How Welsh Are You?

Aim

We are aiming to send our documentary "How Welsh Are You?" to film festivals, but we need help to raise funds for entry fees!

Hello! I'm Minke Clarke-Phillips, the creator and director of short documentary 'How Welsh Are You?', which delves into themes of identity, family and community within my hometown of Oswestry. With my father and brother as the main cast, we look into the history and heritage of the English/Welsh border town and why people might identify differently to each other although we're from the same town (and in this case, from the same family), and how much influence Wales might have over on the English side of the border.

Me and my crew are University of Gloucestershire film students, and this film was made during the end of last year for our documentary module. After submission and grading, we re-edited the film this summer to try our luck with film festivals! We'd love to submit to a few, especially those that are in Wales and documentary-specific too because we believe that this film has potential and it would be fantastic if this film that covers a topic I care so much about could be shared with audiences across the UK.

Being students, we aren't able to self-fund a lot of our projects and our university can only support us up until the film's completion, we are on our own to navigate the festival circuit. Most films need to get submitted to a large amount of festivals to give it the best chance of being selected. Each of these festivals can carry a submission fee of upwards of £50. So needless to say, submitting to film festivals can be a pricey endeavor, that we aren't able to cover on our own. Any support to help us get our film out there would be greatly appreciated!

Get to know the crew involved!

Hollie Fuszard, Producer: As someone who has Welsh relatives, I was drawn to this documentary instantly, along with the fact I am a massive history nerd! I loved exploring the town of Oswestry and its lovely community, and it was great to visit the museum and local shops to experience the culture of a border town. I'm so incredibly proud of our crew for making such a fantastic documentary and I hope everyone who watches it will enjoy it as much as we did making it!

Harrison Gibson, DOP: Working on ‘How Welsh Are You?’ was such an amazing and rewarding experience. The crew was great to work with, and I feel that I really developed a lot as a cinematographer. It was so fascinating to learn about the history of the Welsh border and the impact it still has on the culture of those who live along it and their perspectives on identity and language. I found it especially interesting as I’m from the North of Ireland, where borders are a long standing and contentious issue. It was great to learn about mirroring experiences of a neighbouring country and create a light-hearted, open discussion about it in the form of a documentary.

I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved on this project and I’m very excited to see how far it will go in festivals and exhibition!

Tyler Griffin, Editor: I took interest in “How Welsh Are You?’ due to its strong connections to family heritage and personal identity in relation to nationality. With the current climate surrounding the topic of nationalism, I felt that it was important to show and express people’s perspectives on their national and cultural identities, and by telling a story within the context of familial indifference it would allow us to bring the themes of identity and belief into a more relatable context. It was a fun project to film as we followed Neil and Rui on a trail of affirmation and discovery surrounding their views on their heritage throughout their lives; it also gave us the opportunity to discover the life and history within Oswestry and raise awareness and hopefully raise interest in others’ national identities through this documentary. 

Katie Parfitt, Sound designer: I was very lucky to be able to 'How Welsh Are You?' as sound designer last year. Coming from Wales myself, I was immediately drawn to the project because of its links to the culture that I had been immersed in since childhood. As someone from Newport, a city close to the border of England, I have experienced the same feelings that are discussed in the documentary, but on the other side of the spectrum. Because of this, I formed a really close connection with the subject matter and knew I needed to make it sound its absolute best. 

I had an amazing time working on this film with such an amazingly talented group of people, and I hope you'll have as much fun watching this film as we had making it!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st December 2026 at 12:33am