Film / News
Bristol Radical Film Festival reveals 2021 programme
Back for its ninth annual event, the Bristol Radical Film Festival returns to the Trinity Centre over the weekend of October 23-24 with another impressively diverse programme of screenings and discussions.
There’s a strong focus on contemporary issues. Injustice director Ken Fero will be present to talk about his new documentary Ultraviolence, which adopts a historical perspective to explore black deaths in police custody. Since 1969, more than two thousand black people have died at the hands of the police in the UK. Shootings, chokeholds, batons, gassing, suffocation, restraint and brutal beatings are some of the methods used. There have been few prosecutions.
The Felling of Colston
There’s another free screening of Arthur Cauty’s short, The Felling of Colston, with a panel discussion about what should happen next. The director and Countering Colston campaigner Ros Martin are among those taking part.
is needed now More than ever
The 8th tells the story of a long campaign by Irish women to remove the 8th Amendment – a constitutional ban on abortion. Also from Ireland is The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, which follows a Kildare farmer’s campaign of resistance against the Irish Industrial Development Agency’s attempt to seize his farm for a multinational company.
From across the Pond, Caught is a work of docufiction centred on the lives and daily struggles of two Latina trans sex workers, Rosa and Paloma.
La Commune
This year’s festival closes with a rare opportunity to see the complete version of The War Game director Peter Watkins’ imaginative La Commune. Screened to mark the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, the film boldly reconstructs the events of 1871 as reported by imaginary broadcasters. Versailles Television carries a soothing official view, while Commune TV is set up to provide the perspectives of the Paris rebels. You may want to take a soft cushion for this one as it runs for nearly six hours, with a 30 minute intermission between the two parts.
Admission to individual screenings is £7/£4, but you can get a festival pass for £25 (+£2.75 fee). Go here for details.
Main pic: a still from Ultraviolence. Images supplied by Bristol Radical Film Festival.
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