Bristol 24/7’s Robin Askew on Bristol’s Secret Landscapes
Four years in the making, local musician and filmmaker Simon Preston‘s Bristol’s Secret Landscape is billed as
“an immersive journey from the Severn Bore to Bridgewater Bay with a glance at Paleo-channels, 10,000-year-old toddlers’ footprints cast in the mud, salmon putchers, the site of England’s only recorded tsunami, Y-shaped lave nets, Roman V shaped fish traps, a migratory bird superhighway, and great oaks brought down from the highest point of the Forest of Dean past Drake’s House to the three old stone quays at Gatcombe to build 16th century sailing ships that started the global trade – notably privateering and slavery.”
“Having spent a lifetime exploring the coasts of the South West and Wales, including our local coast, I was astounded at the complexity, beauty and morphological variety of the Bristol Channel once seen from above via a 4k drone camera,” Simon tells us.
The moods of this region also inspired his accompanying musical compositions which include contributions from singers, string and wind players. There’s also some special Severn poetry by poet Jo Bell.
You can see Simon’s 55 minute film up on the big screen at the Cube on Saturday 13 November, with an informal Q&A and full supporting programme of short films from the south west and beyond.
