‘Judges were impressed by the ob-doc’s rare access to a community we don’t normally see on our screens’
Darlun for S4C
Welsh indie Darlun’s ob-doc Dim Ysgol: Maesincla provides a fascinating insight into life in a small community, told through the eyes of primary schoolchildren. It was praised by the judges for being “unvarnished and unfiltered”.
The Welsh-language programme follows pupils from Maesincla primary school in Caernarfon as the beginning of lockdown creates huge issues for staff, who must try to keep the children in a positive frame of mind and ensure basic needs such as meals and emotional needs are met. For some pupils, such as Alfie, who was recovering from cancer at the time, it was a particularly difficult period.
The judges were impressed by the documentary’s rare access to a community “we don’t normally see on our screens”, as Darlun found new ways to access the lives of the teachers and children.
Some pupils were given a mobile phone to keep a video diary and would talk candidly about how they were coping in their own words. Darlun also filmed through windows at teachers homes as they caught up with pupils.
Most impressive, according to our judges, was the impact and scale of Dim Ysgol: Maesincla, which was produced on a small budget, making the series “all the more appealing”.
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