Birds Eye View

“It’s hard to get any film done but it’s even harder for women,” said a veteran producer at the Bird’s Eye View opening gala reception.

At the fourth women’s festival volunteers handed out drinks, snacks, useful information and even more useful introductions. Elizabeth Rapoport, programmer for the short film strand said that there had been more than 400 submissions from around the world, making it difficult to select the ones for the opening night shorts event.

Rachel Millward, the director of Bird’s Eye View, and the formidable Maureen Lipman,introduced seven delightful and very different films. With enormous depth and range, they highlighted the skills of women directors and covered the whole gamut from environmental concerns (UK), to sexual exploits (Demark), women wrestlers (Bolivia), Yugoslavian war (Serbia/Germany), love (Germany/Slovenia)and silent film heroines (US).

There was no denying that women are as capable and creative as their male counterparts but the very need for an all female event illustrates the necessity for high profile role models, especially among directors, cinematographers and writers.

Bird’s Eye View certainly destroys the myth of the damsel in creative distress. The seventy events attracted significant media attention. A major success was the Comedy Retrospective, which attempted to revive the Golden Age of funny women. Rare archived footage was shown during panel talks and specialists attempted to explain why so few women’s roles currently present an opportunity to show their funny side, with few meaty comic scripts for females.

Apart from the wonderful selections of features, documentaries and shorts, there were Birds Eye View special events including “Overheated Symphony: Live Edit” (where women were challenged to shoot a film on their cell phone) and many master-classes and workshops for aspiring filmmakers.

The festival helped raise the profile of women film makers from around the globe and it’s to be hoped that it continues to grow until the day that we can say that women have achieved the same opportunities as the men in charge of the film industry.

But don’t hold your breath!

Cristina Jaleru