Birds Eye View

Birds Eye View Film Festival

Kicking off this Thursday March 5th.

 

Words by Imogen Eveson

 

Whether you're male or female, feminist or otherwise, it would difficult for anybody to feel indifferent about the stark figure that only 7% of directors are women.

"The statistics are so shocking! 20% would be bad, but seven?!" exclaims Rachel Millward, founder of Birds Eye View, the world's first film festival that supports and celebrates women filmmakers.


Making micro-budget short films with Pinny Grylls led Rachel to the discovery of the galling statistic. "We were very aware of the lack of role models for us - it was really hard at the time to name more than one or 2 female directors. We wanted to create a platform for our peers - to encourage and promote. So we began BEV as a short film event at the end of 2002, then I pushed it forward into a festival for 2005."


Now in its fifth year, Birds Eye View is about to kick off again, with a week's worth of cinematic festivities taking place from the 5th - 13th March between the BFI, ICA and other London venues. The bill encompasses everything from feature length documentaries ("American Teen is a fantastic doc. It's proper laughing-crying entertaining - and heart-wrenching at the same time") to French comedy ("Grown Ups is a gorgeous feature - like reading a brilliant novel - characters you get to love...").With shorts coming in all shapes and sizes, from animation, documentary and drama by both UK and international directors. 
Innovation strand hosts high calibre films from the realms of music and fashion, providing a glimpse into the world of digital advertising. With journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer at the helm, Music Loves Video features the work of rising star Kinga Burza, Ali Taylor and Shelly Love.


Fashion Loves Film director Kathryn Ferguson has cherry-picked some fine sartorial flicks from Katerina Jebb for Givenchy, Sarah Chatfield for YSL, Toyin for Replay and Nick Knight's first assistant, Ruth Hogben.


Screen Seductresses: Vamps, Vixens & Femmes Fatales, is an intriguing event featuring Louise Brooks, Theda Bara, Greta Garbo and Alla Nazimova as the vampish protagonists of six silent films screened with specially commissioned live music from cutting edge female artists, such as Bishi. "I always love the live music - silent film stuff," enthuses Rachel. "Bishi is a phenomenal performer - she seriously kicks ass - I can't wait to see what she does with the film Salome. I imagine it will be hot hot hot."


A festival's focus is remarkable women from developing countries. "We have some amazing women filmmakers visiting for Q&As with their film screenings - from India (Goddesses, part of the Connecting Voices event) and Nigeria (giving us a guided tour of Nollywood), and from Afghanistan too. It's such a special opportunity to learn from women who are cutting it in film in very, very different situations from ours.."


Each year a theme is flagged up and debated at the festival and this time round the hot topic is sex on screen. Director Carine Adler, award-winning porn director Petra Joy, former Erotic Review editor Rowan Pelling, Coco de Mer's Sam Roddick and Mike Figgis will all be on hand for some steamy discussion as to how sex is portrayed in film when a woman takes control.


"I guess the main differences between men and women when approaching sex in film correlate to the differences between men and women when approaching sex in the bedroom," Rachel says. "You only have to watch a few Hollywood sex scenes to figure it's full of magic women who come on thrusting-cue and has very little to do with the clitoris. Watch a film like 'In the Cut' (Jane Campion directed and crucially written by a woman), and you find yourself shocked to see Mark Ruffalo go down on Meg Ryan. I'm no expert, but I don't think that's so unusual in real life, is it?!"

 

With such a scope and wealth of ideas, it's no surprise that Birds Eye has garnered the support of some famous faces; counting Joanna Lumley, Martha Fiennes and Juliet Stevenson as patrons. The late Anthony Minghella stated in 2005 how 'alarming and odd' it was that 'film is currently the preserve largely of white men.'


If the passionate team behind Birds Eye View have anything to do with it, this is changing. The festival will continue to inspire ideas and confidence in a new generation of female filmmakers and artists, or at the very least, make for a highly enjoyable few days (and nights, lest you forget Friday 13th's closing night party...)

Check out some Birds Eye View on jotta here

And the ful festival programme at www.birds-eye-view.co.uk.

Surveillance

SEE THE FILM THEN WRITE THE TREATMENT FOR THE SEQUEL! 25.02.09

Ever dreamt of following in the footsteps of the Lynch dynasty? Cineastes are at home with the work of cult American dircetor David Lynch, whose single-minded vision and avante-garde approach to filmmaking has earned him both underground and commercial success with modern classics such as Blue Velvet, Elephant Man and Mulholland Drive.

 

Words by Imogen Eveson


A talented writer and filmmaker in her own right, Lynch's daughter Jennifer steps out of her father's shadow with her new high-octane thriller, Surveillance. Lynch's first since her controversial directorial debut Boxing Helena fifteen years ago, the film already scooped a bounty of awards, including the top prize at last year's Festival de Cine de Sitges and Best Director at the 2008 New York City Horror Film Festival.


jotta is asking aspiring screenwriters and directors to delve deep into their imagination to come up with a sequel to Surveillance, set for UK release on March 6th. Punters of this exciting and innovative brief will be invited to a special London screening of the film before submitting their treatment.


Julia Ormond and Sam Hallaway play two Federal Officers striving to find some answers to a string of vicious murders that have unfolded in the Santa Fe desert, on 'a highway in this long stretch of nowhere.' Faced with three sets of varying eyewitness stories, they try to methodically unravel the truth, but find the answer lies where they least expect it to; with an eight-year old girl orphaned by the atrocities.


The film comes as a watershed moment for the woman whose 1993 debut provoked a vicious backlash from the press. Boxing Helena told the story of a doctor who amputated the limbs of a shapely neighbour and kept her in a box on the dining room table. A bit too much to take for even the most hardened Lynchonians it seemed. (Although a shock proof Madonna had originally wanted in but was warned by Andrew Lloyd Webber that if she did Boxing Helena, she wouldn't do Evita).


Lynch started early, featuring as a little girl in her dad's own directorial first, Eraserhead, in 1977, and worked as production assistant on 1987's Blue Velvet. Lynch's talent didn't go unnoticed. At just 22, she wrote The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, a spin-off novel to her father's Twin Peaks TV series. It stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for three months and many a young Twin peak fanatics bookshelf. Producing a variety of films in the last few years, Lynch's latest offering Hisss - the tale of an Indian snake charmer - sees her chair both writing and directing roles.

 


So, if you fancy yourself a successor to the Lynchian throne, or think you can do one better, head over to our Marketplace and upload your CV. You will be notified of the screening date and then it's up to you to get writing. The judging panel will include the director herself and the winner will bag a £500 prize. Treatments should be submitted by email in PDF format to treatment@organic-marketing.co.uk. Good luck!