This post is promoting an event by our lovely friends at Watershed.
Taking inspiration from the pioneering Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy, Cinema Rediscovered brings great films back on big screens in Bristol at Watershed and Curzon Cinema & Arts (Clevedon), one of the oldest continuously-running cinemas in the UK. Whether you’re a seasoned cinephile or new to cinema, there’s something you can watch or get involved in. If you want to immerse yourself in a unique history of world cinema then you can watch the complete fifteen-hours of Mark Cousins’ seminal The Story of Film screening FREE of charge over multiple days (Fri 29 – Sun 31 July).
As part of Women in Archive (Sat 30 July 11am), we welcome special guest Miranda Pennell (The Host, 2016 based on the archives of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company BP) as well as representatives from the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) and South West Film & Television Archive (SWFTA.) Bristol Record Office Archivist Nicky Sugar will introduce a selection of Home Movies (Sun 31 July 11:10am) from Africa, India and the Middle East from the largest archive collections of amateur film shot in the British Empire and Commonwealth, held here in Bristol. Programmer and film critic Tara Judah presents an illustrated journey through tantalising textures on film in Experiments in Aesthetics. We also show Pietra Brettkelly’s recent award-winning documentary A Flickering Truth (Sat 30 July 11am), which follows a group of dedicated Afghan cinephiles’ journey rebuilding Afghanistan’s film history and culture, after years trying to protect it from the Taliban.
London’s Autograph ABP present a series of one off Black Atlantic Cinema Club events curated and introduced by writer/curator Karen Alexander. There’s Christopher Harris’ dreamlike cine-poem on his hometown, St. Louis, still/here (Fri 29 July 11am), the rarely seen 60s classic Dutchman (Fri 29 July 5.50pm) based on LeRoi Jones’s award-winning 1964 play and a very rare showing of cult film Ganja & Hess (Fri 29 July 9pm) presented in a 35mm print preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with support from the Film Foundation. Not forgetting a Check the Gate late night 35mm screening of Roeg’s debut as a director, Performance selected by Richard Ayoade with pre screening set by Bristol’s Hellfire Video DJs in the bar from 8pm on Friday.
We are also delighted to present one of the first fictional feature films written and directed by black female American director, the late Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground (Thu 28 July 9pm). Hardly screened at all in cinemas when it was released in the early 80’s, the film, now digitally restored through the efforts of Collins’ daughter Nina, reveals itself as a masterpiece of African American and women’s cinema.
The full programme online at http://www.watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered
womensliteraturefestival 