The Bristol Palestine Film Festival has grown into one of the city’s most thoughtful and vital cultural events, returning each December with a programme of films, music and art that amplifies Palestinian voices. What began in 2007 with a Bristol football team travelling to the West Bank – and discovering a reality far richer and more human than the headlines – became, through player David Owen, a festival dedicated to sharing real stories from Palestine with audiences in the West of England. Since its first edition in 2011, the festival has expanded its reach and ambition, now run by a team of nine trustees and operating as a registered charity. Screenings take place across Watershed, the Cube Microplex, community spaces and the Palestine Museum and Cultural Centre, with recent years extending the programme to Bath, Clevedon and Bradford-on-Avon. It remains a festival built on connection, curiosity and the power of film to bridge distance.