BARTLEBY

THE CITYist

My BRISTOL

Meet Bristol actor Stewart Wright

Nadia Williams plays Rochelle

Taking Bristol global

A locally made film has been selected to play at Toronto’s Caribbean Tales International Film Festival, which is going digital for 2020.

Carnival, directed and produced by the award-winning Stuart Napier, tells the tale of an absent mother, Rochelle, returning to visit her young daughter, and with a cast of a thousand extras the story unfolds in the vibrant, colourful world of the St Pauls Caribbean Carnival. It’s a testing time for Rochelle, who must prove she has moved on from her shady past in order to keep her ties to her daughter and build a future for both of them. While at the carnival she meets a man from this past chapter and must decide whether she wants to be a different, responsible mother or go back to her old life.

Caribbean Tales, founded by award-winning filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, aims to enrich and promote culturally diverse film and television content for audiences around the world. "Filmed during St Pauls Carnival’s 50th year anniversary, we are very proud to have premiered a UK film screening during our first digital carnival – Spirit Up! United at Home,” says St Pauls Carnival’s executive director LaToyah McAllister-Jones. “The film captures the rich heritage of African Caribbean people and the complexity of our stories, with the iconic Carnival as the backdrop! Taking Bristol global; what's not to like?”

“I’m delighted Carnival has been included,” said actor Nadia Williams (Broadchurch, Extras), who plays Rochelle. “It was a privilege to have filmed in the heart of St Pauls Carnival, and it’s thrilling to know that Toronto will get a taste of Bristol's rich Caribbean culture.”

Ed Browning (Poldark), who plays Darren, added. “The film is an excellent showcase for Bristol’s pride in its Caribbean community and how it enriches the culture of the city as a whole. Bringing that to an international audience is such a great achievement.

“It’s a beautifully honest story too, and that’s very important.”

When I was around 30, I landed the role of

PC Mark Mylow in Doc Martin, filmed in Cornwall. They provided cottages for the actors and I fancied a change, so I gave up my flat in London and lived down there for two years. I loved the space, tranquillity and nature but realised ultimately that I was a city person. I’d enjoyed working at the Bristol Old Vic before so headed up here to try it out as a place to live. I fell for the sense of community and creativity, and the city’s progressive outlook. I’ve lived in South Bristol now for 15 years. My wife Celia and I are raising our family here and we feel very much at home.

Small Axe is a BBC costume drama set in late 1960s to mid-1980s London and it’s out

later this autumn. It is a drama anthology comprising five original films by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. Each tells a different story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will, despite rampant racism and discrimination. I play a teacher in the film titled Education. I enjoyed learning guitar for my role and absorbing myself in ’70s music. It was a thrill to work with Steve McQueen on his first project for TV and contribute to such a timely and powerful piece of work.

If I’m at home the day starts early, usually with one of our boys jumping on my head.

I’ll try and escape at least some of the mayhem by taking our dog for a walk around Victoria Park. By 9am I’m trying to piece my thoughts together over a coffee. I’m most productive in the mornings so this is when I’ll be learning lines, writing, sending emails, or reading scripts. I might fit in a trip to the gym or a yoga class before one of us picks up the boys at 3pm. Under normal circumstances, I could be in London for meetings a couple of times a week, or away working in theatre or on a TV or film set. Those days are quite different; I’ll wake up in a hotel, theatre digs or, where possible, my motor home.

I had a nice role in Bollywood film Jungle Cry which premiered at Cannes

in 2019 and is set for international release early next year. The film tells the real-life story of a group of Indian street kids who surprised the world in 2007 when they came to the UK and won the Junior Rugby World Cup. I play Paul Walsh, the coach who inspired the team to play.

Image: Ruth Crafer

Creatives I admire include Esther May

Campbell as a filmmaker, Craig Edwards for his theatre directing and Extinction Rebellion for their creative approach to protest.

During lockdown I was involved in a series of short comedy films called Housebound.

The directors sent the scripts to the actors and we filmed ourselves at home before it was all edited together. There are 14 10- minute episodes on YouTube. I’ve also been falling back on my previous youthwork and playworker experience in an attempt to engage our five-year-old and three-year-old boys, who’ve been with us at home. I set up an Instagram account sharing ideas around this: @playworkdad.

I’m part of a curry club working its way

around the city’s curry houses. Our next stop is Nutmeg in Clifton. I rarely travel far for a drink, so The Victoria Park pub gets most of my custom with its family-friendly

atmosphere and great beer garden. n

THE CITYist

Up in lights: a heartfelt thank you for frontliners

One of nine light installations from the inaugural Bristol Light Festival has been permanently installed at the city’s bus station in Marlborough Street as a symbol of gratitude to the many thousands of frontline workers.

As festival organisers focus on plans to bring the The neon sign now sits as a permanent event back to the city thank you in Bristol’s bus station next February, they are asking Bristolians to nominate – by tweeting @bristol_light – another favourite local phrase to be turned into the next Overheard in Bristol light display for 2021.

Supported by Bristol City Centre BID alongside Bristol-based creative directors Katherine Jewkes and Vashti Waite, this year’s popular event was the first in a three-year series planned for the city, with expressions of interest now open again for artists of any discipline, keen to work with light as a creative medium in Bristol city centre.

“We’re excited to be giving Cheers Drive a permanent home in our city and it’s fitting that it is displayed in a location which every day welcomes residents, workers and visitors alike into the heart of the Bristol,” said Vicky Lee, Bristol City Centre BID’s lead for the Festival. James Freeman, First West of England managing director, added: “As we get the region moving safely again this new eye-catching addition to the city’s bus station from the Bristol Light Festival is right on cue. The sign gives us a highly visual, creative way to show our gratitude to the thousands of keyworkers – including our First staff – in true Bristol fashion now and for years to come.”

Royal Fort Gardens (image: Barbara Evripidou)

New local guidebook goes off the beaten track

A new book on Bristol, featuring unusual places not found in traditional travel guides, is being published this month. In 111 Places in Bristol That You Shouldn't Miss, author Martin Booth and photographer Barbara Evripidou pull back the curtain to reveal fascinating and eccentric destinations in Bristol, heading off the beaten track to a bridge to nowhere or to a pavement plaque no bigger than a pencil, remembering times past; drawing your eyes to a pair of mythical unicorns or giant wicker nose, a pub populated by cats or a shell-lined secret grotto.

Explore by rail on a small suburban branch line or even from a ferry designed by the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, James Dyson, while he was still a student. “No matter whether you have lived here all of your life, are a frequent visitor or a first-time visitor, these are 111 things you might not have realised even existed,” says Martin. “This is an exploration of unknown Bristol from the Ice Age to the present day.”

Dr Mena Fombo and Michael Jenkins

Wind in their sails

A project to bring to into being Bristol’s first ‘Black arts barge’ is gathering momentum thanks to two visionary local creatives.

Bristol African Caribbean Culture Space Ltd (BACCS) is a non-profit enterprise focused on purchasing a new, large-scale boat venue to be located in the Bristol harbour – dedicated to showcasing the work of Black artists and creatives, sharing their history and celebrating our collective future. “We have been working on this for almost a year and when the Colston statue got ripped down and chucked into the harbour we thought it was a perfect time to let people know our ideas,” say founders Dr Mena Fombo and Michael Jenkins of Blak Wave Productions. “The barge would be ideally located next to Pero’s Bridge. We’ve just recruited a team of artists and creatives to help shape the next phase of this project.”

Blak Wave is an independent production company based in Bristol, committed to producing film and TV that better reflects society, giving a voice to unheard voices and telling untold stories. Michael Jenkins is an award-winning self-shooting producer, director and writer of TV and film, who recently directed The Shadow of Slavery, as part of the Channel 4 series Take Your Knee Off My Neck and a spoken word BBC Arts film We Are Not The Virus. Dr Mena Fombo is a writer, director and TV/film producer, passionate about exploring issues centred on identity, sport and culture, who wrote and directed BBC Arts short Home Carnival Queen.

To donate to help the barge’s transformation into an arts venue, visit the crowdfunder at linktr.ee/BACCS.

Help Mena and Michael bring the first Black arts barge into being