Film screenings
Bristol Cinema Rediscovered: Coming Out & Paris Texas

Two German films have been programmed to play at Watershed Bristol's annual film festival

Wed, 24.07.2024 -
Sun, 28.07.2024
Various venues in Bristol

Cinema Rediscovered returns to venues in and around Bristol from Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28 July with 60+ screenings and events combining screenings of newly restored films, rediscoveries and film-on-film rarities, cinema walks, a quiz and a multitude of starting points for lively conversation.

Expect a friendly space for all to share passions and enthusiasms for film. The festival will launch a UK wide tour of highlights (Aug – Dec 2024).


About the German Films

Coming Out (Heiner Carow, East Germany 1989)
Thu 25 Jul, 8.40pm, Watershed (Cinema 3)

Showing as part of the festival’s Queer Cinema from the Eastern Block strand, Heiner Carow’s Teddy Award-winning film tells the story of an East German teacher who begins to question his sexuality after a reunion with a childhood friend. Coming Out was the result of a decades-long fight by activists for the East German state to provide equality for queer people in all its activities, including through the DEFA, the state-run agency responsible for producing films. With its premiere taking place on the evening the Berlin Wall fell, the film is a unique window into gay life in East Berlin before it was transformed by reunification.

Paris, Texas, UK Premiere of the 4K Restoration (Wim Wenders, France, United States, West Germany 1984)
Sat 27 Jul 2pm, Bristol Aquarium Cinema

Wim Wenders’s film about a man who emerges out of the desert without any memory of who he is remains one of the most iconic films of the 1980s. With moving performances by the late Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski and a haunting score by Ry Cooder, it won the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. This stunning 4K restoration, supervised by Wenders, is also a tribute to the great Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller and his sublime use of colour in this film.