CITYIST

Get seen by top casting directors and agents

iampro is a Bristol-based online drama school created by actress Charlie Brooks, who plays Janine Butcher in the BBC’s Eastenders. With a mission of making the TV, film and theatre industry accessible to all, iampro offers a range of classes and events, including masterclasses with some of the best in the business such as Game of Thrones star John Bradley West and Waterloo Road lead, Angela Griffin. If you want to get seen by top casting directors and agents, iampro’s GET SEEN showcase is on the 2 October. This is the perfect opportunity to show off your talent to some industry experts. Already confirmed on the panel are Des Hamilton (Casting Director), Chris Crocker (Argo Artists Agent) and Shaheen Baig (Casting Director)

• Sign up at: iampro.com/memberships

BRISTOL My

Meet singer/songwriter and founder of MOON FEST –a Bristol festival creating a safe space for the East and South East Asian community, Monica Wat

I forged a dual connection with Bristol from the

very beginning: I moved to Bristol last September from Hong Kong for my exchange year at the University of Bristol, but knowing well that I was moving here in the long term too. I had known about Bristol Old Vic as early as six years ago when I first visited the UK as a wide-eyed theatre student. For the longest time, I was also fascinated by Banksy. To me, Bristol had almost become synonymous with creativity and the arts, and I wasn’t disappointed. I have also met so many fellow talented filmmakers, musicians and creatives.

MOON FEST is a festival celebrating East and

South East Asian (ESEA) creatives through art, performances, short film screenings and delicious food. We recently created the first MOON FEST at Arnolfini, which was also the traditional mid-autumn festival weekend, an important occasion for many ESEA cultures which symbolises reunion with families and friends. Our festival also falls in September because it is the ESEA Heritage Month initiated by besea.n, the biggest ESEA community group in the UK.

One hand is all it takes to count every Asian artist I’ve met in the past year. For sure, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to search for people who look like us or share similar heritages, because diversity would be so normalised that everyone shares equal appreciation and opportunities with each other. But that is yet to come, if ever. Microaggressions, racism and differentiated treatment that I have experienced – from the streets of Bristol, gigs to networking events –really drive this desire within me to meet other talented Asian friends.

We are always looking for new friends

(particularly those of ESEA heritages) who have better knowledge and experiences in areas that are fundamental to event organisation, from budgeting to graphic design so we’d love for people to message us if they’re interested. Before each MOON FEST, we will launch an open call to invite artists and food makers to sign up.

We have already started planning next year’s

MOON FEST. I’m also producing new music –including tracks that document my experiences in Bristol so far – though it is certainly taking its sweet time especially with me moving between places all the time. Also, properly settling down in the UK and my final year of university. For the immediate future, as in next week, I’ll be speaking at the Encounters Film Festival at Watershed as a pre-selector of Depict Short and MOON FEST’s founder, and I can’t wait to watch fellow MOON FEST filmmaker Clarenz Gutierrez Badlis’s new film at the festival too.

I love learning new things about this city and

our society. The other day, I took the train to Cotham for the first time (somehow) and I wasn’t aware of how multi-cultural it was before. I walked into this Korean supermarket, met its gracious silver-haired Korean owner, talked about being migrants, his grocery store business, practiced my beginner level Korean and got a hotteok-making kit! Meanwhile, Ashton Court is my favourite forest to go to when I want to recharge and feel connected with myself and nature.

I promise I’m not told to say this but I’ve been

listening to fellow MOON FEST performer Thomas Kam’s podcast, which was part of Making Tracks, a partnership project between Trinity Bristol, Basement Studios and Aspiration Creation Elevation (ACE). I’m feeling very inspired by the deep conversations he has with fellow musicians, many of whom are Bristolbased. I’ve also been reading Minor Feelings to further acquire the language and concepts to articulate my experiences of being an Asian person in a Western country, for lack of a better word.

Image credit: Peter Wan

My philosophy will forever be evolving because

that’s just how life works.

• Follow MOON FEST’s Instagram: @moonfestofficial. If you would like to help fund next year’s MOON FEST, donate at: kofi.com/moonfest

Local author releases climate conscious novel

“There is a fish on the sand; I see it clearly. But it is not on its side, lying still. It is partly upright. It moves. I can see its gills, off the ground and wide open. It looks as though it’s standing up.”

A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a rice paddy instead.

Thousands of miles away, expat

Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island. But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy’s kitchen window are just the start. As more and more sea creatures begin to leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.

About the author: After growing up in rural Staffordshire, author Joanne

Stubbs studied biochemistry at Wadham College, Oxford. She has since worked in a variety of roles in science communication and engagement, and currently lives and works in the Bristol area. Joanne holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. The Fish is her debut novel.

• Published by Fairlight Books, The Fish by Joanne Stubbs is out on 6 October, £10.99. Buy it at: fairlightbooks.co.uk/the-fish

Wear It Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is back again this month and the charity is encouraging everyone to Wear It Pink on 21

October. By taking part in Breast Cancer Now’s biggest and brightest fundraising event, you can help raise as much money as possible for worldclass research and life-changing support services, helping thousands living with breast cancer across the UK.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK. Every 10 minutes one woman is diagnosed with the disease and cases have increased by almost a quarter in the last 30 years. The charity is moving towards a vision that by 2050, everyone diagnosed with breast cancer lives, and is supported to live well. Because of the impact of COVID-19, researchers missed over 230,000 hours in their labs, and the charity had to pivot its support services online overnight. Despite these challenges, it continues to provide expert support and vital hope for the future for all those affected by breast cancer, and it is more determined than ever to reach its goal.

So, on 21 October wear it pink, raise money and help fund life-changing breast cancer research and support.

• Sign up today at wearitpink.org

Remembering Bristol composer Eric Wetherell

Eric Wetherell was born in Tyneside and worked extensively in music at the highest levels, from playing horn professionally under Sir Thomas Beecham and Rudolf Schwartz, to working with the WNO and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to his time as senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 in the South West. He was instrumental in the development of St George’s Bristol as a concert venue and spent the last forty years of his life contributing to the musical soul of the city. A special concert celebrating the life and music of Eric will be held on 19 November at St Mary Redcliffe Church and will showcase the musician’s broad range of compositional skills, from his lyrical writing for choir, to his tender, emotional operatic music to his expansive and thrilling writing for orchestra. The programme for the concert has been specially chosen to highlight Eric’s talent for writing exceptionally beautiful melodies and harmonies that support but never overwhelm them. Eric used to say “I was born in the wrong era” when describing his work, and those who appreciate excellent tunes will very much enjoy his music. Eric wrote numerous works for and about the city of Bristol, many of which will be showcased in this concert. The performance will be narrated by John Telfer (Rev Alan Franks from BBC Radio 4’s The Archers) and conducted by Ben England, who was awarded the BEM in October 2020 for services to choral music and the community. The charity concert will support the wonderful work of St Peter’s Hospice, where Eric spent some of the last months of his life and all profits plus a retiring collection will go to this essential charitable organisation.

• For more information and to book tickets, visit: ticketsource.co.uk/remembering-eric-wetherell