Returning To The Cinema 6 Months Later: The Watershed
Cinemas are going to look and feel a lot different with new changes being implemented to guarantee the safety of staff and public as well as to persuade movie-goers to give them a chance.
With the delayed reopening of Bristol’s cinemas, including Vue and The Watershed, venues have been given more time to adapt to government guidelines.
If you know me, then you know how much I love The Watershed. I would head there after work and meet my dad to catch a new release or the whole family would go to watch a new film followed by a live Q&A with the director. It was where I watched Thelma & Louise for the first time and where I watched a live stream of The Irishman cast on the red carpet before debuting the film afterwards. Their announcement that they are to reopen on the 1st September was such good news for many Bristolians, and with the reopening happening in just over a week’s time, they have given some guidance and information on how they will be keeping all the returning customers as safe as possible.
Like other cinemas, The Watershed are operating a book-in-advance system, a one-way system (a map is on their website for convenience before you go!), card payments where possible, hand sanitisers throughout, and full PPE for all their staff. For more guidance, they will have staff stationed at the entrance for any queries. This is now the new normal for many venues -not only cinemas - and if you’ve been taking advantage of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme then you would have seen this in other places too.
Photo credit: Jon Aitken
The Watershed have also reduced their opening hours with the venue being open Tuesday – Sunday, films shown from 3pm onwards and the café & bar serving food from 12-8pm. Fingers crossed the weather stays nice for some food and drink on their terrace!
Now to the exciting bit… their re-opening film programme! The theme is Films That Love Cinema which Mark Cosgrove (The Watershed’s Cinema Curator) describes as “films which have at their very core the essence of the cinematic - that unique intense experience shared in the darkened auditorium.” One of my favourite things about cinema is sitting in a darkened room, sharing a collective experience with everyone else, and interpreting it in different ways. This has always fascinated me. The Watershed are now bringing back some cinema-worthy films with some new ones included on the programme that runs from Thursday 3rd September to Sunday 13th September. You can check it out here:
The Watershed has gone above and beyond in order to make people feel safe when they return, and although there are several changes that you will need to adapt to, it will still be the same Watershed that we’ve missed over the past few months.
All the new changes can be found on their website to make your visit as easy and as safe as possible
Written by Issy Packer
Hi, I’m Issy, the Music and Film Editor at The Everyday! I’m an English Literature graduate and have been passionate about all things to do with writing and journalism from a young age. I am interested in a number of things, including politics, feminism and music and am a firm believer that Bristol is ONE of the best cities in England for anything to do with culture, art and music. You can find me either at the cinema watching all sorts of films or trying to work my way through the long list of books I’m desperate to read.