Join award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed for a reflection on her journalistic journey through cinema.

This event is hosted by Bristol Ideas’ Andrew Kelly and presented in partnership with Bristol Ideas and the Observer.

Samira Ahmed is an award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster. She presents the BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts programme Front Row and the weekly BBC One programme Newswatch. Her 2020 BBC4 series Art of Persia was the first major Western documentary series to be shot in Iran since the 1979 revolution. Samira's reporting is focussed on her fascination with the intersection of popular culture, science, politics and social change. She is on the advisory board of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, where she introduces screenings at Widescreen Weekend, and regularly interviews filmmakers for the BFI, including Mike Hodges, Jane Fonda and Danny Glover. She has been a regular guest at Cinema Rediscovered since 2017 and has a particular cinematic passion for Westerns and SF.

Philip French was Britain’s foremost film critic – well-informed, widely-read, with a deep understanding of the practicalities of filmmaking and a taste for elaborate puns – and legions of readers of his regular reviews in the Observer and essays in Sight and Sound were devoted to his work. French was educated at Bristol Grammar School, and his first job as a professional journalist was on the Bristol Evening Post. Bristol was important to him in developing his love for and knowledge about cinema. Bristol Ideas and Watershed are delighted to be organising and hosting this annual lecture devoted to his memory.

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