American Interior

Having ventured to Patagonia in Separado!, director Dylan Goch and Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys head for the American heartland in their second documentary odyssey. They follow the route taken in the 1790s by John Evans, who went in search of a mythical tribe of Welsh-speaking native Americans believed to be descended from the members of the 1170 New World expedition led by Prince Madoc. While discovering more about his distant ancestor (represented here by a three-foot felt puppet) and his ardours, Rhys also tours a show based on his findings that combines slides, anecdotes and songs. Goch pads proceedings with gushing fan testimonials and flecks the digital monochrome imagery with flashes of colour - but this genially offbeat film doesn't need such self-indulgent flourishes. Evans's exploits are compelling in their own right, while Rhys contrasts the fate of spoken Welsh with such dying First American languages as Mandan, and, more soberingly, learns much about the connection between heroic exploration and colonial subjugation.