- Watershed Media Centre
The Watershed Media Centre opened in a disused
warehouse in centralBristol in 1982, and claims to be the United Kingdom's first dedicated media centre. The Watershed is housed in a former banana warehouse in Saint Augustine's Reach, part ofBristol Harbour . Following a major refurbishment in 2005, the building houses three cinemas, acafé /bar, events/conferencing spaces, and office spaces for administrative and creative staff. The building is also host to Futurelab, UWE eMedia, and ArtsMatrix. Most of Watershed is situated on the second floor of two of the "sheds".In addition to its world/arts
film programme, Watershed plays host to (and helps organise and run) many film festivals, including ResFest, Depict!, Brief Encounters, the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Slapstick Film Festival, and WildScreen, amongst others. The conference spaces and cinemas are used by many public and private sector organisations and charities.In the digital domain, Watershed's dShed.net website displays digital art from international artists alongside work by local community groups. It hosts the annual online short-film festival Depict.org, selecting "micro films" (no more than ninety seconds long) from around the world, giving a cash prize to the winner. In 2006 eShed.net began development as a showcase for digital art made by young people in and around Bristol. Staff at Watershed are also involved with creating and running electricpavilion.org, electricdecember.org and bristolstories.org.
Watershed employs the equivalent of over sixty full-time staff and has an annual turnover approaching three million pounds. As well as its own commercial income (through Watershed Trading), Watershed Arts Trust is funded by national and regional arts funders, and local businesses.
External links
* [http://www.watershed.co.uk Watershed web site]
* [http://www.artsmatrix.org.uk/ ArtsMatrix]
* [http://www.bristolstories.org BristolStories]
* [http://www.depict.org Depict! 90 Second Film Competition]
* [http://www.dshed.net dShed]
* [http://www.electricpavilion.org/ Electric Pavilion]
* [http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk Brief Encounters film festival]
* [http://www.eshed.net eShed]
* [http://www.slapstick.org.uk/ Slapstick Film Festival]
* [http://www.staticearth.com/ Static Earth for Bristol]
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