognised in the widest sense and at the highest levels," she said.

Loughrey was also looking to the future and, in particular, to how the digital revolution is likely to change the way television works. He emphasised the importance of local identity in the face of globalisation: as the global village continues to shrink, people's sense of belonging seems to matter more, not less.

A Gaelic media digital channel for Scotland was under discussion, though there was a fear, often expressed throughout the festival, that digital channels could marginalise the Celtic nations, being merely low-budget badlands. He claimed that, threatened with the inevitable proliferation of digital channels, Celtic nations have two choices - either cower in the face of allpervasive mid-Atlanticism, or reclaim the media in our own mode and, in this case, our own tongue.

In this European Year of Language, it comes as no surprise that one subject under constant debate was that of minority languages. Devolution, in varying degrees in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, has increased confidence in national identity, and it was hoped that this confidence would be reflected in the respective languages. But there was bad news from Brittany, where the Breton language is still not officially recognised; and from Scotland, where it is feared that the upcoming census will show the number of fluent Gaelic speakers falling below 50,000.

There was good news from Wales, however, where Radio Cymru is going into local communities to spark the interest of young people. As Aled Glynne of BBC Cymru emphasised, minority-language channels operate in a marketplace and have to attract a wide range of people.

In Ireland, Scotland and Wales there has been a huge increase in the number of people who wish to learn their native language. It was agreed that this enthusiasm should be built upon - but the question seems to be, how? Radio is a lifeline for minority language communities, but Torcuil Crichton, education editor of Glasgow's Sunday Herald, says that more creativity is needed in order to exploit this interest. Reacting to the news of a future Gaelic digital channel for Scotland and fears of a possible ghettoisation of the language, Crichton points out: "Every broadcaster may end up serving a minority because of channels exploding in number."

New media and the Internet may provide one answer. The Breton contingent won an award for their multimedia project E Brezhoneg Pa Gari! (Whenever you like!) - a Breton learning tool on DVD and CD-ROM.

Three films were showcased at the festival. First up was Gerald Stembridge's About Adam: fresh, charming, and utterly amoral. Starring Kate Hudson and Frances O'Connor, this romantic comedy is almost as beguiling as Adam himself, played by Stuart Townsend.

`An Evening with Jimmy McGovern' preceded the second film. Poignant, sad, informative, but above all, entertaining, screenwriter McGovern covered the whole gamut of emotions, captivating his audience.

He explained who the inspiration for his hit series Cracker was: "It may be a grandiose claim, but Fitz was me. I imagined me to be a criminal profiler. There are psychologists coming out of the woodwork now, saying of course it was based on me - but I never met a psychologist until near the end of the third series."

This could have been a tough act to follow, but Welsh director Sara Sugarman's film Very Annie Mary coped admirably. This quirky film is attention-grabbing from the start, with Pavarotti's voice booming out from the loudspeakers of a baker's van into the valleys of Wales. Jonathan Pryce and Rachel Griffiths, both on excellent form, star in this strange tale of a downtrodden daughter, who gives up a future singing career to look after her oppressive father when her mother dies. Filled with a surreal mix of characters and one-liners - "Oooh, springy. Feel the dimensions of its sizableness" - this film is a delightful mix of high comedy and extremes of emotion.

The final gala screening of One of the Hollywood 10, directed by the Welsh film-maker Karl Francis, rounded off the programme. Set in the McCarthy era, this film combines social reality and political consciousness. Starring Jeff Goldblum and Greta Scacchi as Herbert Biberman and Gale Sondergaard, it explores the battle this couple fought in order to make the independently-produced Salt of the Earth after being blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment.

Speaking at an event the morning after, Francis admitted that it was a hard film to make. It was filmed with an international crew in Los Angeles and Spain in only seven weeks. A film-maker who believes in the political and historical importance of films, Francis thinks this is an important story to tell. "There's no American films about McCarthyism which admit that the people they were dealing with were Communists. America tells so many lies about its own history."

If anyone has the vision to see the universal in the local, it is Celtic film-makers like the inspirational Francis. It remains to be seen whether younger TV and film producers will follow his vision into a digital age and write their own Iliads.