Film / Best of Bristol 2017
Best of Bristol 2017: Film events
1. FilmBath, Bath
November 2-12
It wasn’t planned this way, of course, but the newly rebranded Bath Film Festival arrived slap bang in the middle of the furore over sexual exploitation in Hollywood, announcing a world first: 51 per cent of films selected for inclusion were directed by women. The audience response? A record 85 per cent of its screenings were sell-outs.
2. Slapstick, various Bristol venues
January 18-22
Easily overlooked in end-of-year round-ups, Bristol’s Slapstick Festival of silent and visual comedy can always be relied upon to brighten our January. And what’s not to love about a fest that greeted the election of President Trump with a screening of Chaplin’s The Great Dictator?
3. Bristol Bad Film Club presents Night of the Lepus, Windmill Hill City Farm
August 31
Everything they show sells out. And the more awful it is, the more swiftly those tickets fly out the door. This year, the BBFC brought The Room director Tommy Wiseau to town twice. But we were most amused by their screening of giant killer-rabbit horror Night of the Lepus at Windmill Hill City Farm.
4. Bristol Film Festival, various locations
All year
is needed now More than ever
These days, there are countless companies cashing in by throwing up outdoor screens and showing the same old movies. Bristol Film Festival has carved a niche for itself by displaying a little more imagination with ‘on location’ screenings in unusual venues such as car showrooms and the SS Great Britain, movies’n’booze sessions in Averys wine cellar, and the ever popular Horror in the Caves series (pictured).
5. Cinema Rediscovered, Watershed
July 27-30
Barely a week goes by without an old classic getting dusted down for a 4K makeover, such is the newfound hunger to savour these films up on the big screen where they belong. Bristol’s Cinema Rediscovered fest was well ahead of the curve. Its second annual bash brought the premiere of local director Mark Kidel’s Becoming Cary Grant (pictured), plus the restored Howards End and Blood Simple, and a timely Manipulating the Message season of films about journalism.
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