RAI Film Festival announces March return to Bristol with live programme

RAI Film Festival, which showcases groundbreaking documentary filmmaking from around the world, is back in Bristol after four years as it makes a welcome return with an exciting live programme of films, high-profile filmmaker events, workshops and exhibitions.

Live in Bristol takes place at the Watershed cinema and Arnolfini arts centre from 22 – 25 March, complementing RAI Film Festival 2023’s four-week online festival throughout March.

The in-person festival welcomes visitors from all over the world, as well as the local community in Bristol. Full festival pass holders access an online festival programme of over 80 films, and gain entry to all screenings and events in Bristol. Single tickets to live film screenings go on sale from 28 February.

The festival gathers storytellers from every corner of the world, whose films shine a light on the people, places and stories that are too often lost in the spotlight of global media.

Festival co-director, Caterina Sartori, said, “The return of a face-to-face festival is such a boost, allowing plenty of opportunities to socialise, network, and of course return to our beloved cinema and arts spaces in Bristol.”

Forerunners in contemporary anthropological cinema compete for the festival’s most prestigious honours, the main competition RAI Film Prize. All ten competition films will screen at the Watershed cinema during the festival. These are A Thousand Fires (Saeed Taji Farouky), Ernesto, gracias (Laura Ángel), How to Save a Dead Friend (Marusya Syroechkovskay), La Nave (Carlos Maria Romero), Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege (Abdallah Al-Khatib), Once Upon a Village (Srishti Lakhera), Rebel Objects (Carolina Arias Orti), Slow  Return (Philip Cartell), Swirling in the Dreams (Hung En Su) and The Prison Promise (Joseph Dégramon Ndjom).

RAI Film Festival is honoured to welcome both this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award and President Award recipients, Alanis Obomsawin and Trinh T. Minh-ha, to Bristol to accept their awards.

Obomsawin, one of Canada’s most distinguished and prolific filmmakers, is in conversation with Professor Faye Ginsburg (NYU), followed by screenings of Bill Reid Remembers with Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair, and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, considered a watershed work in First Nation filmmaking.

Trinh T. Minh-ha’s CPH:DOX New:Vision award-winning documentary, What About China? is followed by the Vietnamese-born filmmaker in conversation with May Ingawanij.

Arandu – Listen to the Weather is a special programme of films and roundtable conversations celebrating 35 years of Indigenous filmmaking from Brazil. The programme highlights the cultural, land preservation and environmental issues raised by Indigenous film from the point of the view of the Indigenous communities.

For the first time, RAI Film Festival includes a section devoted to XR work. Expanded Reality Experience features five multisensory and immersive works by emerging creators.

In addition, a wide range of workshops from The Tiktok of Social Life and Fundraising for documentary film through to Experiments in polyphonic documentary, demonstrate the diversity of the festival offer.

The festival provides plenty of opportunities for networking and socialising at both venues’ beautiful waterfront locations, including opening and closing night drinks receptions.

For full details of the schedule of events, visit the festival website.

Established in 1985 by the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK), RAI Film Festival 2023 takes place online globally from 3 – 31 March and in-person at Bristol (UK) from 22 – 25 March.