In October's cinema podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, is joined by Lisa Harewood and Jonathan Ali from The Twelve30 Collective who showcases classic and contemporary films from the Caribbean and its diaspora. They discuss the Caribbean film scene and the tensions between looking to Hollywood and foregrounding the territories' own identities, the lack of independent cinemas and the challenges of screening films across multiple countries.Twelve30 Collective are also distributors of this month's screening of long-lost Jamaican set film No Place Like Home. Lisa and Ali share the films amazing backstory of its devastating loss for more than two decades; and its powerful, lightly fictionalised window into rural Jamaica of 50 years ago.

Watershed Podcast

October 2021 Cinema Podcast

With screenings at Watershed now back up to 6 days a week a look ahead at September highlights coming up.Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, talks to Gary Thompson, founder of Cables & Cameras, about their Watershed takeover weekend at the end of September – Cables & Cameras Presents:INSPIRED. The weekend features a whole range of conversations, screenings and events that will exploreBlack/POC culture and talent both in front of and behind the camera.Mark is also joined by Adam Murray from Bristol Black Horror Club. Adam talks about his positive experiences of working with Gary and Cables & Cameras, his upcoming illustrated talk on the history of Black representation in horror films and behind the camera and why he is looking forward to Cables & Cameras Presents:INSPIRED.

September 2021 Cinema Podcast

A quick and summery August podcast from Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator introducing the upcoming The World of Wong Kar Wai season.Mark introduces the seasons and shares how the films have been restored and reworked; and celebrates finally being able to re-introduce audiences to the lush and sensual visuals, pitch-perfect soundtracks, and soulful romanticism of Wong Kar Wai's contemporary cinema.

August 2021 Cinema Podcast

In this month's podcast Mark Cosgrove (Watershed Cinema Curator) and Adam Murray (film programmer, critic, writer and broadcaster) look forward to Watershed's Cinema Rediscovered festival at the end of July – a celebration and re-framing of cinema's rich 125 year history.They share the strands and films they can't wait to bring to the big screen – screening in some cases for the first time in decades, if not ever in the UK.Mark's highlights include 1971: The Year Hollywood Went Independent, a programme of films exploring the essential contribution that women made to The New Hollywood era; when outsiders, independents and mavericks were welcomed into the mainstream. Plus the amazing background to The Story of a Three-Day Pass – a nouvelle vague infused film by young Black American Melvin Van Peebles made in Paris, never released in the UK and now restored to its former glory.Adam looks forward to Blue Collar, an uncompromising tale set in Detroit of three-working men; starring Yaphet Kotto as Smokey James alongside double trouble Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel. Released in 1978 Adam discusses the extraordinary performances exploring race, unions and working class masculinity; and surely one of the greatest, grimy, opening scenes and soundtracks in a film ever.Finally Adam looks forward to launching his Bristol Black Horror Club at the festival with a screening of The Beast Must Die – a fun, camp, werewolf thrill-ride with a great soundtrack and a Black actor in a multi-dimensional lead role.

July 2021 Cinema Podcast

In June's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, chats with Ti Singh founder of Bristol Bad Film Club, author of Born To Be Bad: Talking to the greatest villains in action cinema and lead on the BFI Film Audience Network's New Release Strategy, based at Watershed.They talk about what makes a film so bad it's good, how baddies in films reveal so much about action cinema and Ti's work supporting independent films to reach a wider audience.And to finish they share their excitement for the great films coming up over June at Watershed, and look forward to an unexpectedly busy summer of independent cinema.

June 2021 Cinema Podcast

In May's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, is joined by Dave Taylor of legendary Bristol video shop 20th Century Flicks.They reflect on the year that forgot cinema, the autobiographical viewing habits of the shop's customers through lockdown, and a history of the shop – it opened in the same year as Watershed in 1982 – and how it has managed to endure.They also look forward to the return of cinema screenings in May at Watershed, and the shop's screening rooms, and the clutch of superb Oscar winning independent films arriving on the big screen very, very soon.

May 2021 Cinema Podcast

For April's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, is joined by film & music critic and broadcaster Adam Murray.They discuss Adam's love of horror and research for a season of horror films, hopefully screening at Watershed this Autumn, exploring identity and fitting-in – and their relationship to Black representation and the Black experience. Adam also shares the two films he is looking forward to seeing at Watershed when it re-opens in May.

April 2021 Cinema Podcast

This month Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, is joined by historian, writer and curator Edson Burton and Matchbox Cine producer Megan Mitchell.They share how their cultural life has changed and adapted over the last several months, and some of the things they have been enjoying and found themselves unexpectedly watching – New York Independent cinema, Tom Cruise films, Tik Tok and the Small Axe series.

March 2021 Cinema Podcast

With the Watershed building and cinemas still closed, Mark Cosgrove (Watershed Cinema Curator) talks with Watershed friends to share their recent small screen highlights from film and TV series old and new.Malaika Kegode – writer, performer, producer and Roger Griffith MBE – writer, producer, educator, social activist, consultant and CEO of Creative Connex – join Mark to share their recent film and television watching highlights from lockdown. Between them they discuss their recommendations for essential lockdown viewing, and reflect on the cultural resonances and rediscoveries they encounter along the way.

February 2021 Cinema Podcast

In January's short podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, leaves 2020 behind and hopes that this coming year we can look forward to more regular screenings in the cinema and a return to the unique social experience that is at the heart of cinema. He shares films to look forward that would have screened in 2020 and a hint of plans and optimism in the air for 2021.

January 2021 Cinema Podcast

While the halcyon days of films being released into the cinema seem a distant memory and Watershed Cinemas were more closed than open, this month's podcast still finds a rich array of fantastic films to remember from 2020.This month Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, Tara Judah, Watershed Cinema Producer and Thea Berry, film programmer and producer, share their highlights of the year. Albeit some were only available through Watershed online and lacking in the convivial community of the shared viewing experience, they conclude there was still plenty to enjoy in film in 2020.

December 2020 Cinema Podcast

In November's podcast Mark Cosgrove (Watershed Cinema Curator) and Tara Judah (Watershed Cinema Producer) ponder and refute October's news of the delay in the new James Bond film and how, as reported by some newspapers, its a harbinger of the death of cinema.With cinema alive and well at Watershed, Mark and Tara share the films they are looking forward to in November. There are two films from Cronenbergs – a new restoration of the notorious Crash from David Cronenberg and Possessor from son Brandon Cronenberg. Crash was much attacked at the time, much to author J.G. Ballard's surprise as the novel was published 23 years earlier, even leading to statements in the UK parliament at the time and a life long ban from being shown in the London borough of Westminster. Mark and Tara retell the impact of this extraordinary 'depraved' sci-fi film at the time it was initially released and look forward to seeing it again on the big screen. Possessor shows that son Brendan has not chosen to break the Cronenberg mould too much – a near future sci-fi horror thriller that really gets under the skin – but he does so in his own distinctive way, offering a great chance to compare and contrast directorial visions.They then talk about debut feature Relic – a story of three generations of women haunted by their expectations of each other and the eldest's developing dementia. A beautifully explored allegorical, female directed horror film and wonder whether in future years this recent period will be remembered as the era when female directors in horror came into their own.Tara and Mark then offer up some absurdity from distinctive Swedish director Roy Andersson, but are left divided. Is About Endlessnesss a masterful, Hopperesque painterly world of impeccable detail that reflects on the profound absurdity of life? Or an overly controlled, somewhat tedious, endless film that doesn't live up to the previous film outings from Roy Andersson? Only you can decide.With a few final recommendations for must sees, that's all for this month.

November 2020 Cinema Podcast

This month Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, welcomes Cinema Producer Tara Judah back from maternity leave to discuss their highlights for the month ahead and a packed programme of new films and cinematic opportunities.Mark and Tara share their thoughts on much anticipated new British horror Saint Maud; cliché free, debut feature Miss Juneteenth, with its incredible cast and focus on a mother and her daughter facing the wider issues of many African-American communities in the US; the reflective and cinematic Rialto in which a middle-aged family man undergoes a crisis of masculinity and sexuality; and the inspirational force of nature that is Greta Thunberg and the impact that her actions have not only on the world but on her personally, intimately portrayed in documentary I Am Greta.But there's more as the BFI London Film Festival comes to Watershed this month with 11 exclusive previews from the Festival and a programme of both cinema and virtual screenings, making the festival for the first time simultaneously available UK wide. Tara and Mark share their must-sees from the programme and acknowledge the choices and new ways of watching cinema that this new type of hybrid festival brings.

October 2020 Cinema Podcast

This month Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, shares the background to his thinking about the films he is putting on for Watershed's reopening in September, and shares upcoming highlights.With this century's version of mainstream cinema – in which the blockbuster is all – currently going through some serious contortions, he reiterates how there is more to cinema and film culture than Hollywood. And how that has led to an opening programme of films which speak to an essential cinematic quality.

September 2020 Cinema Podcast

This month we take a pause in our monthly podcast as we prepare for re-opening.We look forward to seeing you in the cinema again soon.

August 2020 Cinema Podcast

Watershed staff, and guests give their take on some of the upcoming Watershed highlights – including films, festivals, events and cross-artform developments and debates.

hubhopper

Watershed Podcast

hubhopper