Screening of The Miners’ Film (1974, Cinema Action) and selected work by Reel News, followed by Q+A with Steve Sprung (Cinema Action) and Shaun Dey (Reel News). Part of BRFF 2015, 40 years of radical British cinema.
Cinema Action was among several left-wing film collectives formed in the late sixties. The Miners’ Film depicts in their own words the experiences of the miners and their families during the successful 1974 strike which defeated Ted Heath’s Tory government. More than that, the filmmakers sensitively convey their engagement with the bigger issues at stake at the time and the wider challenges to secure a fairer and more equal society for working people.
Reel News is an anti-capitalist video-activist collective set up in 2006 to support inspirational campaigns and struggles around the world. Shaun Dey will present a selection of Reel News’ current films and talk about the organisation and its work.
All BRFF 2015 screenings are included in the Festival Pass, available to buy here.
The Bristol Radical Film Festival
The Bristol Radical Film Festival returns for its fourth edition in October 2015. The festival is brought to you by The Bristol Radical Film Festival collective in partnership with The Centre for Moving Image Research (CMIR UWE), Arnolfini and Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film (BEEF).
This year, the festival is dedicated to celebrating the 40th anniversary of The First Festival of British Independent Cinema. Organised by the filmmaker, writer, curator and dramatist, David Hopkins (1940-2004), the 1975 festival was a landmark event in the history of alternative film in Britain. The festival screened overtly political film alongside avant-garde and experimental work, on everything from 35mm to super-8mm, with the express intention of encouraging a vibrant independent film culture that cross-pollinates different forms, approaches and traditions.
The extraordinary programme of the 1975 event is the inspiration behind this edition of the Bristol Radical Film Festival (BRFF) which, along with many other organisations around the world, is part of the contemporary incarnation of politically engaged, aesthetically innovative film culture. That culture remains as challenging and defiant as ever, and the BRFF features a range of contemporary films and filmmakers alongside work from the original programme.
Part of the Arnolfini Story Project
Arnolfini Story is a multifaceted project celebrating the heritage of the organisation. Through it, we offer information and material from our archives, invite you to share your Arnolfini memories with us, and commission artists and writers to create new response to our history. It launches in 2015, 40 years after Arnolfini moved in to the Bush Warehouse, thereby becoming one of the first organisations to pioneer reuse of Bristol’s derelict docks.
#BRFF2015
The festival is brought to you by The Bristol Radical Film Festival collective in partnership with Arnolfini, The Centre for Moving Image Research (CMIR) and Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF).
