Cinema Rediscovered 2022 | Programme

Shanghai Express. Image courtesy of Park Circus/Universal. Design by Tony Stiles.

Previous events in this programme

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

For those of you working in film exhibition and archives, join some of the most distinctive voices in film curation and archiving to explore the potential of reframing film heritage.

Phillip French Memorial Lecture: Samira Ahmed

Please note: The live stream ended on 20 July 2022

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Award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed delivers this year’s Philip French Memorial Lecture reflecting on her journalistic journey through cinema.

This event will have BSL (British Sign Language) interpretation.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A brooding jazz saxophonist lives in a simmering state of jealousy with his listless and possibly unfaithful wife in this 4K restoration of David Lynch's classic thriller.

Join us after the screening for a special Lynch inspired DJ/VJ set courtesy of DJ Cheeba in the Café & Bar, open to all ticket holders.

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Café & Bar, Watershed

Join DJ Cheeba in the Café & Bar for a live DJ/VJ set inspired by the deliriously enigmatic work of David Lynch.

Rewriting Film History (With The Women in It)

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Archive activists Invisible Women speak to guest contributors including So Mayer about reimagining film history through a female-centric lens.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Farida Benlyazid's poignant tribute to womanhood and spirituality is brought to life once again through the restoration efforts of the Transnational Moroccan Cinema Project from the University of Exeter.

Join us before the film for an introduction by Dr Stefanie Van De Peer, the force behind Global Women’s Film Heritage, a programme focused on building a collective of researchers and practitioners that make women and their films more visible in global film archives.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

James Cagney and Joan Blondell sizzle as a con-artist duo robbing hotel guests in this brilliant crime comedy.

With an introduction by Christina Newland.

Global Women’s Film Heritage Networking Lunch

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Waterside 1, Watershed

Join the team behind Global Women’s Film Heritage, a collective of researchers, archive practitioners and film exhibitors dedicated to making women and their films more visible for a networking lunch reflecting on the absences and presences of women's work in film archives.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Two women forge a connection that breaches the confines of time, history, and faith. An essential work of Tanzanian cinema being returned to audiences openly and inclusively in honour of its 20th Anniversary by collective, Ajabu Ajabu.

Join us before the film for an introduction from the Ajabu Ajabu film collective.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Socialite Norma Shearer risks total ruination after a sordid love affair with murderous gangster Clark Gable.

With an introduction by Christina Newland.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Join Annouchka De Andrade, Sarah Maldoror’s daughter, for a special screening of this unforgettable revolutionary film about a pivotal moment in Angola’s fight for freedom.

Join us before the film for an introduction by Mosa Mpetha (Co-founder of The Black Cinema Project) with special guest Annouchka De Andrade, Sarah Maldoror’s daughter.

Pre-Code Holywood: Rules are Made to be Broken

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Join the dream team (author, critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson and film critic and journalist Christina Newland) for a conversation about the rights and wrongs of Pre-code Hollywood.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Made in the twilight of the silent era Sunrise is a milestone of Film Expressionism and one of the few films to instantly achieve legendary status.

Join us before the film for an introduction from Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Two Senegalese émigré street cleaners enter a “haute cuisine” competition to help their friend after stumbling upon a 19th-century cookbook.

With an introduction by Annouchka de Andrade, daughter of Sarah Maldoror.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Marlene Dietrich is at her wicked best as Shanghai Lily, a courtesan whose reputation brings a hint of scandal to a train ride through war-torn China.

Join us before the film for an introduction from film historian, programmer and video editor Jonathan Bygraves.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Director Sara Gómez assesses the complexities of intersectional, marginalised lives in 1970's Cuba through a factual narrative that contextualises the relationship, the community, and the tensions of life in a new socialist society.

With an introduction from Lisa Harewood (Twelve 30 Collective).

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Curator Karen Alexander presents a trio of shorts that resonate with bell hooks's seminal classic collection of essays on film, Reel To Real: Race, Class and Sex at the Movies.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Set on the stunning French Riviera during the height of Nice’s world famous carnival, Georg Jacoby’s The Joker is a highly entertaining thrill-ride starring Weston-super-Mare's Henry Edwards as the charismatic ‘joker’. 

With an introduction by writer and broadcaster Dr Matthew Sweet and a recorded score by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius.

Lunchtime Talk: Designing a Character, Creating a Star

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Waterside 1, Watershed

Former V&A Curator Keith Lodwick will explore how costume designers Adrian and Banton were central to the creation of both the character and the public image of two Golden Age stars, Dietrich and Garbo.

UK Premiere: Laws of Love (Gesetze der Liebe)

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Join author and activist So Mayer and guests for the UK Premiere of one of the first pro-gay documentaries in the history of cinema, painstakingly restored by the Munich Film Museum nearly a century after it was made.

Join us before the film for an introduction by author and activist So Mayer (A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing, 2020), and a post-screening discussion with guests including writer Adam Zmith.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Charles Burnett's tender, witty and affectionate tale of a disillusioned slaughterhouse worker, and the solace to be found in the simplest moments of life.

With an introduction by curator Karen Alexander.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

20th Century Flicks (about 9 min walk from Watershed)

An unnamed, aspiring actress's quest for new work lands her in the warm, supportive embrace of a women-run phone sex agency in Spike Lee's overlooked comedy.

With an introduction by curator Karen Alexander.

Queen of Diamonds + Q&A with Nina Menkes

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

One of the most jarringly original independent films of the 1990s, Nina Menkes’ lost underground classic re-emerges in this gorgeous new restoration.

Join us after the film for a Q&A with director Nina Menkes.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

An ode to drugs, sex, and diamonds starring veteran screen pair William Powell and Kay Francis as a gentleman thief and the posh lady who falls for him.

With an introduction by Christina Newland.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

One of the era’s most sophisticated examinations of gender and identity with Garbo perfect as the bisexual Swedish monarch who was raised from birth as a boy.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A moving, yet unsentimental, view of motherhood that challenges social biases about adoption and offers new insight into mother-daughter relationships.

With an introduction by curator Karen Alexander.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

The Afterlight documents the physical presence of over three hundred actors who are no longer alive and must reconcile themselves to a life lived solely through the performances they committed to celluloid.

Introduced and followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Shackleton.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

In this much-loved cult classic, an emotional and romantic bond develops between one of cinema’s most unlikely pairs.

With an introduction by Daisy Steinhardt, freelance writer and UWE film studies student (20th Century Flicks).

Black Horror Bristol Club Presents: Nightbreed at 30

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

20th Century Flicks (about 9 min walk from Watershed)

A hybrid fantasy/horror vision combining elements of 90s pop-culture, folk horror, and the uncanny that explores themes around redemption, identity and belonging.

Join us before the film for an introduction from Film Programmer and Writer Adam Murray (Bristol Black Horror Club, Come The Revolution).

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Across Bristol

Join local film enthusiast and historian Mark Fuller for the first of two different, gentle, walks that between them take in the landmarks and personalities of Cinema in Central Bristol from the 1880s to the present day.

UK Premiere: The Village Detective: a song cycle

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

During the summer of 2016, a fishing boat off the shores of Iceland made a most curious catch: four reels of 35mm film, seemingly of Soviet provenance...

With a pre-recorded Q&A with Bill Morrison hosted by Dr Pete Walsh.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Fritz Lang's first American film is a searing indictment of mob justice and lynching - and still a striking cautionary tale.

With an introduction by James Harrison (Film Noir UK and South West Silents Co-director).

Paris Noir - African Americans in the City of Light

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A compelling documentary on the migration of pioneering African Americans to Paris and the ensuing cultural exchange, from Josephine Baker and beyond.

With an introduction by Black Paris curator Karen Alexander and followed by a Q&A with entrepreneur Eric Collins (Channel 4’s The Money Maker).

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Waterside 1, Watershed

Fancy diving deeper into film culture? Whether you’re a film lover or are aspiring to work in film writing/criticism, this session will give you insights into one of the world’s most distinctive international voices in film journalism: NOTEBOOK – created, prepared and published by MUBI.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A nameless fugitive escapes from a Gansu Province labour camp, desperate to see a newsreel said to promise a glimpse of his estranged daughter.

With an introduction by Cinema Curator and Cinema Rediscovered Founder Mark Cosgrove.

Dr Mabuse: Part 1: The Great Gambler: A Picture of the Time

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Arnolfini

The first part of an epic masterpiece of conspiracy that constructs its own dark labyrinth from the base materials of human fear and paranoia.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Jean Harlow sizzles and the dialogue crackles in this boundary-pushing comedy of sex and social-climbing.

With an introduction by Pamela Hutchinson.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

The improbable but true story of con man Douglas Street, the titular “chameleon” who successfully impersonated his way up the socioeconomic ladder.

With a pre-recorded introduction by film writer and programmer, now Curatorial Director of the Criterion Collection, Ashley Clark.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

From the makers of French musical Zou Zou, this comedy sees a mischievous shepherd girl rising through society to become a pretend princess and the toast of Paris nightlife.

A new digital restoration courtesy of George Eastman Museum and Kino Lorber, with an introduction by Dr Terri Simone Francis.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Araya is a poetic, visually arresting look at life on Venezuela’s Araya Peninsula, where generations of labourers have depended on mining the arid region’s salt pans for their livelihood.

Join us before the film for an introduction by curator Lorena Pino Montilla.

Dr Mabuse: Part 2: Inferno: A Play About People of Our Times

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Arnolfini

The second part of Fritz Lang's epic masterpiece of conspiracy that constructs its own dark labyrinth from the base materials of human fear and paranoia.

Presented as part of Bristol Ideas and South West Silents' #Modernism2022, with live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Billy Wilder's sizzling, simmering tale of seduction and murder where our wise cracking hero, insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) is seduced way out of his depth by the bracelet charms, and more, of Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck).

Join us before the film for an introduction from Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A landmark work of wuxia cinema, Swordsman of all Swordsmen, newly restored by the Taiwan Film Institute tells the revenge story of Tsai Ying-chieh (Tien Peng).

With an introduction by Andy Willis is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and Senior Visiting Curator at HOME in Manchester.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

The gripping and tension-laden original thriller by Bristol-born J. Lee Thompson about an embittered ex-con terrorising the frightened family of the meek lawyer who put him in prison.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman play a pair of American ex-pat jazz musicians living la vie bohème in Paris in this intoxicating, music-filled romance. 

With an introduction by Black Paris curator Karen Alexander.

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Across Bristol

Join local film enthusiast and historian Mark Fuller for the second of two different, gentle walks that between them take in the landmarks and personalities of Cinema in Central Bristol from the 1880s to the present day.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Screened publicly just once before it was banned and then lost for decades, this rediscovered jewel of Iranian cinema re-emerges to take its place as one of the most astonishing works of the country’s pre-revolution New Wave.

With a pre-recorded introduction from Cinema Ritrovato co-director and filmmaker Ehsan Khoshbakht.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

A timeless love story wrapped inside a gripping wartime thriller that focuses on the rekindled love experienced by American expat Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and the beautiful, married Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman).

Join us before the film for an introduction from Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.

Cinema Rediscovered @ Curzon Cinema & Arts

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

External

Fall in love with the magic of the movies at one of the oldest running cinema venues in the country, Clevedon’s Curzon Cinema & Arts.

Lunchtime Talk: I Assure You We’re Open: 40 years of 20th Century Flicks

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Waterside 1, Watershed

Join 20th Century Flicks’ Dave Taylor and Daisy Steinhardt in conversation with one another as they try to figure out the answer to the eternal question: just how has 20th Century Flicks lasted so long?

This talk will be followed by a Q&A.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Adapted from a Hemingway short story, The Killers is essential post-war existential cinema where our doomed hero awaits his inevitable violent death.

Join us before the film for an introduction by Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Barbara Stanwyck climbs her way to the top of New York, one man at a time, in this bold Depression-era drama.

With an introduction by Pamela Hutchinson.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Gary Cooper won an Oscar® for his role as Marshal Will Kane, forced to stand alone when an outlaw he put away returns from prison.

Join us before the film for an introduction from Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

The late Menelik Shabazz's pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher's London.

Join us before the film for an introduction by Film Programmer and Writer Adam Murray (Bristol Black Horror Club, Come The Revolution).

Please note: This was screened in July 2022

Kinuyo Tanaka’s third film as a director is perhaps her finest – a deeply emotional cinematic portrait of Fumiko Nakajo, an ill-fated female tanka poet.

With an introduction by Professor Rayna Denison, University of Bristol.

MUBI Presents: 20th Century Flicks and Watershed 40th Birthday Film Quiz

Please note: This event took place in July 2022

Café & Bar, Watershed

Wind down and rediscover the movie trivia hidden in the recesses of your brain with a bumper edition of our Film Quiz celebrating 20th Century Flicks’ and Watershed’s 40th Birthday co-hosted this year by 20th Century Flicks’ Daisy Steinhardt and Watershed’s Becky Sands.