Lansdown Film Club presents A Bunch of Amateurs, which won the Audience Award at Sheffield Doc Fest 2022. Director Kim Hopkins introduces us to one of the oldest amateur film clubs - the Bradford Movie Makers. They are a quintessentially British, working-class filmmaking club, growing old together amid flickering memories and challenging final years. Clinging to their dreams, and to each other, fuelled by endless cups of tea, this gently comedic, profoundly moving portrait of shared artistic folly speaks to the escapist dreamer in us all and to the enduring power of face-to-face time together, in an increasingly lonely, digital age. A Bunch of Amateurs creates a beautiful sense of belonging and celebrates the bonds formed over a wild shared dream.

1hr 35mins plus online discussion with members of the production team

Venue: Lansdown Hall GL5 1BB

Start Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £6/£5

This documentary, directed  by Danai Papadatou runs at 63 mins and contains images and content around trauma, making it not suitable for children under 15

'“Grieving is a natural and a healthy process because through grieving we are able to progressively adapt to a new reality from which our loved one is missing. We build a continuing bond with the person who died." Danai Papadatou is Professor of Psychology at the University of Athens and has created this remarkable documentary about a tragic accident in a small Greek community.

After the film Danai will be taking questions from the audience directly from Athens. The q&a will be supported by The Good Grief Project and Compassionate Communities.

Venue: Trinity Rooms, Field Road, Stroud GL5 2HZ (across the road from Stroud Maternity ward)

Start Time: 3.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

Drop in workshop

Ages 5 upwards. Families welcome.

Design your own film poster following this year’s Film Poster Reinterpreted Exhibition theme ‘CREATURE FEATURES’. Take inspiration from the fabulous range of exhibition posters designed by our local talent of professional illustrators and designers on view at Lansdown Gallery February 28th –  March 6th, and at MiP March 8th – 31st.

In the kind and inventive hands of local and exhibiting illustrator Imogen Harvey-Lewis, enjoy tips and hints on how to create an awesome and impactful poster of your very own. Watch films and get thinking….so many to creature features to choose from!

Venue: The Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Start time: 2pm

Cost: £5 per child / £10 per family (2 + 2)

A door slams shut, distant thunder rumbles, a clock ticks … how were these sounds created in the pre-digital era? Come and discover the wonderful world of archive films and Foley sound in this fabulous workshop with Into Film Southwest. Whether you are an aspiring sound artist, an archive film buff or just want to explore, this workshop is a must!

You’ll be introduced to Archive Film and the principles of Foley sound creation. The workshop will involve discussion around Archive Film and hands on sound creation, using everyday objects to create sound effects for some early silent film clips. Foley sound creation is a fun and accessible activity, suitable for all young people.

Foley sound takes its name from Jack Foley, an American sound effects artist who pioneered sound effect recording techniques used in filmmaking.

Venue: Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Start Times: 11.00pm (ages 7 - 11) / 2.00pm (ages 11 - 14)

Cost: FREE thanks to funding from Into Film Southwest

Black Ark Media present an exciting and unique double bill!

NOSFERASTA  dir Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer  (30 mins) gives a nod to its German expressionist precursor of 1922, Nosferatu, to reimagine the life of Oba, a Brooklyn-based rastaman, artist, musician, and co-writer of this short film in which he stars. In a nutshell, Nosferasta explores the notion of colonialism by suggesting that once bitten, twice shy. In this case, it is the vampire Christopher Columbus who bites Oba and makes him eternally complicit in his settler project and crimes inferring that one can never truly be decolonized because it is in the blood. Nosferasta straddles the old world of 1492 and our own contemporary moment to shed light on an ongoing project of human trafficking, war, exile, migration, destruction and bloodsucking by a vampiric system known as capitalism. This is a wonderful postmodern mélange of history that manages to condense a vast amount of diasporic experiences into Oba’s reimagined life.

THIS IS OUR COUNTRY TOO looks at Australia from the bottom up or should I say from the frog’s perspective. Forget the stereotypical blond-haired surfer

dudes, with their perfect bodies and golden skin riding the set waves or just

laying back in the hot sun on some sandy beach at peace with themselves and

the serenity of a splendid sea. The film is a report on what happens (to draw on the title of a Langston Hughes poem) ‘when a dream is deferred.’ Although, for the aboriginal people of Australia, the dream was never offered in the first place. A deeply insightful and hard-hitting documentary which aims to debunk the myth of an aboriginal nation marred by hopelessness and the perils of domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol abuse. As a film audience we are invited into the heart of a struggle that humanizes the oppressed by shedding light on their troubles, their route to agency, and by putting a long-awaited gaze on a culturally rich and powerful people.

Director: Ishmahil Blagrove  Running time: 59 min

Black Ark Media will chair a Q&A with the director or a representative of the production team after the screening.

Black Ark Media creates events that bring communities together to share socially conscious art, literature, and films that allow people to have meaningful conversations about race, culture, and identity.

Venue: Lansdown Hall  GL5 1BB

Start time: 8.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

Introduced by Ismail Kholwadia, this event includes the screening of a 20-minute film followed by Q and A and discussion, alongside an exhibition

Unreflected Reflections is a project celebrating the Muslim communities in Gloucester and the significance of their contribution which has shaped the spaces, places and culture of the city facilitated by the Friendship Café.

Following on from the ‘Untold Stories series’ (2003) and the ‘History of Muslims in Gloucester’ booklet (2008), The Friendship Café is hoping to build on this and provide a glimpse into the history and narrative on the Muslim communities in Gloucester through a photography exhibition called ‘Through the Lens’ and short film documentary called ‘Gloucester’s Glory’

Venue: Trinity Rooms, Field Road, Stroud GL5 2HZ (across the road from Stroud Maternity ward)

Start time: 5.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

Following his successful gallery exhibition of landscape films in Nailsworth last

October, Pip shows a selection of these films, combined with new ones as well.  After thirty-five years editing fact-based documentaries for television, these films are now direct responses to the natural world, without words. “It’s vital that we try to listen to nature on its own terms, without all our human

interpretations.” Pip’s father Oliver was a local landscape painter, sketching in

nature. Pip is doing something similar with his camera.

THE STILL POINT (60 minutes) will be  introduced by Pip and followed by Q+A.

“Such a joyful celebration of nature’s dynamic beauty. Very meditative.”

“A celebration of the senses – turbulent, tranquil, full of discovery. A captivating and very timely exhibition.”

Venue: Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Start time: 2.00pm

Cost: £5

Get your pencils sharpened and ready to draw with local illustrator Imogen Harvey-Lewis.

This year’s Film Poster Reinterpreted Exhibition is called ‘Creature Features’, so animals are our theme.   Learn the simple steps to create an animated flip book of your own. From sequential drawing, narrative, thumbnails, and design. Be prepared for some fun and intensive drawing.

Share your moving triumphs at MiP, at home and online. Simple is usually best…so move it….plan your pocket-sized Creature Feature and come on down!

Venue: Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Start time: 2pm

Cost: £5 per child / £10 per family (2 + 2)

Artist duo Dangervitch & Neptune serve up a feast full of short films, showcasing the crème de la crème of young artists' creations. The Dinner Party combines contemporary film with performative presentation. Expect all: narrative, nonsense, and underground art.

Venue: SVA, John St, Stroud, GL5 2HA

Start Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £5

This documentary, directed by Olivier Jourdain, runs at 55mins, followed by a Q and A. It explores topics on female sexuality and is not suitable for children under 15

Sacred Water confronts the western viewer with its own intimacy and immerses you into a modern Rwanda rediscovering its heritage in the most secret way: female pleasure.

The event is facilitated by the Stroud women's group Red Hearth.

Links: https://sacredwater-movie.com/

Venue: Trinity Rooms, Field Road, Stroud GL5 2HZ (across the road from Stroud Maternity ward)

Start time: 7.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

An old man whose wife has just passed away uses his free local bus pass to travel to the other end of the UK, to where they originally moved from, using only local buses. It’s a nostalgic trip but also carrying his wife's ashes in a small suitcase. He is `taking her back' and in doing so he meets local people. By the end of his trip he's a celebrity.

Dir: Gillies MacKinnon   

1hr 26mins  2021

Venue: Stroud Brewery, Kingfisher Business Park, London Road, Thrupp GL5 2BY

Start Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £6

We are excited to be partnering with the wonderful RMC Retro to bring you a experiential experience into the world of retro video gaming! 

This look at rival video gamers is not about video games. It‘s possibly the ultimate depiction of good versus evil committed to film. The King of Kong transcends its pop culture origins and becomes a real-life Shakespearean drama. Do not miss this hilarious tale of life‘s nicest man versus the egomaniacal might of a sleazy super gamer who will stop at nothing to remain on top. 

Alongside this wonderful film RMC Retro will be showcasing various retro games with a high score competition to play out your own gaming rivalries down at the mill. 

Directed by Seth Gordon, 2007, 1h 19m 

Venue: The Long Table, Brimscombe Mills, Stroud GL5 2QN

Food, bar, gaming: 5.00-7.00

Film 7.00

Bar, gaming 8.30-9.00

Cost: Tickets for the film screening have been costed at the price of paying a meal forward for someone in need, in our community. If you would like to join us for the screening but cannot afford the cost of the ticket, then it’s on us. Just select from the second box below and enter your details through to the checkout page.

Stroud Film Society present MAYOR - a real-life political saga following Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah, during his second term in office. Rich with detailed observation and a surprising amount of humour, MAYOR offers a portrait of dignity amidst the madness and absurdity of endless occupation while posing a question: how do you run a city when you don't have a country?

This is part of the membership programme of Stroud Film Society. We welcome film festival visitors to our film. The upstairs bar at the Subs is open from 7:30. It’s also Paella night in the café, but booking is essential!

Venue: The Sub Rooms Stroud, GL5 1AE

Start time: 8.00pm

Cost: £7

Lansdown Film Club presents a recently released documentary about one of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, Eric Ravilious, who was killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in Iceland in 1942.  His life is as compelling and enigmatic as his art, set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspired him. Director Margy Kinmonth’s film brings to life this unique and somewhat undervalued British artist caught in the crossfire of war 80 years ago, whose legacy largely sank without trace until now. Released in his 80th anniversary year, this first full-length feature documentary about the artist unfolds in his own words, through previously unseen private correspondence and rare archive film.

Shot on location in UK, Portugal and Ireland, the film asks what it is to be a war artist, with an array of talking heads including Ai Weiwei, Alan Bennett, Grayson Perry, and author Robert Macfarlane who has written about the ancient pathways in Ravilious’ paintings of his beloved South Downs where he grew up.

1 hr 27 mins plus discussion and Q&A with Stroud based landscape artists Andy Lovell and Angela Findlay

Venue: Lansdown Hall GL5 1BB

Start time: 7.30pm

Cost: £6/£5

We're told we have a 'right to roam' but does that apply to everyone equally? Right of Way is a new feature-length programme that mixes stunning new artists' commissions with historical archive films that reflect on access and inclusion in the UK countryside, inspired by the foundation of the National Trails. These protected landscapes were created with a vision to 'connect people to the rural landscape'. But what happens when Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse people enter these landscapes? How can our natural spaces be homes to protest, trespassing, activism and raves?

The new commissions from artists Dan Guthrie, Ufuoma Essi and Arjuna Neuman interrupt and challenge the enduring perception of the rural idyll as an untouched and unchanging space.

After the screening Dan will be joined for the Q and A by Stroud based activist Sabrina Pace-Humphreys.

Venue: Lansdown Hall  GL5 1BB

Start time: 8pm

Cost: £6/£5

The Women’s Art Library presents unique and energised insights about the feminist links between art and education. Platforming a community of artists and researchers around the Women’s Art Library in London, the film reveals a balance between the preservation of records of self-identified women artists, with their activation. Hosting artists and researchers alike, the WAL is a space that generates creativity, through centring the intersectional feminist strategies that practitioners bring to their time with the library. Featuring the collection, the film documents the social and creative setting of the WAL (within Goldsmiths University), its users and its host; curator Althea Greenan. Yes to the Work! invites audiences to consider the importance of resources centred on women’s art today.

Commissioned by Art360 Foundation, a charity working with artist’s archives in Autumn 2022.

The screening is followed by a live in-conversation lead by writer and curator Jean Boyd, with artist and filmmaker Holly Antrum (Yes to the Work! Director), Althea Greenan (Women's Art Library), Ellie Porter (Art360 Foundation). 30 mins 2022

Venue (please note) Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Start time: 3.00pm

Cost: £5

An English language family drama, centred on the experiences of the Indian diaspora in Britain.

With his wife’s sudden death, Sanjay is thrown into close proximity with his three daughters. The drama unfolds over five days from the day Manju dies to her funeral. Haunted by memories, grappling with devastating loss, missing the mediating influence of his wife, Sanjay finds himself carving out new relations with his daughters. He is faced with a further crisis when he discovers his most loved daughter Dia has a Muslim boyfriend. Sanjay is forced to face his past demons; his trauma over the partition of India as a child when he was forced to leave his home. Finally, he has to come to terms with his old and unspoken prejudice about Muslims, in the larger context of the country in the grips of Islamophobia as the events of 7/7 and the consequences of the Iraq war reverberate.

Q&A with Sangeeta Datta, critically appraised writer, filmmaker and film historian. Her books on cinema include World Director Series: Shyam Benegal and the co-edited Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art and Tagore: The World As His Nest. Her filmography includes Bird of Dusk. She is also the mother of musician and composer Soumik Datta, an Arts Council-funded artist whose charity is based at Hawkwood. His work is centred on advocating for the preservation of Indian arts and raising awareness of social and environmental issues.

Venue: Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, GL6 7QW

Start time: 7.00pm

Cost: £8 concessions, £10 full price 

ADDITIONAL FILMS !!

Extended programme of gallery screenings in SVA John St Gallery as part of Local/Global Communities of Care: film project space, Friday 10 and Saturday 11 March, 10am-3pm

Featuring: 

Lotje Sodderland, LIMBO, 2021

Islands of Women, Zenae, 2022

 Oreet Ashery, Selfish Road, 2022

 Jade Montserrat and Webb-Ellis, Clay, Peat, Cage, 2015

Marita Fraser, Speaking With, 2020-2021

Sharon Young, Erotomania: Anna O, Lucy R, Elizabeth, 2018/2019

 Belle Palmano and Esrom Solomon, Wings of My Youth, 2023

 Sophie Ferrier, Guardians of the Soil, 2021

 Local/Global Communities of Care is an evening of short films by women and gender-variant filmmakers, both local and global, which explore anti-capitalist practices of care, repair, and solidarity across human and non-human worlds.

Reflecting on the connections formed in making across spaces, disciplines, and communities, with a close focus on the surrounding area, the event will also feature live readings and conversations with writers and filmmakers. Join us for an inclusive programme of films, live readings, and discussions the week of International Women’s Day. The films being screened:

Lotje Sodderland - LIMBO

Asena Nour - My mother's Mother

Viktoriya Valcheva - What Do the Dead Want from Us?

Sharon Young - Watch Your Lip (with performance)

Elise Guillaume - Where I Learn to Breathe

Caroline Vitzthum - Endling

Hatty Frances Bell - Feeding the Future

Oreet Ashery - Selfish Road

Venue: SVA, John St, Stroud, GL5 2HA. (PLEASE NOTE the venue is John Street and NOT the Goods Shed)

Running time: 7-10pm

Cost: £5

Biodiversity is also about what goes on inside our own bodies. The extinction of healthy bacteria in our bodies could escalate a new global health crisis. The good news: the field’s top two scientists are on the case, examining the impact microbiomes have on our wellbeing. 

The Invisible Extinction is directed by Steven Lawrence, Sarah Schenck and runs at

 85 min (film)

This event is Co-hosted with Invivo, fundraising for Trinity Rooms as a community health hub.

Links: https://www.theinvisibleextinction.com

Venue: Trinity Rooms, Field Road, Stroud GL5 2HZ (across the road from Stroud Maternity ward)

Start time: 7.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

Stroud Film Society present a quirky Filipino psychological comedy-drama! We are delighted to be showing this film before its release.  An innovative blend of pulpy action homages, playful comedy and touching family drama, Martika Ramirez Escobar’s award-winning feature debut is an infectiously entertaining, wonderfully imaginative ode to the art of filmmaking.

A former screenwriter in the Filipino film industry during its action glory days, Leonor now struggles with old age and mounting bills. Revisiting an unfinished script, at the same time as lying unconscious, fantasy and reality begin to blur. Weaving together scenes with Leonor’s more vibrant and action-packed imagination, Leonor Will Never Die is gleefully offbeat. A Special Jury Prize-winner at Sundance, it’s at once a tribute to the Filipino action movies of yesteryear, a tender portrait of a compulsive artist, and a clever, creative study of the immortalising possibilities of cinema.

Sorry tickets are NOT included in Film Society membership.The upstairs bar at the Subs is open from 7:30. It’s also Paella night in the café, but booking is essential!

Venue: The Sub Rooms, Stroud , GL5 1AE

Start time: 8.00pm

Cost: £8

Lansdown Film Club present an evening of short documentary films about the multifaceted life of Ukraine before the invasion, created in the last few years at Indie-lab, a production company for emerging film makers in Kyiv. Hosted by Kateryna, a young refugee film artist currently living in Gloucester. Themes of the films include a young journalist’s view of his world (FOMO 2019), Ukraine song tradition (Thus They Will Sing 2020), a young women caring for her mentally ill mother (Birthmark 2020) , memories of gay women in Ukraine in the late Soviet Union (The Wonderful Years 2018)  the work of the ambulance brigade during the New Year Kyiv celebrations (Save Me Doctor 2020) and how break dancing impacted Ukraine in 1990’s (Broken Culture 2020). As well as possibly two shorts made since the Russian invasion.

2 hr 30 includingQ&A.

Venue: Lansdown Hall  GL5 1BB  

Start time: 7.30pm

Cost: £6/£5

Directed by Wes Anderson, this is the story of Mr. Fox and his wild ways of hen heckling, turkey taking, and cider sipping, nocturnal, instinctive adventures. He has to put his wild days behind him and do what fathers do best: be responsible. He is too rebellious. He is too wild. He is going to try "just one more raid" on the three nastiest, meanest farmers that are Walter Boggis, Nathan Bunce, and Franklin Bean. It is a tale of crossing the line of family responsibilities and midnight adventure and the friendships and awakenings of this country life that is inhabited by Fantastic Mr. Fox and his friends. Running time 87 minutes.

Stroud Brewery is once again proud to be  one of the unique venues taking part in  Stroud Film Festival.  This year, with a family film on screen, everyone is invited  to come for a tasty meal first, enjoy an organic drink, then sit and wonder at the marvel of film!

Venue: Stroud Brewery  Kingfisher Business Park, London Road, Thrupp GL5 2BY

Start time: 2.00pm

Cost: Adult £6 Child £4

Lansdown Film Club present immersive cinema. Dress up for a night at the Moulin Rouge, buy your favourite cocktail to accompany you as you dance the can-can (friendly choreographer supplied) and nibble on delicious hors d'oeuvres before you relax into a silver chair to watch Baz Luhrmann’s iconic full-on musical film .

Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes plus dancing and drinking!

Venue: Lansdown Hall  GL5 1BB

Start time: 8.00pm

Cost: £6/£5

A late afternoon event with two contrasting, fascinating short films with Stroud connections.

‘Chatter’ (11 mins) was filmed in beautiful locations around Stroud, directed by Cheltenham based Jane Devoy, featuring Stroud based actors. Set at the start of the pandemic, a single parent nurse and her two daughters each find a way to navigate the first lockdown. Q&A with Devoy, who is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened internationally. She trained at the Polish National Film School and is currently collaborating with novelist Susanna Jones. 

Directed by Roland Denning ,‘The Society for the Protection of Unwanted Objects’has won many awards including ‘Best Film’ in Portobello Film Festival 2022. This 30 minute documentary is about a ‘vintage’ shop invented in Brixton, South London which has now moved to the old Labour Exchange in Lansdown, Stroud. Its owner is James, a man dedicated to saving and recycling stuff that most of us might just throw away. More comes in than goes out. In the documentary Karen, his partner, is trying to quell what could also be seen as hoarding.  Q & A with director Roland Denning and shop owner James Castle

Venue: Lansdown Hall  GL5 1BB

Start time: 5pm

Cost: Tickets £6/£5

Stroud Film Festival in conjunction with Stroud based children’s charity ALLSORTS (www.allsortsglos.org.uk) are pleased to announce a relaxed screening of SING 2

SING 2 (cert U) is an animated musical comedy that tells the story of Buster Moon and his friends, who must persuade reclusive pop star Clay Calloway to join them for the opening of a new show. 

Relaxed screenings are specifically designed for those who would appreciate a less formal cinema environment. Audience members are welcome to leave their seats, make noise and move around as they wish. Small changes to the light and sound effects will be made to reduce any anxiety.

Venue: Lansdown Hall, Stroud GL5 1BB

Start time: 2.30pm

Cost: £5 adults/ £3 children 

Black Ark Media pulls another one out of the bag with this Afro-futurist,

Cyberpunk, postmodern, surrealist take on the inequalities of the technological divide, resource grabbing, and the struggles of being black and queer in a deeply hegemonic world. Neptune Frost is a film that questions everything and manages to remain hip, highly inventive, flamboyant, intelligent and a visual trendsetter in every sense of the word. No doubt destined to become an underground cult movie; Neptune Frost broadens the black aesthetic in a way that captures the zeitgeist of our times whilst using art in the most interesting of ways to say some important things.

Directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2022.

(cert 15; 105 mins)

Black Ark Media will chair a Q & A with the director or a representative of the production team after the screening.

Black Ark Media create events that bring communities together to share socially conscious art, literature, and films that allow people to have meaningful conversations about race, culture, and identity.

Venue: Lansdown Hall, GL5 1BB

Start time: 8.00

Cost: £6/£5

Hawkwood presents this documentary screening. Each ticket will include a food taster with produce grown on our biodynamically farmed walled garden and Stroud Community Agriculture, all cooked freshly by their chefs.

Vandana Shiva is an icon of a global organic food and farming  movement. However, few are aware of how this daughter of a  Himalayan Forest conservator rose from obscurity to become a world leader of Gandhian stature. Hers is the remarkable and unlikely story of a girl who trekked from highland cabin to cabin alongside her father, tended a garden alongside her mother, and pursued an education that freed her from the caste and gender constraints of traditional Indian society, that culminated in a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Quantum Theory. But those achievements were merely a prelude to her awakening as a fully committed activist. The Seeds of Vandana Shiva focuses on the people, circumstances, and seminal events in Vandana’s life—what shaped her thinking and defined her purpose. It also shows how the battle against multinational agribusiness has become an international struggle between two visions for feeding the world.

Introduced by Alicia Carey, CEO, Hawkwood CFT

Venue: Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, GL6 7QW

Start time: 7.00pm

Cost (includes food and the film) £8 concessions, £10 full price 

This new documentary delves into a treasure trove of Spike Milligan’s recently revealed archive to tell a brand new story of the comic genius. Newly discovered footage, scripts, letters, objects, photographs, recordings and art all come together to paint a revealing new portrait of Spike - and also of a man plagued by crippling mental illness. Director and Stroud resident, Seb Barfield takes us on an engaging and surreal journey through the material - unpublished screenplays, scrupulously compiled and bitingly annotated photo albums, intimate tape recordings and home movies of sunny afternoons in the paddling pool. All this is intersected with a series of newly commissioned stop-frame animations made by Joe Magee (another Stroud resident) using objects found in Spike’s archive.

We are delighted that Spike’s daughter Jane Milligan, will be part of the panel after the film.

This is THE definitive story of Spike Milligan... In his own words. All profits from this screening will be donated to MIND. The 90 minutes is made by Yeti Television and the screening is courtesy of Sky Arts.

Venue: Lansdown Hall, GL5 1BB, Stroud

Start time: 7.30

Cost: £6/£5