The IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition 2019

Report and Photographs from Alastair Taylor ARPS CPAGB

The IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition has a very committed bunch of followers who attend the annual gathering at Capel Curig hosted so very well by Marion Waine and John Rowell with John Smith and Jill Bunting (together with a growing number of bears) acting as the technical team. The venue is cosy so attendance has to be limited to a small number. The short walk to the Tyn-y-Coed adds to the enjoyment.

The competition attracts around seventy to eighty entries from around the world with this years being seventy four. Starting after lunch on Saturday and running through to late afternoon on Sunday this is one of the few competitions with a Saturday evening session. Even the most die-hard of AV enthusiasts nd this session something of a challenge (and especially so after a pint or two of best bitter to wash down supper at the pub next door. Just remind me not to next time!)

International entries are always interesting to watch, even if the language takes some translating. There was a strong number of Italian entries this time as well as the usual South African, Australian, Polish and French offerings. Both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic were well represented together with entries from all four nations of the UK.

The full list of entries and winners can be found at www.nwawavg.org.uk

I enjoy attending AV Competitions to see what is trending. We have had a few years of World War One themed productions and the Concentration Camps from the World War Two continue to be a subject which authors interpret through their AV productions. In fact the overall winner from Ron Davies called Fragments of Memory and the best rst time entrant Mark Allen with The End Of All Our Exploring both followed this theme.

An emerging subject for AV production appears to be dereliction with a number of productions using disused factories, schools, hospitals and other buildings being used as a backdrop to tell a story. If I am honest, I didn't quite understand the Italian offering which were rather too dark for my liking and in a couple of entries from the United States of America, the wonderful images had perhaps been subjected to a little too much HDR post processing.

The Runner-up was Tragedy Of Doolough by Margaret Finlay from the Irish Republic. This was the author's reection both past and present on the tragedy of the Irish Famine that occurred in the 1840s while taking part in a yearly Famine Walk in 2017. My own AV Beyond the Wall, a reection of the closed Shrewsbury Prison was third placed (making me the winning Englishman given that Ron is from Wales) .

Turn over for images from the winning AV productions.

Below Left: Competition Organisers John Rowell and Marion Waine

Below Middle: An international jury of Bears

Below Right: The Judges; Lillian Webb, Richard Brown and Graham Sergeant

The IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition 2019 continued ...

One of the rewarding aspects of this competition is the opportunity to read a few words from the author by means of an introduction to the AV production. Some people don’t like writing much for fear of giving the game away, but on these pages, I wanted to show something of the thought process that goes into the AV.

Winner: Fragments of Memory by Ron Davies

Near Krakow Stefan Lewandowski is dying. No-one sits at his bedside. Fragments of memory ood his mind.

Third: Beyond the Wall by Alastair Taylor

What is the purpose of imprisonment? Does it work? Is it effective? What is it like to be a prisoner? Was the death penalty ever right?

Best First Time Entrant: The End of All Our Exploring by Mark Allen

Mark writes: “It was a 39th wedding anniversary surprise trip to Poland. My wife was interested in visiting Auschwitz, I really didn’t want to go. But after visiting the Oskar Schindler Museum, I relented. I found the audio tour at Auschwitz Birkenau camps to be too harrowing. As it was our anniversary I was in best behaviour mode and had left my camera behind. I only had my iPhone 6 and I took a few snaps.

Back home; I heard the music of Max Richter called 'The End Of All Our Exploring' and thought it was the saddest, yet most beautiful music I had ever come across. I immediately knew that my iPhone pics would work, in black and white, of course. But the project stalled as the music wasn't long enough and then I heard another piece of music that I knew would t.

To my surprise, it was by the same author and was called 'And Know the Place For The First Time'. The titles of both tracks come from the TS Eliott poem. “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the rst time.”

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea.”

T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

On the Sunday Morning, we woke up to snow-capped mountains. Some local roads were blocked. If ever you are going to be marooned, Capel Curig with a bunch of AV enthusiasts wouldn't be a bad place! Photograph courtesy Howard Bagshaw.