Film: The War Game

bristol | media and culture | event notice Thursday June 24, 2010 11:28 by Alice - Arnolfini

Using amateur actors to imagine a nuclear strike on Britain at the height of the cold war, this controversial film was almost immediately banned.

Sunday 22 August 2.30pm at Arnolfini

Film: The War Game

Using amateur actors to imagine a nuclear strike on Britain at the height of the cold war, this controversial film was almost immediately banned. Watkins' ambition was to question the illusory aspects of media-produced reality, confronting notions of reality and objectivity by deliberately staging films as though they were really happening.
Dir. Peter Watkins, UK, 1965, 47m

This film is also part of Known Unknowns, a film season which explores the camera's role not only in recording events, but also in producing them; it explores the implications of the camera as an agent of change, something which can deceive and beguile as easily as it can record.