There’s a rare screening of Nick Park’s very first film at Cinema Rediscovered

Way back during the Easter Holiday weekend of 1976, 17-year-old Nick Park set out to make his very first film. It wasn’t an animation but a playful live-action flick entitled The Fisherman’s Tale, which was shot on location at Longton Marsh, near Nick’s family home in Preston, Lancashire. 45 years on, the celebrated creator of Wallace and Gromit has restored his debut for a belated premiere at this year’s Cinema Rediscovered.

Taking place online and at the Watershed, Arnolfini, 20th Century Flicks and the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon, the fifth annual edition of Cinema Rediscovered runs from Wednesday 28 July-Sunday 1 August, before heading off on a nationwide tour. This year sees the launch of two new organisations: The Bristol Black Horror Club (with The Beast Must Die) and Film Noir UK (with The Maltese Falcon).

Nick Park’s original storyboard for The Fisherman’s Tale

There’s also a focus on Bristol cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene in the Bristol UNESCO City of Film strand, plus a very welcome selection of classics from 50 years ago under the banner 1971: The Year Hollywood Went Independent.

This year’s restored and rediscovered curios receiving UK premieres range from Oscar winning 1940s screwball romp The More the Merrier to No Place Like Home: Perry Henzell’s little-seen follow-up to The Harder They Come, featuring the first screen appearance by the young Grace Jones, which was lost for 25 years.

Follow the links below for more information about all physical screenings and see the Cinema Rediscovered website for details of other events.

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