Pretty Shitty City

Swansea’s annual underground & politically charged film festival is just around the corner.

With a program of events including short movies, radical documentaries, music videos and animation, the festival hosted by Undercurrents reveals truly underground and challenging films that shouldn’t be missed.

“Friday 30th November @ Monkey Cafe
Undercurrents Beyond TV Festival kicks off in style with a party at Monkey to celebrate the launch of their new surf flick On the Push.
Featuring music from;
The Savage Jazz http://www.thesavagejazz.com/
and Kali Mist http://profile.myspace.com/kalimist05

Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd December
Follow it up with radical, thought-provoking, funny, shocking indy films at the Taliesin.

Check out the Website for a full program of events: http://www.beyondtvfestival.info/.

Thanks to Dan Penman for supplying the next banner for Pretty Shitty City. The photo is of Swansea’s infamous bridge that now sits redundantly on the cycle path along Mumbles Road.

Skating (or cycling) through the bridge reminds me of a level in ‘Mario Kart Double Dash!!‘ …pity you can’t race up the sides and lob bananas at people. :(

Dan is an amateur photographer, currently experimenting with Lomography and studying Art & Design in Swansea, you can see some more of his photos on his flickr page Polygon Window; or get in touch directly polygon-window@hotmail.com.

I spotted a raft of minions setting up the Earth From The Air installation outside the National Waterfront Museum yesterday, which reminded me that the exhibition will be opening this Saturday.

Earth From The Air is a travelling exhibition featuring the work of the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It’s a collection of large-scale aerial photographs taken all over the world that tell a dramatic visual tale of our changing planet.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s mission was to create a photographic record of the natural world at the start of a new millennium. The collection of 160 images takes viewers off the ground and into the air to witness a bird’s-eye view of the extraordinary patterns and colours created in landscapes all over the world. Some are the result of human activity – farming, industry or habitation. Others are entirely sculpted by nature itself. None of these images could be seen or even imagined if you were standing on the ground.

There’s a gallery of the images here. To see the real thing, get over to the National Waterfront Museum any time of the day or night between 26 May and 29 July.