May 2015 Festival of Ideas - main

Festival of Ideas 2016

Season

Please note : this season finished in July 2016

In May and June 2016, Festival of Ideas takes a look at health; wildlife; the Holocaust; social mobility; the future of newspapers; feminism; science and philosophy of the seventeenth centuries and what they offer now; the legacy of Tony Blair and the future of the Left; autism; freedom of expression; economics; and economic behaviour and austerity in Europe, among other topics. Also launched is the first annual lecture celebrating the life and work of critic Philip French.

As ever, it's a packed programme of stimulating events - see you there!

Visit ideasfestival.co.uk for details of all the talks happening in Bristol at Watershed and beyond.

Ticket prices: £4.50 - £7.00.


Previous screenings & events in this season

The Battle of the Somme + Panel Discussion

classified PG Festival of Ideas 2016
Battle of Somme + Panel Discussion
Please note: This was screened in July 2016
Film

To mark the centenary of the battle of the Somme this screening of the 1916 government film about the battle - which caused a sensation at the time - is accompanied by pianist Stephen Horne and will be followed by a panel discussion.

Theeb

classified 15 S Festival of Ideas 2016
Theeb
Please note: This was screened in June 2016
Film

This epic adventure tale plays like a combination of classic American Westerns and WWI dramas. Set in the Arabian Desert, 1916 – a time of historical change and turmoil. Young Bedouin brothers Hussein and Theeb find their lives interrupted with the arrival of a British Army officer on a mysterious mission.

T E Lawrence, the Arab Revolt and the Middle East Now
Please note: This event took place in June 2016
Event

Are we still living with the implications of the Arab Revolt and the post-World War I settlement? A distinguished panel of historians, archaeologists, political analysts and Middle East specialists look at the Arab Revolt and the present-day Middle East.

Lawrence of Arabia

classified PG Festival of Ideas 2016
Lawrence of Arabia
Please note: This was screened in June 2016
Film

Widely regarded as David Lean's greatest triumph, this magisterial account of TE Lawrence's exploits in the Middle East during World War I is also a landmark in the epic tradition of cinema.

Claudia Hammond: Mind over Money

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Claudia Hammond: Mind over Money
Please note: This event took place in June 2016
Talk

A day doesn’t go by without money coming in to our interactions. But how much do we really understand it? Claudia Hammond delves into the surprising psychology of money to show us that our relationship with it is more complex than we might think.

Festival of Ideas: Thomas Keneally: Napoleon's Last Island
Please note: This event took place in June 2016
Talk

Author Thomas Keneally talks about his work and his new novel Napoleon’s Last Island which explores the intriguing tale of the friendship that sprang up between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe, a young girl living on the south Atlantic island of St Helena while the Emperor was exiled there.

Festival of Ideas: Richard Thaler - Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behaviour, Richard Thaler exposes the irrational tendencies in our thinking and shows us how to avoid making costly mistakes in life.

Shoah Parts 3 & 4

Festival of Ideas 2016
Shoah Parts 3 & 4
Please note: This was screened in May 2016
Film

Parts three and four of Claude Lanzmann’s (The Last of the Unjust) nine-hour-plus opus and monumental investigation of the unthinkable: the murder of more than six million Jews by the Nazis.

Festival of Ideas: Frank Dikštter The Cultural Revolution
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Frank Dikötter looks at the Chinese Cultural Revolution, giving a voice to the Chinese people and the complex choices they faced.

Margo Jefferson: Negroland

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Margo Jefferson: Negroland
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Jefferson offers a meditation on race, sex, class and American culture, told through the prism of her experience of growing up and being educated amongst Chicago’s upper-class black community.

Hsiao-Hung Pai: Angry White People
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Hsiao-Hung Pai shows that far-right ideas are increasingly incorporated into mainstream politics and media discourse. Following a group of individuals who got caught up in the wave of far-right street movements that began in 2009, she investigated the rise of the EDL and other far-right organisations, falling in with several of their members and observing their day-to-day lives.

Festival of Ideas - The Philip French Memorial Lecture
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

This, the first-ever Philip French Annual Lecture – instituted to celebrate his life and work and the qualities he stood for – will examine some of his many contributions to film culture and re-visit his obsession with the Western.

CANCELLED The Blair Legacy

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: The Blair Legacy
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

With unprecedented access to Whitehall officials, military officers and politicians, Tom Bower explores the truth behind former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s claims of rebuilding schools, hospitals and welfare services, and examines why he opened the doors to mass immigration.

Festival of Idea: Andrew Simms: We Want More Than This: Why a Better World in in Our Grasp
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

We are in the grip of accelerating climatic upheaval and divisive global inequality - in this talk Andrew Simms presents field notes of hope, not from imaginary lands but from practical utopias. These are places where things may not be perfect, but where real people are proving that better worlds are possible.

Timothy Garton Ash: Free Speech

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Timothy Garton Ash: Free Speech
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Timothy Garton Ash argues that in this connected world, the way to combine freedom and diversity is to have more but also better free speech and proposes a framework for civilised conflict in a world where we are all becoming neighbours.

Steve Silberman: NeuroTribes

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Steve Silberman: NeuroTribes
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

What is autism: a devastating developmental condition, a lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? Steve Silberman unearths its secret history.

Festival of Ideas: Alec Ross: The Industries of the Future
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

How will we adapt to the changing nature of work? Alec Ross reveals what changes are coming in the next ten years, highlighting the best opportunities for progress and explaining why countries thrive or sputter.

Festival of Ideas: Kat Banyard and Diane Martin: Pimp State
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Never before have prostitution, strip clubs and pornography been as profitable, widely used or embedded in mainstream culture as they are today. How should society respond to the rise of the sex trade?

CANCELLED Laura Bates: Girl Up

Festival of Ideas 2016
CANCELLED Festival of Ideas: Laura Bates: Girl Up
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Laura Bates wants to tell them something different. She exposes the truth about the pressures surrounding body image, false representations in the media, the complexities of sex and relationships, the trials of social media, and the other lies women are told.

May 2015 Festival of Ideas - main
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Event

This fascinating documentary takes a look at the moral campaign launched and championed by Harold Evans the then Editor of the Sunday Times to uncover the scandal and cover ups associated with the use of the drug Thalidomide in the late 50s and 60s.

Festival of Ideas: The Observer Lecture: Laura Cumming
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

Laura Cumming, art critic for the Observer, explores the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work.

Dawn Foster: Lean Out

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Dawn Foster: Lean Out
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

What would happen if mainstream feminism could throw its weight behind those suffering at the sharp end of austerity? Dawn Foster argues that instead of 'leaning in', we need to disrupt, the shout back, and lean out.

Festival of Ideas: Lynsey Hanley and Gary Bell: Social Mobility and Class
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

How do we move from one ‘class’ to another – and, if we can do so, what effect does it have on us? Drawing on their own experiences, Lynsey Hanley and Gary Bell discuss social mobility and the psychological impacts of class.

Ken Livingstone: Being Red

Festival of Ideas 2016
Festival of Ideas: Ken Livingstone: Being Red
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Talk

How should the Left govern? In the wake of a huge surge of interest in Labour, Ken Livingstone gives an insider's account of the party and its future.

Shoah Parts 1 & 2

Festival of Ideas 2016
Shoah Parts 1 & 2
Please note: This was screened in May 2016
Film

Over a decade in the making, Claude Lanzmann’s (The Last of the Unjust) nine-hour-plus opus is a monumental investigation of the unthinkable: the murder of more than six million Jews by the Nazis.

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