Film / News
Brexit, the Russian Revolution and female graffiti artists
Back for a sixth year, the ever-eclectic Bristol Radical Film Festival presents a typically mixed bag of screenings and discussions at Trinity Community Arts over the weekend of Friday 13-Sunday 15 October.
These include several firsts: the local premiere of the first feature documentary about Brexit, the first UK screening of a long-suppressed film about the Russian Revolution, and the first women’s graffiti art documentary.
The festival kicks off on Friday evening with Brexitannia – Timothy George Kelly’s film about what prompted people to vote for Brexit. Was it to make Britain great again? To take back control of our wonky cucumbers? To give the ruling elite a black eye? To hand over an extra £350m a week to the NHS? The views of ordinary punters from across the country are solicited. Unsurprisingly, a rose-tinted nostalgia for a non-existent past emerges. Brexitannia also solicits the views of a bunch of experts, including Noam Chomsky and Saskia Sassen.
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Saturday afternoon brings a double bill of films about the Russian Revolution, including Herman Axelbank’s 1937 documentary Tsar to Stalin, which went unscreened in the US for decades. You can also see the winning entries in BRFF’s annual short film competition, which attracts submissions from around the world. The day concludes with Girl Power. This explores the work of female graffiti artists from 15 cities and tells the story of Czech writer Sany, whose project it was to capture female emancipation through graffiti on film.
Sunday’s programme kicks off with Theo Anthony’s fascinating anthropological documentary Rat Film, followed by a discussion on housing and race with Come the Revolution. A selection of Reel News films from the frontline of modern political campaigns comes next, and the festival concludes with a rare lefty flick from Hollywood: Tim Robbins’ 1999 true(ish)-life drama Cradle Will Rock, which follows a bunch of 1930s New York theatre folk as they defy the authorities to stage a radical play.
Tickets for all Bristol Radical Film Festival events are available here.
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