Impact of Conflict

© Twin Town (1997)

While the season has now ended, you can still find inspiration via the project website.

Impact of Conflict: Conversations About Cinema was a new UK wide project that opened up debates and discussion through film, beginning with the theme of conflict and the issues it raises. Together we presented a season of films looking at the modern battlegrounds of democracy and freedom, including the ongoing impact of World War I.

Watershed (Bristol), Chapter (Cardiff) and QFT (Belfast) led the project across the three venues in three Film Hub regions; Wales, Northern Ireland and the South West & West Midlands. The project launched a new dedicated wefan Canolfan Ffilm Cymru which shared responses to the programme through blogs, videos, recordings, interviews and live twitter feeds.  By tweeting #convocinema, audience members couldimmediately join in with the conversation through social media, and audience members could fill in ‘post it’ notes about their reactions to the films on notice boards in the venues.

The diverse programme in Wales was developed in partnership with the European commission, Watch Africa, Wales One World Film Festival FAN BFI a Cardiff University, allowing us to examine themes such as post-war European integration, liberation of African nations after the destruction of traditional empires, Iranian cinema since the 1979 revolution, Chilean response to the Pinochet coup and Wales after the 1984 miners strike. Through the project we continued our important work with independent exhibitors, whilst also generating a deeper level of audience engagement with the films on offer.

As part of this season Chapter held a Q&A with John Boorman, hosted by Tom Betts, in which he talked about conflict and his new film Queen and Country;

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