Bristol Radical Film Festival (BRFF) is upon us and it's taking over the big screen at The Arnolfini from October 9-11.
Established in 2011, BRFF aims to provide 'a public platform for explicitly political cinema from a range of left-wing perspectives.'
This year's line-up explores radical film through both form and content, including a partnership with Bristol Experimental and Expanded Cinema (BEEF) that focuses on structural materialism and a counter-cultural approach to formal filmmaking.
The focus is also heavily on archive works as BRRF is also commemorating the 40th anniversary of ‘The First Festival of British Independent Cinema’, which took place at the Arnolfini gallery in 1975.
For the uninitiated, there are accessible entry points, such as the screening of Derek Jarman's early short films on October 10. Recently restored and digitally remastered, the session will showcase a series of Super 8mm films from his early career.
Stirringly scored and masterfully mesmeric, Jarman's shorts offer other worldly aesthetic, spatial and temporal sensibilities. A stunning must-see program, with introduction from Louisa Fairclough of BEEF.
Derek Jarman, Burning the Pyramids
On Sunday October 11, the journey continues with an opportunity to investigate and reframe Structural/Materialsm: Then and Now. The festival will be screening some of Guy Sherwin and Lis Rhodes' works from the '60s and '70s alongside contemporary works from BEEF's own founding members Stephen Cornford, Louisa Fairclough and Vicky Smith.
Structuralist Film, Guy Sherwin, 1970s
One area of conversation that the screenings will undoubtedly elicit is the provocation of photochemical filmmaking practices in a now-digitally dominated discipline.
But it's not just format that's on the cards, as there's also a selection of documentary and news reel footage to discover with an early left-wing film collective screening of 'The Miners' Film' from Cinema Action on October 11 and 'The Amazing Equal Pay Show' from the London Women's Film Group on October 9.
The Amazing Equal Pay Show, 1974
Balancing and juxtaposing at once, the festival doesn't so much favour archive film in a bid for nostalgia of the past, so much as it posits significant political movements in form and content against today's cultural political landscape. At the very heart of the program, in prime time on Saturday October 10 is a selection of Contemporary Political Shorts From Around the World.
Finding out what the present holds for our future filmic and revolutionary motivations is equally beset by the enigmatic and igniting works from the past.
And why film? As co-director of BRFF, Stephen Presence, said in an interview with Counterfire: 'Film – and moving image media more generally – can be an extraordinarily potent political tool. It can move, challenge, educate and inspire, and can reach very wide audiences quickly and potentially more easily than ever.'
Bristol Radical Film Festival. October 9-11. Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay. Bristol, BS1 4QA. Times and tickets available here.
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