cables&cameras

 TESTIMONIALs

"Cable and Cameras is an important intervention into Bristol film culture, providing a much needed space and a voice for Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority filmmakers. It's also a huge amount of fun, showcasing dynamic work from a range of up-and-coming and established filmmakers, and providing an exciting opportunity to not only see the work, but also to discuss, socialise and network."

 Dr Charlotte Crofts ( Associate Professor of Filmmaking, UWE Bristol )

I love what Cables and Cameras is doing for the Bristol filmmaking community, it’s drawing together filmmakers and actors from across the city and providing a friendly and welcoming space to form new connections. It’s giving a great platform for BAME creatives to show their work and find new collaborators; and that’s vital in such a white male dominated industry. When I’m there I look around and I hear people introducing themselves and swapping details. There’s a long way to go but it feels like something is changing.  And it’s exciting to be a part of it.  

 Andy Mosse ( Producer Director at Wildseed Studios )

'Attending Cables & Cameras events have been an amazing experience for me. As an aspiring BME filmmaker, it's been a great opportunity to network with other filmmakers and creatives, and it's also been a privilege to see my short films on the big screen! Cables & Cameras is an incredibly important initiative for local filmmakers in Bristol - and I hope it keeps running for years to come!'

Elias Williams ( MANDEM founder )

The Conversation was a really inspiring event that tackled head on, in a very honest environment, some of the issues around the lack of diversity in the film and TV industry as well as offering some hands on training, workshops and screenings. The event opened with a fantastic key note which was truly inspiring and motivational and the audience was highly engaged from start to finish - asking pertinent questions and starting debate, as well as making good contacts. In future years if the event were to run again I would urge funders to put some money to help with marketing and outreach to encourage a bigger audience. Overall a big success for Gary and his team.

 Rachel Drummond-Hay

Company Director

Drummer Television

Knowle West Media Centre commissioned Gary Thompson as a curator, filmmaker and former Knowle West resident, to develop a creative event exploring the musical heritage of South Bristol, as part of 100 Years of Knowle West Style, a project that forms part of #Homesforheroes100 marking the centenary of council housing in Britain.  

The event, HOMECOMING, drew upon Gary’s experiences growing up in Knowle West and his expert insider knowledge of the local venues, pioneering musicians and creative scene that developed in his childhood neighbourhood and beyond. Gary worked in a collaborative and responsive way with the KWMC production team throughout and shared thoughtful insights on local history and culture, whilst generously pooling his excellent connections to help build a stellar line up of contributors to the event. 

HOMECOMING drew diverse audiences from across the city, as well as inviting a strong local turnout and feedback was overwhelmingly positive, including many people advising that the event totally changed their perception of the area. 

Celia Turley, Arts Producer - Knowle West Media Centre

"It was fantastic to have Cables and Camera's as part of our Digital Cities line-up at the Screen Futures Event in Bristol in January. They produced a really interesting and lively session around the future for BAME filmmaking, with great insight into the personal journey of BAME film maker Sheridan De Myers of Running Films as he talked about his journey into filmmaking. Elias from MANDEM did a great job at keeping the narrative on track as well as fielding questions from the audience. The best of these type of discussions / events make the whole thing look effortless and straight forward, but as event producer myself I know that there is a real skill and a great deal of work goes into that happening. The team led by Gary from Cables and Camera's did a great job and I look forward to working with them again next time we are running an event in Bristol."

 Shirley Benson

Producer

BBC Digital Cities Birmingham, Bristol & Manchester

The Bridge

"During the Pandemic we were looking to find ways to help local filmmakers make connections with each other and with the wider industry without being able to meet in our venue and so it was really helpful to partner with Cables and Cameras to put their films in a new context and introduce them to the work of others. It is important to keep our creative minds inspired, engaged and dreaming in these times and the curation of these films has helped address that."

Claire Vaughan 

Programme Manager, Film and Cinema I Rheolwr Rhaglen, Ffilm a Sinema 

Chapter Cinema