Three Film Festivals in Bristol: A 2022 Bucket List Adventure

In January 2022, I drew up a bucket list. At the top of it was something I had been putting off for far too long: going to film festivals I had always meant to attend but never quite got round to.

By the end of the year, I had ticked off not one, not two, but three – all in Bristol.

Slapstick Festival

Bristol Watershed 28–31 January 2022

This felt like the perfect place to begin. A celebration of silent and classic comedy, it combined screenings, talks and live performance in a way that made film history feel thrillingly alive.

Highlights included The Patsy with live accompaniment by John Sweeney, a fascinating talk on Buster Keaton, and Richard Herring’s wonderfully entertaining Desert Island Comedy Flicks. There was also a lively session, Animated Fanatics, with Peter Lord, and the documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin.

I even briefly defected from the festival for a Saturday matinee of Bedknobs and Broomsticks at the Bristol Hippodrome – a cinema adjacent experience!

On Sunday morning, my friend Mark gave me a guided tour of Bristol’s film and TV history, which felt like the perfect coda to a weekend steeped in screen culture.

Cinema Rediscovered

Bristol Watershed 22–24 July 2022

If Slapstick celebrates early cinema, Cinema Rediscovered revels in the overlooked, the restored and the reappraised.

Across the weekend I saw an eclectic mix: The Joker (1928), Laws of Love (1927), Queen of Diamonds (1991), The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021), One Second (2020), Princess Tam Tam (1935) and Chess of the Wind (1976). It was the kind of programme that shifts your sense of film history, expanding it in unexpected directions.

As a bonus, the night before the festival began, friends and I went to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience – not strictly cinema, but certainly immersive storytelling of another kind.

Cary Comes Home Festival (and a noir detour)

Bristol Watershed, Bristol IMAX and Clevedon Curzon 19–20 November 2022

Ending the year with Cary Grant felt entirely fitting, especially in his home city.

The programme included Sylvia Scarlett, Charade, Born to Be Bad, Blonde Venus and Arsenic and Old Lace. A particular highlight was Charade at the beautiful Curzon Cinema in Clevedon, an Art Deco gem that added its own charm to the experience.

But Bristol had one more surprise. That same weekend, there wasn’t just one festival happening – there were two. I briefly slipped away from Cary Grant to catch Cat People on the IMAX screen as part of a Film Noir Weekend.

It felt entirely in keeping with the spirit of the year: following curiosity wherever it led.

A Year of Film (and the South West)

Three festivals ticked off in one year – all in the South West. And yet, the list is far from complete.

Clearly, 2022 had a distinct regional pull. Alongside Bristol, I also made it to Wells as part of my mission to visit locations from the Cornetto Trilogy – but that’s a story for another post.

What this year really proved is how rewarding it is to stop postponing the things you love. Film festivals had always felt slightly aspirational to me, something to get round to “one day”.

It turns out that “one day” is much better when it becomes this year.

photo credit Bristol Watershed by night: Rob Brewer sourced via Watershed night - File:Watershed night.jpg - Wikimedia Commons