BEV celebrates & supports international women filmmakers. The flagship BEV Film Festival runs at London's BFI Southbank and ICA, with exclusive previews, shorts, retrospectives, training and cutting-edge live performances.
As we finish the final preparations for tonight’s Festival Awards and Closing Night Party (starting at 8pm at the ICA), I managed to get some quick questions over to GIRLCORE, to give you an idea of what you’re in for tonight….
Firstly, what is GIRLCORE?
GIRLCORE in essence is an all female collective that wants to promote female talent in the creative industries. But the most important thing is that we want to have ridiculous amounts of fun whilst doing it, which is probably why our parties have become quite infamous!
Sunday was, of course, International Womens Day, and was host to our Regional Screenings Tour - the UK wide, simultaneous screening of our programmes of shorts from the BEV Opening Night, at 3.30pm in London, Brighton, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Newcastle.
So, after first nosing around to see how the Mediascapes workshop at the ICA was going (read Constance Fleuriot‘s account of the workshop here), I dashed down to the Regional Screening at the Ritzy in Brixton to meet local filmmaker Paulette James there and have a super quick chat before she went in. Soon on the blog we’ll report back in more depth about what happened in each city…
So, Saturday was definitely a highlight for me. At the ICA I captured some of the Mary Harron Masterclass as well as the repose before the Bettie Page screening, where we met Claire from Nina’s Hair Parlour who had her photo taken with Mary and might be bringing down their vintage hairdressing skills to the closing night party this Friday… I must admit, I was unexpectedly too shy to talk to Mary on camera, but caught Rachel and her chatting about how the masterclass went afterwards.
Friday was over before I knew it… but I managed to catch a bit of the Women in Film and Television networking event (watch out for the shameless plug of the Last Laugh Comedy Night event on Thursday where my short film will be showing, I just couldn’t bring myself to edit it out…), also arrived for the end bit of the London Girl Geeks innovation event, and was very pleased to grab some quality time with Nicolette Krebitz (The Heart is a Dark Forest) and Franny Armstrong (The Age of Stupid) in the ICA foyer before they went in for their director Q&As….
Opening Night was a fantastic success, the crowd was buzzing and conversation flowing about the intense, amazing shorts that were screened. We even had a spot of dancing. Thanks all who came down to celebrate with us.
Actresses Sally Hawkins and Hayley Atwell, and our patrons Gurindha Chadha, Steven Woolley and Sarah Radclyffe all turned up and were brilliant and inspiring. Mary Harron fought the jet-lag and popped down for a celebratory drink after arriving from New York for her Masterclass and Retrospective this weekend (her first event is today at 1.30pm!).
Actress Sally Hawkins, Festival Director Rachel Millward and Director and BEV Patron Gurinder Chadha at the festival's opening night
Armed with a teeny little camera that looks more like a mobile phone, I set out to capture some of the spirit of the Opening Night (including the dancing, apologies in advance if I embarrass anyone…).
One of the brilliant acts bolstering the talented musical line-up for our Closing Night Party & Festival Awards on the 13th Feburary is the “indiefied gypsy jazz duo”Plaster of Paris. Having experienced the band’s magical performances twice before, and them both stamping a hearty impression on me to call myself a fan, I was keen to ask them who they are, how they are and what they like.
Molly and Lewis perform as Plaster of Paris. Photo courtesy of Francesca Perry
Harriet Fleuriot: Really thrilled that Plaster of Paris are in the festival again (PoP played at the Whitechapel event at BEVFF08). I have seen you perform a couple of times now at other events, and each one was always slightly different but consistently compelling, so what new delights are you bringing along to the Closing Party?…What have you been up to in the last year?
Thankyou! We had a fantastic time last year and are big fans of the festival. So yes, this year has been great… Festival season was super fun playing Bestival, Secret Garden and Glastonbury… Read the full story
