BEV, Bigelow and a Baby

BEV 2010 - Open with Optimism.

Jane Horrocks - One of the many guests of honour.

BAFTA winning Kathryn Bigelow, had broken new ground for female film makers with The Hurt Locker and was lining up to make history should she become the first woman director to win an Oscar.

Birds Eye View founder and Chief Executive, Rachel Millward, had crowned the sixth festival with a new production of her own, the birth of her first child, a baby girl, on the opening day.

New life and new hope was all around, with a crop of excellent short films shown at the opening night gala, attended by an array of leading women in the film industry.

Birds Eye View’s new chair, Elizabeth Karlsen, producer of such fine films as The Crying Game,  Little Voice and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People opened proceedings.  In the current economic climate life in the film industry was tough, she said, and even tougher for women. But quoting one of her film characters she declared to applause, “What do you mean how will we cope?  We’re women!”

Reasons to be cheerful?  A hike from 7% to 15% for female film makers in the UK at the last count.  But a blip or a trend?

Previous BAFTA best new director Sarah Gavron, who directed the fantastic film version of Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane, says it’s going to be a long hard road with women advancing a step at a time.

She has had two children while working in the film industry and says there’s no doubting how tough it is for women.  “With long hours on location it’s like going away to sea,” she says.  Bigelow’s success, however, will act as a beacon for all aspiring female film makers.

Little Voice was there in person.  The Lancashire lass replanted in Twickenham, she of “Consider it done!” as Ab Fab’s Bubble, considers it has at least begun for women in film.  Bird’s Eye View was of tremendous importance, she said, in shining a light on female talent.

Beautiful Colombian actor/producer/writer Paola Mendoza, lead and director of Entre Nos, to be shown at the ICA Cinema on Friday and Saturday evenings, says there is a tremendous need to tell women’s stories and Bird’s Eye View brings them to the fore.

Alexis Krasilovsky was in total agreement.  With Women Behind the Camera she has won international acclaim, documenting the struggles of women - from secret films of Taliban reprisals to Hollywood crews.  She wants more, more, more.  More female directors, producers, writers, critics.

The shorts were very special and eclectic.  Director Paloma Baeza brought The Odds, casino boss and browbeaten punter who had been winning against the odds.  Slaves, a Swedish heart rending animated documentary told the story of two child slaves in the Sudan. The Door portrayed a father’s agony at the death by inches of his little girl after the Chernobyl disaster.  Debbie Tucker Green gave 12 minutes of magic with Heat, set in London on the hottest day of the year and a chuckle-inducing model animation from Matilda Tristram lasted a mere two minutes but longer in the mind.

Production costs?  Three of the film makers were asked and it was £500 to £5,000, you had to beg, steal or borrow they said; get people to give you music for nothing, persuade and cajole.

Persuasive the evening certainly was.  And celebrations all round as the NFI resounded to sounds of the after show party and founder Rachel Millward held her newborn daughter.  One thing’s certain -  both Bigelow and Bird’s Eye View have laid down a marker for more to come. 

Patricia McLoughlin

Categories

• entertainment
• BAFTA
• BEV
• Birds Eye View
• Opening Night

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