Screening films for social change: origins, aims and evolution of the Bristol Radical Film Festival

Abstract

Festivals have tremendous power to engage diverse audiences with new forms of cultural consumption, but also provide opportunities for enlightening debate and encouraging action for social change. The Bristol Radical Film Festival (BRFF) takes place annually in venues throughout the city of Bristol, in the South West of England, presenting a curated programme of ‘radical’ films and documentaries which are screened in non-traditional venues. Drawing on ideas of Latin American radical film making, the organisers explicitly sought to use the festival to connect community activists within the city. This chapter examines how festival organisers used the cultural capital of their association with the University of the West of England to help legitimise their activities, under the radar of university managers to create a novel form of societal impact.