Bird's Eye View

Technology and nuclear terror: Day 9 at BEV 2011

Lucy Walker, director of Countdown to Zero

In a first for Birds Eye View, last night’s Bloody Women Panel Debate was streamed live online to hundreds of online viewers. Rounding off our programme of work looking at the role of women in the development of horror cinema, panellists included Emily Booth, a presenter for our media partner actress The Horror Channel and Alan Jones of programme partner actress FrightFest. Elsewhere, we were thrilled to present Oscar nominee and Berlin and Sundance winner Lucy Walker‘s Countdown to Zero.

Having spent the last fortnight watching the vital contributions of women filmmakers to the development of horror, from silent gothic psychodramas to modern vampire flicks, we completed our Bloody Women programme with an action-packed Panel Debate. At the ICA, the panel clashed over the Twilight movies (always a hot-button topic) but were all agreed on the importance of women’s involvement in the future of the genre, both as filmmakers and audiences.

The Horror Channel's Emily Booth

The live online video feed of the debate enforced this Festival’s high-tech credentials, following our live Twitterview with Katerina Cizek as part of our Innovation programme, looking at her IDFA Digital Storytelling Award-winning interactive documentary Highrise: Out My Window, which can still be watched online here.

Over at BFI Southbank, we had the pleasure of an exclusive preview of multi-award-winning documentary-maker Lucy Walker’s look at nuclear arms proliferation. Dubbed ’hair-raising’ by the Wall Street Journal, Countdown to Zero is surely the most terrifying documentary ever made, raising a high-definition spectre of nuclear apocalypse. Afterwards, Lucy joined BEV director Rachel Millward for an exclusive director Masterclass, including discussion of her new film and a look back at her illustrious back-catalogue, including Berlin and Sundance Award-winner and 2011 Oscar-nominated Waste Land.

And after that inspiring event, it’s hard to believe it’s almost over. Not quite, though – as ever, we’ve saved the best till last at our Closing Night Gala, with Lucy Walker returning alongside Hayley Atwell,  Lucy Porter, Kerry Fox and Joanna Hogg to present the glamorous and coveted Festival Awards, followed by the London premiere of 2010’s breakaway American hit Tiny Furniture. Having won SXSW Best Feature and the New York Film Critics’ Next Generation Award, director-star Lena Dunham has been launched to global stardom, with a new HBO comedy in the pipeline.