Birds Eye View Film Festival

Birds Eye View was founded as a Short film event back in 2002 and has since advanced to UK’s major women’s film festival, counting luminaries such as Joanna Lumley amongst its patrons. In addition, Birds Eye View is currently developing year-round activities with its First Weekenders Club, BEV Labs, touring programme and online community to help celebrate, promote and develop the work of outstanding creative women from around the world.

From 4th-12th of March, the festival returned for its 6th time – showcasing women filmmakers as well as female musicians and other related talent. Officially opened by acclaimed actress Jane Horrocks, the festival had an amazing programme on offer that catered for every taste. UK premieres and the impressive work from a new generation of Kenyan filmmakers delighted audiences as much as Masterclasses, special events and retrospectives.

The feature films and Shorts are simply too many to mention here, however, some of the highlights included ‘Music Loves Video’ – an eclectic mix of music videos, hosted by journalist Miranda Sawyer - and interesting new documentaries like ‘She Is The Matador’ which provides a fascinating insight into the role of the female matador in Spanish Culture (hopefully, no member of the WSPA was present during the screening!).

Highly anticipated was actress Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut ‘Whip It’, starring Ellen Page and Juliette Lewis in a heart-warming and riotous tale of an all female local roller derby team.
Remaining in Hollywood, the festival also screened the excellent ‘The Hurt Locker’ by the talented Kathryn Bigelow – the first woman ever to win a ‘Best Director’ Oscar!

Other treats included a season of films aptly titled ‘Sound And Silents’. Each movie from that particular category was not only a golden oldie but a golden silent oldie, accompanied by live music. Two films are particularly worth mentioning, although every film on offer was a delight in its own right. ‘The Adventures Of Prince Achmed’ stood out, as it was the very first feature length animated film, made in Germany in 1926. Filmmaker Lotte Reiniger created a beautifully narrated fairytale inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights. Cutting-edge composer Mira Calix provided her own musical score to compliment the screening.

An absolute rarity was the screening of the 1928 silent movie version of ‘Chicago’ – starring Phyllis Haver in the role of seductress and murderess Roxie Hart (see pic). Haver simply shines as Roxie, shifting from comedienne to tragedienne whenever the scene requires it, all the while having great fun fooling and manipulating her onscreen-characters, especially her hopelessly devoted husband Amos (Victor Varconi).
Directed by Frank Urson and produced by none other than Cecil B. DeMille, the film is surprisingly modern in the way it portrays topics like love, lust and law but of course, this being a film from the 1920’s, a strong moral ending is inevitable!
The movie was introduced (also via screen) by West End musical star Ruthie Henshall, who had played the part of Roxie countless times on the London stage. The mesmerizing Patti Plinko trio provided the live music.
Another successful mini-season within the festival was the ‘Blonde Crazy Retrospective’. As the title suggests, the movies featured blonde poison ranging from predictable (Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Tippi Hedren or Catherine Deneuve) to less predictable (Gena Rowlands, Bibi Anderson, Judy Holliday).
Two comedies in particular, starring two iconic blondes, proved to be a huge hit with the audience: ‘I Married A Witch’ with Veronica Lake in the title role, and ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ starring Carole Lombard.
The former is a comedy directed by Rene Claire and sees the beautiful but troubled Veronika Lake as a witch through the ages, re-emerging in the 1940’s to take revenge on Frederic March but falling in love with him instead.
The latter is a satirical comedy from 1942, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and concerns a group of Polish actors who become caught up in the events of Warsaw being taken by the Nazis. The thespians, in particular Carole Lombard in the role of stage actress Maria Tura, are thus forced to act in the underground campaign for freedom.
Tragically, Lombard was killed in a plane crash shortly after the film was completed, adding a sombre tone to its title ‘To Be Or Not To Be’.

There was more serious fare on offer too, such as the 1956 film ‘Yield To The Night’ starring national institution Diana Dors as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain.

If this year’s festival program is anything to go by, we can expect truly exciting and innovative things at next year’s Birds Eye View Film Festival. Find out at:
www.birds-eye-view.co.uk