People from around the world packed into Swansea's Environmental Centre this evening for the BEYOND TV festival, an annual event dedicated to alternative film makers. Hosted by Undercurrents ("the news you don't see on the news"); the films "sandblasted away the cynical crust formed by the mainstream media", according to one viewer. On offer instead were a range of films calculated to expose the parts of society other films aren't reaching. One, made by Swansea resident Sam Mace, covered the closing down of a small, cheap, friendly local swimming pool - the council sold the land to a property developer and are opening an olympic sized specimen in a distant area of town instead. Other films ranged from Croatia's first gay pride march, to the astonishing events at Woomera earlier this year, when Australian protestors found themselves storming the refugee detention centre there. Nineteen detainees escaped - many had been held in the arid desert limbo for years. "It was eye opening" said Dee Murphy, whose first film, about the impact of the proposed Iraq war on her daughter, was also shown at the festival.

Swansea council had initially objected to the word "subversive" on the festival advertising, on the grounds that it meant "overthrowing the state". In the end, the event got coverage from the BBC, Swansea Sound, and local papers.

A selection of the films shown this evening will be available soon. In the meantime, undercurrents are producing a series of audio/video cd's called Ruffcuts, which also contain a selection of radically challenging films, and are free to copy and distribute

www.undercurrents.org

www.beyondtv.org