Jan 10, 2012 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
January’s big new release is high-profile Brit filmmaker Phyllida Lloyd‘s biopic of Margaret Thatcher The Iron Lady. Written by Abi Morgan (Brick Lane, Shame, BBC’s The Hour) it’s on release in your local cinema. We urge you to see it and join the vociferous debate among its admirers and critics, suitably so given its subject. Last month Nest Members had the opportunity to attend an industry preview of the film, with thanks to distributors Pathe, and we asked them to review it for BEV followers. Read on for your friends’ and colleagues’ opinions of a controversial work! Read the full story
Nov 8, 2011 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
Young Heathcliff (Solomon Glave) and Cathy (Shannon Beer)
Andrea Arnold is celebrated as one of Britain’s most important contemporary filmmakers. Birds Eye View’s very first event back in November 2002 featured Andrea Arnold’s beautiful and disturbing short film Dog. Her third short, Wasp, won her an Oscar, and was screened at the first Birds Eye View Film Festival in 2005. Andrea then sprung into feature film with the tension thrilled Red Road which won the jury award at Cannes, as did her second feature Fish Tank, which won the Birds Eye View Marie Claire Best Film of 2009-10 Award, presented by Gillian Anderson at our 2010 film festival. For the first time, Andrea has delivered an adaptation of a classic novel for her third, equally distinctive feature film. We had the opportunity to chat with her about the experience:
Interview questions by Rebecca Brand, Head of Communications and Operations at Women in Film and Television UK , with many thanks from BEV!
Oct 26, 2011 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
Following a decade of radical growth and seven acclaimed festivals, Birds Eye View will not be running a film festival in 2012, but will instead be working towards a sustainable plan for 2013 and beyond.
Why not?
Over the past few years, the UK Film Council supported the Birds Eye View Film Festival through their Film Festivals Fund and Diversity Grant in Aid. Since the closure of the Film Council, funds have transferred to the BFI. As yet, there is no provision for either Festivals or Diversity, leaving BEV with a 90% drop in public funds. Read the full story
Oct 12, 2011 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
The Australian novelist’s first foray into film directing is not the Sleeping Beauty we all know and love. The story of a young woman’s induction into the strange sexual practice of being drugged to sleep whilst older men pay to be alone with her, Julia Leigh’s debut is a very creepy yet visually elegant work. BEV sat down with the director to talk about her inspiration and the leap from the literary world to the cinematic. Interview by Laura Bushell (www.laurabushell.com).
Part of your inspiration for Sleeping Beauty came from a recurring dream you had, can you tell me about that?
After the publication of my first novel I had to do a little bit of press and I contracted this horrible nightmare of being filmed in my sleep. It was quite compelling because the dreamer dreams she’s asleep in her own bed, when in fact she is asleep in her own bed. I realised we’re all quite vulnerable in our sleep and sometimes it’s as if we wake up and edit out our nights as if they haven’t happened. So I wondered what would it be like to know that something was happening in your sleep and know it probably wasn’t good for you? How would that seep through into your waking life?
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Feb 8, 2010 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, a new book by Natasha Walter
Natasha Walter is a friend and valued supporter of Birds Eye View. She was on our jury with Miranda Sawyer and Bonnie Greer in 2006, and came along to co-present Birds Eye Review which closed the festival in debate that year. We also had the pleasure of her company in 2007 at the Women’s Arts International Festival (sadly only a once-off due to funding cuts) in Kendal, Cumbria as she joined us for a panel discussion and we spent the weekend watching great gigs and walking in the hills.
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Feb 8, 2010 | 1 Comment | ByRachel Millward
Rachel+bump - now two months bigger...
Well, this is the funniest of festival years for me. Just as Birds Eye View gears up to what looks to be an outrageously brilliant festival – a true celebration of the scope of women’s creative vision, I gear up to a very different moment of creativity – giving birth for the first time. There’s something rather poetic (and nuts) about the timing for me. Should I go those two “permissable” weeks over the official due date, our baby girl could be coming into the world on opening night. Which means that the festival – my first baby, of sorts, is now safely in the hands of BEV’s most excellent team, allowing me to focus on this momentous and unknown journey ahead. Obviously, should baby decide to come this week, or next, I may shuffle down to share in the joys of closing night delight, but maybe our new little world will be too fresh and fragile – we shall see…
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