Cinema is back, so we couldn't be more excited to announce the highlights for Cinema Rediscovered - Watershed’s annual festival showcasing brand new restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities from around the globe, taking place in and around Bristol - a UNESCO City of Film - and online Wed 20 – Sun 24 July 2022.

Returning for its sixth bumper edition, this summer’s festival will celebrate the big screen experience with a line-up of movie magic, from brand new restorations to cinematic curiosities. Screening at cinemas including Clevedon’s Curzon Cinema & Arts, 20th Century Flicks, Arnolfini and Watershed, the festival will follow with a UK-wide tour of highlights (Aug – Nov 2022), and an online offer via MUBI, the global streaming service, production company and film distributor.  

“As we emerge from our isolating COVID bubbles, it is exciting to be reminded of the shared social experience of cinema and of the shared collective history of film. This year’s edition brings those two together in a five-day binge viewing of the classic, the unknown, the risqué, the thoroughly entertaining and the shapeshifting weird and wonderful.” Cinema Rediscovered Founder & Watershed Curator Mark Cosgrove

Cinema Rediscovered 2022 opens with the UK Premiere of a 4K restoration of David Lynch’s deliriously enigmatic and hypnotic Lost Highway (1997) and closes with a 4K restoration of Kinuyo Tanaka’s intensely moving Forever a Woman (1955) both care of Janus Films.

When Europe Made Hollywood explores how European filmmakers and stars influenced and shaped Hollywood in front and behind the camera from Sunrise (1927) to High Noon (1952), a collaboration with Park Circus and archive activists Invisible Women.

Film writers and critics Pamela Hutchinson and Christina Newland present some of Hollywood’s most risqué films (all UK Premieres of 4K restorations care of Park Circus and Warner Bros) made before the 1930's Hays code was enforced in Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules Are Made to be Broken.

In Black Paris... Josephine and Beyond, curator Karen Alexander explores the opportunities and tensions that Paris gave to the artistic expression and cultural activism of Black creatives. This includes the UK Premiere of George Eastman House’s restoration of Princess Tam-Tam (1935) presented by Dr Simone Terri Francis (Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism).

To mark the passing of influential feminist theorist Gloria Jean Watkins aka bell hooks (1952 –2021) last year, Karen Alexander revisits some of the films and makers featured in her trailblazing collection of essays and interviews, Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies from Trinh T. Minh-ha's Reassamblage (1982) to Spike Lee’s Girl 6 (1996).

Women’s Stories from the Global South (& To Whom They Belong) opens a discussion around ownership and the imbalance of power within film cultures with Mosa Mpetha (Black Cinema Project, Hyde Park Picture House) and the Ajabu Ajabu collective, focusing on five women’s stories from Morocco (Door to the Sky, 1989), Cuba (De Cierta Manera, 1974-77), Venezuela (Araya, 1959), Tanzania (Maangazimi: The Ancient One, 2001) and Angola (Sambizanga, 1971). Sambizanga will be presented in person by Sarah Maldoror’s daughter, Annouchka De Andrade.

Other highlights include UK premieres of Hal Ashby’s cult classic Harold and Maude (1971), a 4K restoration c/o Paramount Archives and Park Circus; one of the world’s first pro-gay documentaries Laws of Love (Gesetze der Liebe) (1927) painstakingly restored to Magnus Hirschfeld’s original vision by the Munich Film Museum, presented by So Mayer; and Bill Morrison speaking about his latest meditation on cinema’s past The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021).

Archive activists Invisible Women present Queen of Diamonds (1991) with a live online Q&A with director and radical feminist Nina Menkes (whose latest Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power premiered at Sundance earlier this year.)

The festival also pays homage to pioneering Black British filmmaker and activist Menelik Shabazz with a special screening of his debut feature Burning an Illusion (1981), newly remastered by BFI, as well as the English premiere of One Second (2020) from MUBI, Zhang Yimou’s long-delayed ode to cinema’s power as both a conduit for emotions and a tool for propaganda ahead of its cinema release later this year.

Closer to home, the festival celebrates Bristol-born director J. Lee Thompson with an anniversary screening of his influential film noir Cape Fear (1962) and South West Silents presents highly entertaining thrill rideThe Joker (1928) starring popular leading man Henry Edwards, born in Weston-super-Mare, newly restored by the Danish Film Institute.

Award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed will deliver The Philip French Memorial Lecture, in partnership with Bristol Ideas and this year’s Film Critics Workshop focusses on Video Essays. Led by film historian, editor and video essayist Jonathan Bygraves with special guest contributors including Charlie Shakleton, Catherine Grant and Jessica McGoff the workshop will run from July - Sept 2022, with a call for applicants opening in mid-May.

Early Bird Passes go on sale mid May and the full programme goes on sale week commencing 6 June.

Register your interest for Cinema Rediscovered to be the first to hear when passes are on sale and the programme is announced:

Register your interest

MORE PROGRAMME & BOOKING INFO COMING SOON AT: 

watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered

Bristol Venues::

Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX: watershed.co.uk

20th Century Flicks, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS: 20thcenturyflicks.co.uk

Curzon Cinema & Arts, 46 Old Church Rd, Clevedon, BS21 6NN: curzon.org.uk

Arnolfini Arts, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA: arnolfini.org.uk

About Cinema Rediscovered  

Cinema Rediscovered is Watershed’s annual festival showcasing the best in digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities in and around Bristol UNESCO City of Film at cinemas including Clevedon’s Curzon Cinema & Arts, Arnolfini and Watershed. It is presented with partners South West Silents and 20th Century Flicks and support from BFI awarding funds from National Lottery and MUBI. Our partnership with MUBI, the global streaming service, production company and film distributor, also complement this year’s festival and continues the Cinema Rediscovered experience for both cinema and online audiences across the UK. 

Find out more about our partners, funders, sponsors and the team behind Cinema Rediscovered at: www.watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered 

---