Birds Eye View
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
that places women at the heart of the creative vision.
Overview and History
Birds Eye View was founded by Rachel Millward and Pinny GryllsPinny Grylls
Pinny Grylls is an award-winning documentary filmmaker.In 2001 Grylls co-founded Invisible Films with Rachel Millward. In the next year they founded the Birds Eye View Film Festival, which has since showcased films by emerging women filmmakers around the country, and is the UK's first major film...
in 2002, to celebrate and support women filmmakers.
Backed by key figures in the film industry, Birds Eye View describes its work as “a positive response to the fact that women make up only 7% of directors and 12% of writers in the film industry”. The organisation’s work includes an annual festival of films by women filmmakers, held in London, as well as a touring programme and year-round training and career development programmes for emerging women filmmakers in the UK.
In addition to promoting work by women filmmakers, Birds Eye View aims to educate audiences about the importance of diversity in film, and to widen the audiences for women-made films and world cinema.
Birds Eye View Film Festival, London
Founded as a short film event in 2002, Birds Eye View registered as a charity in 2004, launched the UK’s first major women’s film festival in 2005, and now operates year-round activity through its BEV Labs, First Weekenders Club, touring programme and online community, in addition to an annual festival in London. Prominent filmmakers and artists to have worked with Birds Eye View include Kim LonginottoKim Longinotto
Kim Longinotto is a British documentary film maker, well known for making films which highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination...
, Lucy Walker
Lucy Walker
Lucy Walker is a film director, mostly of theatrical feature documentaries. On January 25th, 2010 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Waste Land, which she directed.-Film career:...
, Wanuri Kahiu
Wanuri Kahiu
Wanuri Kahiu is a Kenyan film director. She has received several awards and nominations for the films which she directed, including the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2009.-Career:...
, Mary Harron
Mary Harron
Mary Harron is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter best known for her films I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page.-Overview:...
, Bella Freud
Bella Freud
Bella Freud is a London-based fashion designer with a number of celebrity clients.-Life and career:Freud was born in London, England. She is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and artist Lucian Freud and great granddaughter of the inventor of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. Her father Lucian Freud...
, Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
, Susanne Bier
Susanne Bier
Susanne Bier is a Danish film director best known for her feature films Brothers, After the Wedding and the Academy-Award-winning In a Better World.-Life and work:Susanne Bier was born to Jewish parents in Copenhagen, Denmark...
, Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima, Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, Xiao Jiang
Xiao Jiang
Xiao Jiang is the stage name of female Chinese film director Jia Yan,. Jia graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1995. Jia Yan worked primarily in television, directing three TV movies before joining the China Film Group as a screenwriter...
, Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold OBE is a filmmaker and former actress from England, who made her feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Red Road.-Early TV work:...
, Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
, Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron is an English Film Director known for her much-lauded adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason...
and Marilyn Gaunt.
For each annual festival, Birds Eye View commissions and produces Sound & Silents, a live-music event whereby leading female musicians perform live, specially-written sets to classic silent films. Musicians to have participated in Sound & Silents include Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter from Havering, Essex. She is known for her work as part of the musical duo Frou Frou and her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes...
, Natalie Clein
Natalie Clein
Natalie Clein is a British cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein....
, Bishi
Bishi
Bishi may refer to:*Bishōnen, a modern aesthetic ideal of Asian origin or a beautiful youth boy*Bishnu Priya, a British musician and DJ*Al-Bishi, Arabic family name...
, Mira Calix
Mira Calix
Mira Calix, real name Chantal Passamonte, is an artist signed to Warp Records, specialising in mixing her intimate vocals with jittering beats and experimental electronic textures...
, Patti Plinko, Gwyneth Herbert
Gwyneth Herbert
Gwyneth Herbert is a British singer-songwriter and pianist, initially known for her interpretation of jazz and swing standards, and now established as a writer of original compositions. She lives in Hackney, London....
, The Elysian Quartet, Zoe Rahman, Broken Hearts DJs and JUICE.
The dates for the 7th Birds Eye View Film Festival have been announced as 8 – 17 March 2011, held at BFI Southbank (British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
) and the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
). The programme will include a strand exploring the contribution of women directors and screenwriters to the horror genre, entitled Bloody Women, presented in conjunction with Film 4 FrightFest.
The Birds Eye View Team
Birds Eye View’s Director is co-founder Rachel Millward. Millward is currently the Clore Fellow for Film, and was named as one of 50 "Women to Watch" by Arts Council England and the Cultural Leadership Programme, and previously nominated as a ‘World Changing Woman' (The Guardian, 21.08.06).Birds Eye View is chaired by producer Elizabeth Karlsen (The Crying Game, Little Voice, Made In Dagenham
Made in Dagenham
Made in Dagenham is a 2010 British film directed by Nigel Cole. The film stars Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike and Jaime Winstone. It dramatises the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 that aimed for equal pay for women...
), and patrons include Mike Figgis
Mike Figgis
Michael "Mike" Figgis is an English film director, writer, and composer.-Personal life:Figgis was born in Carlisle, England and grew up in Africa. Figgis for several years had a relationship with the actress Saffron Burrows and cast her in several films...
, Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
, Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
, Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
, Martha Fiennes
Martha Fiennes
Martha Fiennes is a British film director, writer and producer. An award-winning director, Fiennes is best-known for her films Onegin and Chromophobia .-Career:...
, Stephen Woolley
Stephen Woolley
Stephen Woolley is an English film producer and director. He is best known for his work with director Neil Jordan, which has resulted in a number of critically acclaimed films including the Oscar-winning The Crying Game....
and Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging...
.
Birds Eye View in the UK
Highlights of the Birds Eye View Film Festival programme typically tour the UK throughout the year, playing at regional cinemas such as the Manchester Cornerhouse and Glasgow Film Theatre, as well as music and arts festivals including Big ChillBig Chill
Big Chill can refer to:*The Big Chill *The Big Chill *The Big Chill soundtrack*The Big Chill at the Big House, a U.S...
and Latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
. The most common touring programmes include screenings of silent films with new live scores by female musicians, which BEV regularly commissions as part of its Sound & Silents programme. The Festival also takes special events to the Edinburgh and Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
international film festivals.
The Birds Eye View Awards
The Birds Eye View Awards are presented annually to the best feature, documentary and short films screened at the Festival, as selected by juries of leading industry figures and film critics.| Award Category | Winning Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Best Feature | Lourdes | Jessica Hausner Jessica Hausner Jessica Hausner is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. She has directed six films since 1995. Her film Lovely Rita was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival... |
| 2010 Best Documentary | Junior | Jenna Rosher |
| 2010 Best Short | Slaves and The Door (joint winners) | Hanna Heilborn & David Aronowitsch; Juanita Wilson |
| 2009 Best Feature | Snow | Aida Begic |
| 2009 Best Documentary | Age of Stupid | Franny Armstrong Franny Armstrong Franny Armstrong is a British documentary film director working for her own company, Spanner Films, and a former drummer with indie pop group The Band of Holy Joy... |
| 2009 Best UK Short | Love You More | Sam Taylor-Wood Sam Taylor-Wood Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon... |
| 2009 Best International Short | August 15 and Solitaro Anonimo (joint winners) | Jiang Xuan and Debora Diniz |
| 2008 Best Feature | Persepolis Persepolis Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid... |
Marjane Satrapi Marjane Satrapi Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French contemporary graphic novelist, illustrator, animated film director, and children's book author... & Vincent Paronnaud Vincent Paronnaud Pascal Stadler , a.k.a. Winshluss, is a French comics artist and filmmaker. He is best known for cowriting and codirecting with Marjane Satrapi the highly acclaimed animated film Persepolis , for which they received numerous awards including the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as well... |
| 2008 Best Documentary | Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go | Kim Longinotto Kim Longinotto Kim Longinotto is a British documentary film maker, well known for making films which highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination... |
| 2008 Best Newcomer | Hotel Very Welcome | Sonja Heiss |
| 2008 Best Short | Sophie | Brigitte Staermose |
| 2007 Best Film | Sherrbybaby | Laurie Collyer |
| 2007 Best Documentary | Six Yards to Democracy | |
| 2007 Best Film from a Developing Country | Goodbye Life | Ensieh Shah Hosseini |
| 2007 Best Newcomer | Away From Her | Sarah Polley |
| 2007 Most Promising UK Talent | Dreams & Desires | Joanna Quinn |
| 2006 Best Short Drama | Cologne | Kaat Beels |
| 2006 Best Short Comedy | Moustache | Vicki Sugars |
| 2006 Best Short Animation | Badgered | Sharon Colman |
| 2006 Innovation Award | Uten Tittel | Anja Breien |
| 2005 Best International Feature | Bride of Seventh Heaven | Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio |
| 2005 Best Short Drama | Nits | Harry Wootliff |
| 2005 Most Promising Newcomer in International Documentary | Pashke & Sofia | Karin Michalski |
| 2005 Innovation Award | City Paradise | Gaelle Denis |
Training
Birds Eye View's training programmes are called the BEV Labs, made up of specialised intensive training programmes designed to develop new female filmmaker talent and bring new feature films by women into production. 2009's lab 'Last Laugh: Women Create Comedy' saw three comedy feature films from female writers taken onto the Warp X / Warp Films development slates, including work from Sally PhillipsSally Phillips
-Career:Sally Phillips was the only woman in the 1990 Oxford Revue THRASH which also starred Ed Smith. She did nine consecutive Edinburgh Festivals, appearing in shows such as Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Arthur Smith's version of Hamlet and Cluub Zarathustra with Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas,...
, Julia Davis
Julia Davis
Julia Davis is an English comedy writer and performer, best known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy Nighty Night.-Background:...
and Lucy Porter
Lucy Porter
Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer and comedienne.She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She has also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote.....
. These films are currently in development.
Ongoing Labs include She Writes in partnership with the The Script Factory and Re:Animate in partnership with Warp Films
Warp Films
Warp is one of the foremost and most respected creative independent companies, now composed of Warp Records, Warp Films and Warp Music Videos & Commercials. It is based in London, England and Sheffield, with a further office now in Melbourne, Australia...
, providing leading female screenwriters and animators with mentoring, industry events and creative support to help advance their projects towards pitching for development slates.
The 'First Weekenders Club'
Birds Eye View seeks to promote films made by women through its First Weekenders Club, based on the premise that audiences, and therefore box office, from the opening weekend of a film's theatrical release has a huge impact on its future and on the future of the filmmaker. The First Weekenders Club therefore promotes the first weekend of new releases by women filmmakers. The campaign has received backing from key figures in the film industry including director Gurinder ChadhaGurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging...
and Natasha Walter of the Guardian.