ABERYSTWYTH’S creative arts scene is “fantastically strong”, according to a director whose new film features local actors and was shot in Borth.

A Thin Place is a film by Thin Place Productions Ltd, an Aberystwyth film company run by director Charles Symons, and his business partner, editor and former Penglais School pupil, Jamie Walker.

The duo, who also run a digital advertising company, AMP Media, from their Aberystwyth Arts Centre office — housed in one of the space-age looking metal units — are celebrating after a private screening of A Thin Place at Borth’s Libanus 1877 cinema at the weekend.

Speaking to the Cambrian News this week, Charles and Jamie explained that the film will be released later this year after it has done the rounds at up to 30 international film festivals.

Explaining the thrust of the film, Charles said: “The film is about drugs and substance misuse, but it is more about childhood trauma and getting over that.”

Asked whether his own experiences had provided any inspiration for the film, Charles said: “Having worked in creative advertising in London and South Africa, it is an industry which in the past has been soaked in booze – anyone who has watched Mad Men will have a fairly accurate picture – and consequently I have not been unfamiliar with issues surrounding addiction, thankfully many years past.”

And Charles said the name of the film – and thus the production company – came from a chance encounter with a nun on a train.

See this week’s south editions for the full feature, and next week’s paper for coverage of the A Thin Place premiere