Localising Cary Grant: Cary comes home festival and Bristol as living archive

Crofts, Charlotte

Abstract

This paper critically reflects on curating the biennial Cary Comes Home Festival ( established 2014), which aims to celebrate Cary Grant’s Bristol roots, develop new audiences for his films and recreate the golden age of cinema-going. As director of the festival, I will outline the history and development of the festival and the Looking for Archie walking tour (now being developed into an app), situating it within the context of cinematic tourism, place-making and fan pilgrimage. The paper will argue that Bristol - designated as a UNESCO City of Film in Oct 2017- can be seen as a “living archive” through which and in which Cary Grant’s star persona is constructed and circulates - from the Bristol Evening Post photographs of Cary Grant in Bristol (see above) to the festival-goers who met or knew him in person (some of whom are related to him) and the attempts to memorialise him (the missing BFI 100 plaque at his old school; the Graham Ibbeson statue erected in 2001). A key feature of the festival is curating immersive cinematic experiences in significant locations which featured in Cary Grant’s life, such as a gala screening at Bristol Hippodrome, where young Archie used to work backstage as a lad; a cream tea at the Avon Gorge hotel where he used to stay; a pop-up stall and swing dance event next to the Cary Grant statue in Millennium Square during Bristol Harbour Festival , recognising the importance of sea-faring in his journey from Archie to becoming Cary Grant. In addition, the festival has developed Looking For Archie , a city-centre walking tour which retraces Archie’s hometown haunts, exploring Bristol’s hidden cinema history in the places where it actually happened. The tour is now being developed into a locative smartphone app in collaboration with Destination Bristol and Bristol Film Office, as one of a suite of apps featuring Bristol film and TV locations, under the umbrella of Bristol City of Film. This paper situates the festival, walking tour and app in the context of the conference themes of “stars and memorial” and “‘localising’ / locating stardom” and as well as speaking to curatorial practices, impact and public engagement through a discussion of this practice-led project.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Stardom and the Archive Symposium
• Start Date: Feb 8, 2020
• End Date: Feb 8, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2023
• Keywords: Cary Grant; Archive; Bristol; Film Festivals; Curation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10289860
• Related Public URLs: http://iamhist.net/2020/02/stardom-and-the-archive-symposium-report/