To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution and its cultural impact we present a season of films which were born from the revolutionary spirit and influence. The season includes Eisenstein's October (Sun 7 May) which dealt with the shifts of power in the Russian government after the 1917 uprising; one of the great forgotten movies of the 1960s, I Am Cuba (Sun 14 May), Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov’s account of the Castro revolution; an extremely rare chance to see The Hour of the Furnaces (Sun 21 May), the film that established the paradigm of revolutionary activist cinema; and Reds (Sun 28 May), Warren Beatty’s tribute to journalist John Reed, author of Ten Days That Shook the World, which provided an intriguing look into American political radicals of the early twentieth century.

Check out our May podcast to hear Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator and Andrew Kelly, Director Bristol Festival of Ideas, talk about the part cinema played in romanticising revolution, the optimism of international socialism, and how some directors making films in a revolutionary context were creating new forms of audience participation.

Presented in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas with support from Bristol Radical Film Festival.

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