Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

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Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020

17 September-11 October 2020

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Dark Cinema - Chris Watson
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Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival moves online for its 16th edition with a new streaming format that provides access to its 53 films for three weeks for just £7.50 — the price of a normal cinema ticket. Consistently one of the UK’s most interesting moving image festivals, Berwick’s lineup encompasses everything from newly commissioned artist film to a live sound event by acclaimed musician and sound recordist Chris Watson.

For the first time, the festival’s New Cinema Competition will include short, medium and feature length work. The strand is also non-competitive this year, with all selected filmmakers sharing a prize created by reallocating funds that would have ordinarily supported filmmakers’ travel and accommodation at the Festival. Made up of 17 works from almost as many countries, the selected films engage with global topics, utilising new and experimental techniques.

Consistently one of the UK’s most interesting moving image festivals, Berwick’s lineup encompasses everything from newly commissioned artist film to a live sound event by Chris Watson.

This year’s festival includes a 2020 Essential Cinema strand designed to provide a revisionist view of classic cinema. This includes three restorations showing in the UK for the first time: Márta Mészáros’s rarely-seen third feature 1970 Szép lányok, ne sírjatok (Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!) looks at the Beat era in socialist Hungary; the late Armenian filmmaker Maria Saakyan’s 2006 debut feature The Lighthouse follows a young woman embracing an apocalyptic vision of freedom; and the recently rediscovered 1971 film Badnaam Basti (Alley of Ill Repute), Prem Kapoor’s bandit musical debut featuring Hindi cinema’s first portrayal of queer desire.

On a more recent note, UK artist Kat Anderson’s video works enquiring “into representations of mental illness and trauma as experienced by or projected upon Black bodies in media” and Hong Kong’s Tiffany Sia’s experimental exploration of the potential for anti-colonial filmmaking are both exhibited at a film festival for the first time. Also new for 2020, is the Previews strand, a programme highlighting forthcoming feature-length films from Tim Leyendekker and Fern Silva.

Where to go near Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020

Manchester
Gallery
Black Redstart Gallery

Black Redstart Gallery is located in the Northern Quarter and runs a busy programme of exhibitions from emerging and established artists.

RJC Dance Xmas Show
Leeds
RJC Dance

RJC Dance, based in Chapeltown, Leeds, champions youth and education, leading inclusive Black dance in the North through national partnerships.

texture logo
Manchester
Gallery
texture mcr

Possibly one of the city’s most mysterious art galleries, texture is a small and perfectly-formed independent space in Ardwick.

The Beacon at Cliffe Castle Park
Bradford
Park
Cliffe Castle Park

Cliffe Castle Park hosts the Beacon, a stunning performance space that will be touring the district throughout Bradford UK City of Culture 2025.

Hern Food
Leeds
Restaurant
Hern

This produce-driven bistro in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, prides itself on cooking with the only finest ingredients and his headed up by Cordon Bleu-trained chef Rab Adams.

Indie Makers
Leeds
Shop
Indie Makers

Indie Makers, located in Leads’ corn exchange, trades in art and gifts from independent makers across the UK.

Plant Point
Leeds
Shop
Plant Point

Plant Point is designed to help you bring the jungle into your urban or suburban space. The home of beautiful plants in Leeds.

Leeds
Restaurant
Eat Your Greens

Eat Your Greens is a vibrant, organic restaurant bringing a hint of European flair to the city’s plant-based dining scene.

Sela opened in 2004 with an idea to provide quality imported beers from around the world, fun cocktails to compliment the beer selections and a stage for the region’s finest and most talented musicians to play on.Over ten years later, we’re still all about the beer, cocktails, live music and pizza!We carry over a selection of over thirty different beers spanning the globe from Pickering with The Great Yorkshire Brewery’s Yorkshire Blackout, to New York with a selection from Brooklyn Brewery, and Belgium with longtime Sela favourite, Vedett.Our cocktails change regularly too. Our best-sellers are joined by fun, new offerings and our pizza menu is regarded as one of the best the city of Leeds has to offer.As for the live music, Sela has had not only the great and the good from the region. Local funksters, The New Mastersounds are regular visitors and we stage the amazing Mojah Reggae Band for their weekly Wednesday residency.  Our other long running programming incl
Leeds
Restaurant
Sela Bar & Pizzeria

Sela Bar is a cosy Leeds basement spot with live music, great drinks, and a cool, laid-back, atmospheric vibe.

What's on: Cinema

Until
CinemaManchester
My Life as a Courgette at HOME

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Two young women dance in a nightclub, smiling next to each other.
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The Last Days of Disco + Q&A at HOME

Director Whit Stillman presents a 35mm screenings of one of the best films of the nineties, as a group of twenty-somethings navigate The Last Days of Disco.

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Until
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YANK at Cultplex

Thirteen movies to get to know the United States of America. Cultplex presents a season of film exploring America through its own lens.

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