Flashback

'Flashback: I must not speak of this thing as I might' is the creative response of pupils from schools in Abertillery and Cyfarthfa to their engagement with the social, cultural and human costs of war. The nine month Flashback project has offered students aged 9-18 an artistic lens through which to consider how we as humans respond to war. As a result of creative writing and filmmaking workshops, meetings with former soldiers, visits to local and national museums and art galleries, and reading poetry by Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, young people have produced a unique animated film that communicates how war can affect mental health and wellbeing. Launching in July 2014, one hundred years after the outbreak of WWI, Flashback reaches out to an intergenerational audience, linking a cohort of young Welsh people born in peace time with their social heritage and the ongoing consequences of conflict in the wider world. This project was supported by funding from the Arts Council of Wales and First Campus at the University of South Wales.