Rebellious footballers and poll tax protesters take centre stage at 10th Bristol Radical Film Festival

Back for 2022 with its 10th edition, the Bristol Radical Film Festival celebrating political, activist and experimental filmmaking serves up a programme that blends archive gems with urgent contemporary political subjects.

Spread over two venues, the Trinity Centre and the Jam Jar, from October 21-23, BRFF’s opening Friday night highlight is La Bataille de la Plaine – a documentary charting the three-year community battle against the gentrification of Place Jean Jaurès in Marseille.

Saturday brings a welcome screening of Lance Daly’s 2018 film, Black ’47 – the first feature to tackle Ireland’s Great Famine of 1845-1849. Daly frames his story as a revenge western, with James Frecheville as an Irish Ranger who’s been abroad fighting for the British. When he returns home to find that his mother has starved to death and his brother has been hanged by an English judge, he naturally embarks on a campaign of vengeance. Frecheville’s fellow Australian Hugo Weaving is cast as a disgraced soldier who’s sent to track down our angry hero. The strong supporting cast includes Stephen Rea and Jim Broadbent.

Also showing on Saturday are two short films about asylum seekers in Europe. Shelter: Farewell to Eden charts the journey of trans migrant Pepsi, while Nothing About Us Without Us was made by asylum seekers in Greece, who challenge familiar media sterotypes as they tell their own stories. A packed programme of short film submissions from radical filmmakers around the world explores subjects as diverse as trade unionism in the Philippines and Lebanon’s economic crisis. The festival also offers a historical perspective with an event devoted to British Radical Newsreels of the early 20th Century, which also takes a look at the state of activist filmmaking today.

On Sunday, BRFF’s contribution to Black History Month is a screening of Betrayal at Attica. Radical lawyer Elizabeth Fink explores the 1971 New York prison riot, during which 29 inmates and 10 hostages were gunned down.

There’s more history in Battle of Trafalgar, originally made for Channel 4: a chronological account of the anti-poll tax demonstration of March 31, 1990, which contrasts starkly with mainstream media coverage of the same event. Eyewitness testimony raises questions about police tactics, the right to demonstrate, and the independence and accountability of the media – all of which may seem rather familiar to today’s activists.

BRFF 2022 concludes with a rare foray into the world of sport. In Football Rebels, Eric Cantona tells the stories of five footballers whose social conscience led them to challenge unjust regimes, join opposition movements and lead the fight for democracy and human rights.

Full festival passes cost £50/£30 (concessions). Go here to buy them and to view other ticket options.

Main pic from La Bataille de la Plaine. image supplied by Bristol Radical Film Festival.