This is a Valleys Kids Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, BBC Wales and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.

There's another Rhondda Lives! story, in the Welsh language, by Catherine Craven on the Cipolwg ar Gymru website.

When people see places they recognise on a screen, memories flood back, and stories demand to be told. Valleys Kids wondered what would happen if those reactions could be captured and made into new, screenable material. In the vaults of BBC Wales and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales lies footage from the last 80 years or so. A partnership was formed, Valleys Kids secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and researchers dug through the records to find material showing the Rhondda.

Last September, some of the clips were screened at a public event in Penygraig, Rhondda. You could hear the "ooohs" and "aaahs" of delighted recognition as the clips rolled.

The the first ten Rhondda Lives! stories you can see here were made by people at a workshop at Valley Kids' Soar Centre in Penygraig in November 2007. A team from BBC Cymru Wales facilitated the digital story making with its many parts; storytelling, audio recording and assembling the visuals.

As well as being published here, these stories are being shown at public screenings, on a touring video kiosk and face-to-face around the Rhondda. More digital stories are being made by Valleys Kids during 2008. If you are interested, please contact Katrina Kirkwood, the Community Media Co-ordinator at Valleys Kids, 1 Cross Street, Penygraig, CF40 1LD, or 01443 420870 or [email protected]

Rhondda Lives! is a Valleys Kids Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, BBC Wales and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.