Destruction of Memory - screening and director Q&A

The Destruction of Memory
The war against culture, and the battle to save it.

A screening and Q&A with the Director presented by the University of Bristol's Institute for Advanced Studies in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas and The Watershed.

Over the past century, cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe. This war against culture is not over - it's been steadily increasing.

In Syria and Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’, millennia of culture are being destroyed. The push to protect, salvage and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction. Legislation and policy have played a role, but heroic individuals have fought back, risking and losing their lives to protect not just other human beings, but our cultural identity - to save the record of who we are.

Based on the book of the same name by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory tells the whole story - looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations, but revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years. Interviewees include the Director-General of UNESCO, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as diverse and distinguished international experts, whose voices combine to address this urgent issue.

'this motion picture...has opened the eyes of thousands of people to the ongoing destruction of cultural heritage around the world', former UNESCO Director-General

'very beautiful and important...it needs to be widely seen', UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights

'a blisteringly uncompromising documentary' Studio International

'powerful...humane, poignant...a tough but compelling film' Blueprint Magazine

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Director, Tim Slade, hosted by Watershed Cinema Curator, Mark Cosgrove, and a drinks reception.