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Introducing The Birds Eye View Film Festival

17th February 2010

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This is to be a historic year at the Oscars for women filmmakers. If Katherine Bigelow (Hurt Locker) is nominated, she will only be the 4th woman ever nominated for a directing Oscar - and maybe the first to win it.

Here to celebrate is the 6th annual Birds Eye View Film Festival showcasing an extraordinary range of female-directed cinema from all across the globe and highlighting the contribution of iconic women on screen since the beginning of film.

Among the stunning features this year are Jessica Hausner’s Golden Lion nominee Lourdes, and Kim Longinotto’s documentary Rough Aunties - Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance.

This year’s special retrospective and masterclass is from 2006 Oscar nominated Danish director Susanne Bier (After The Wedding) whose original film Brothers has been remade into a Hollywood version written by Bier and starring Natalie Portman, opening in cinemas this Friday.

Other highlights include fashion films including work by Ruth Hogben and Wendy Bevan and the launch of an Animation Lab with Lotte Reineger’s The Adventure of Prince Achmed, the first feature length animation ever made in 1926 -with cutting-edge composer Mira Calix premiering her musical accompaniment.

All this plus a sizzling retrospective of iconic blondes in Blonde Crazy at the BFI Southbank, including silent films with specially commissioned live music from the likes of Patti Plinko and Gwyneth Herbert.

On March 11 the festival party will see the hottest female musical talent at the ICA. And the festival finale kicks off with a roller derby extravaganza followed by Drew Barrymore’s critically acclaimed directorial debut Whip It.

The best of the fest will be presented with awards pre-screening on the closing night by glamorous guests.

Feature films:

-Whip It directed by Drew Barrymore and co-starring Drew, Ellen Page and Juliette Lewis as roller derby girls (screening 11 March)

- Mall Girls by Katarzyna Roslaniec about a 14 year old who finds herself on the fringes of a trendy group of teens

- Entre Nos by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza where a young Colombian woman Mariana and her two children struggle for survival on the streets of Queens, New York

- Map of the Sounds of Tokyo a stylish erotic thriller about the contemporary megacity directed by Isabel Coixet

- From a Whisper by Wanuri Kahiu, an award winning hard hitting drama following the terrorist bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi

-Lourdes by Jessica Hausner follows a disabled woman’s pilgrimage to Lourdes where she is seemingly cured by a miracle

- Amreeka by Cherien Dabis, a humorous and heartwarming drama where Palestinian mum Muna and her teenager son Fadi leave their troubled homeland to start a new life with relatives in Illinois

- The Father of My Children will be launched at the festival, for general release, on Friday March 5th, as part of Birds Eye View's year-round First Weekenders Club.

Documentaries:

- The Other Song by Dr. Rajan Sankaran, about Rasoolan Bai, an Indian thumri singer, whose memory seems virtually lost to modern India

- Kim Longinotto’s Grand jury prize winner at Sundance, Rough Aunties

- Junior by Jenna Rosher, Winner of the Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award, about on the generational divide between a mother and son

- My Neighbour, My Killer by Anne Aghion was in the official selection at Cannes, a ‘quietly devastating’ in depth look at the Rwandan genocide tribunals

- She is the Matador by Celeste Carrasco & Gemma Cubero del Barrio about the history of female matadors

- And in the Kenyan double bill Wangari Maathai: For our Land a pro-democratic and environmental doc by Wanuri Kahiu.

Blonde Crazy & Silent films with live music:

The Blonde in early silent and classic Hollywood cinema will be explored in a huge retrospective of cliché-busting performances from blonde beauties throughout March, in partnership with the BFI Southbank.

Highlights range from ballsy comedienne Marion Davies in early silent film The Patsy to sex goddess Marilyn Monroe in a special digitally restored nationwide theatrical release of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

The early silent films, including the original Chicago, starring Phyllis Haver as a jazz crazy killer, will be screened with specially commissioned live music by Patti Plinko.

Other cutting edge female artists include Gwyneth Herbert performing to The Patsy and Jane Gardener to Her Sister From Paris at the Barbican.

Retrospective & Masterclass with Susanne Bier:

Danish, Oscar nominated filmmaker Susanne Bier’s work will be celebrated including the original version of Sundance and Cannes award-winning Brothers, starring Natalie Portman, After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet) following a philanthropist’s return to Denmark from working in an Indian orphanage and Things We Lost In The Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro.

Join us for an in-depth masterclass conversation with Bier on her career, her passions, inspirations and work.

Animation Lab: launches in partnership with Warp Films the first feature length animation ever made, The Adventure of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reineger with musical accompaniment by Mira Calix.

Short Film Programme: UK, International and documentary shorts:

- A stunning variety of new films including ‘Kirran and the Hatchmaker’, a charming documentary about a boy obsessed with his chickens’ family tree

- The brilliantly executed ‘When The Rain Comes’, starring Dervla Kirwan, and edgy urban drama ‘The Park’.

BEV and 4docs have teamed up to present an international programme of award-winning short documentaries, including Kara Blake's ‘The Delian Mode’ (winner of Best Short Documentary at Hot Docs), Amy Williams' ‘Amasan: Women of the Sea’ (which counts Herzog as a fan) and impressive debut, ‘China's Wild West’ from Urszula Pontikos.

Birds Eye View Film Festival 4-12th March 2010