Tuesday night saw the press launch of the Birds Eye View film festival at a swanky members club in Central London.
BEV first launched in 2005 with a view to supporting women filmmakers. Founder Rachel Millward was spurred into action after learning that films directed by women accounted for a mere seven per cent of cinematic output. Alongside the festival, there is also BEV’s First Weekenders Club, designed to get audiences along to the opening nights of female directors’ films to bump up the gross (after all, money talks); while this year the festival has launched an animation lab alongside Warp Films to provide a kind of incubation service for female writers and animators.
The great thing about BEV is its easy going vibe. It’s righteously, rather than militantly, feminist – with a vision of positive engagement and change. Although Rachel Millward kicked off the speeches yesterday by suggesting that we should all be rooting for Kathryn Bigelow at the Oscars because she’s a woman; which is precisely what’s wrong with the Oscars. But that’s another blog…
Sounds Like Teen Spirit producer Elizabeth Karlsen and actress Fiona Shaw were on hand to give a couple of speeches. Karlsen spoke passionately about the obstacles that still face female filmmakers, while Shaw told a brilliantly nutzoid story about Aboriginal menstruation maps and how we mustn’t deny the world 50 per cent of its imagination.
Then it was back to Rachel Millward to unveil the festival line up, which includes pre-theatrical screenings of the likes of Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, and Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes (both of which will be reviewed in the next issue). There will be a Susanne Bier retrospective and masterclass, a season called Blonde Crazy at the BFI Southbank and a silent film screening with a specially commissioned score from Gwyneth Herbert.
It all kicks off at venues around London on March 4, and runs for eight days. We’re big fans of BEV so we’ll endeavour to bring you as much news as possible when it gets under way. For now, you can check out the full festival listing at Birds Eye View’s official site.
