Watershed (Bristol)
Watershed
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 Location of Watershed in Bristol
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| Established | 1982 |
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| Location | 1, Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol |
| Coordinates | 51°27′05″N 2°35′53″W / 51.45149°N 2.59802°W |
| Type | Cinema, Cafe/Bar, Digital Media, Conferencing |
| Director | Dick Penny |
| Public transit access | Bus, ferry |
| Website | www |
Watershed opened in June 1982 as the United Kingdom's first dedicated media centre. Based in former warehouses on the harbourside at Bristol, it hosts three cinemas, a café/bar, events/conferencing spaces, the Pervasive Media Studio, and office spaces for administrative and creative staff. It occupies the former E and W sheds on Canon's Road at Saint Augustine's Reach, and underwent a major refurbishment in 2005. The building also hosts UWE eMedia Business Enterprises, Most of Watershed's facilities are situated on the second floor of two of the transit sheds. The conference spaces and cinemas are used by many public and private sector organisations and charities. Watershed employs the equivalent of over seventy full-time staff and has an annual turnover of approximately £3.8 million. As well as its own commercial income (through Watershed Trading), Watershed Arts Trust is funded by national and regional arts funders. It is run by managing director Dick Penny who first joined in 1991.
A 2010 report for the International Futures Forum describes the Watershed as "a creative ecosystem, operating in many different and overlapping economies," which is "pushing the creative boundary" by fostering both the invention and consolidation of new work.
The centre opened in 1982, in an area of the city that, at that time, was mainly derelict. The transit sheds, dating from 1894, had fallen into disrepair but had Grade II listed building status. By 2004, it was attracting more than half a million visitors per year. A major refurbishment in 2004/5 cost £2 million, creating a third cinema, extending the café/bar and making the building more accessible. Patrons could sponsor seats in the new cinema, and the first to take advantage of this was the film and television actor Pete Postlethwaite.
In addition to its world/arts film programme, Watershed has played host to (and helped organise and run) many film festivals, including RESFest 2002, Depict!, Brief Encounters (now Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival), the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Black Pyramid, Latin America Week, VisionSign (celebrating deaf moving image culture), and Slapstick Film Festival. Wildscreen, a festival of wildlife documentaries and related films, began at the Watershed as did Afrika Eye (an annual festival of African Cinema), in 2005.
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