Celebrating Women Filmmakers
Birds Eye View Film Festival
6-14th March 2008
BFI Southbank, ICA, Curzon
\"A brave and thought provoking lineup\" Grazia Magazine
BIRDS EYE VIEW (BEV) film festival presents nine days of inspiration and celebration, showcasing the very best work from women filmmakers with over 70 events including screenings, workshops and parties at 7 London venues. See www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/festival.htm for more info.
Live Music at the Birds Eye View Film Festival
As part of its programme, Birds Eye View will be joining forces with the BFI to present Clowning Glories, a retrospective programme of silent films honouring the women whose comic brilliance lit up the screen in the earliest days of cinema before 1930.
The silent films will be accompanied by live music from some of the UK\'s leading women composers such as twice Grammy nominated Imogen Heap (Garden State soundtrack). renowned jazz musician Nikki Yeoh, Mercury Award Nominee Zoe Rahman, experimental vocal trio Juice, silent movie pianist Jane Gardner, plus outstanding musicians Alcyona, Jean Hasse and Serafina Steer.
LIVE MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS in the programme include:
Thursday 6th March
Opening Night Gala
With live music from Imogen Heap
BFI SOUTHBANK NFT1
Launched by Maureen Lipman, BEV\'s Opening night gala showcases the best work from women filmmakers around the world, alongside a taste of early silent comedy with live musical accompaniment by twice grammy nominated Imogen Heap (Garden State Soundtrack)..this fantastic event will be followed by a free party in the film café.
Sunday 9th March
COMEDY FILM GALA
with live music from Nikki Yeoh and Serafina Steer
BFI SOUTHBANK NFT 1 6.45PM – 8.30PM
Hosted by much-loved comedienne Jo Brand, with special guests including Shazia Mirza and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), this special event launches Birds Eye View\'s hunt for new female comedy filmmaking talent in the UK with a programme of side-splitting silent short films written/directed by and starring women from the earliest days in cinema.
Nikki Yeoh is a London-born jazz pianist, keyboardist and composer. She has worked with Courtney Pine, Neneh Cherry, Jools Holland, The Roots, Phillip Bent, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Chante Moore and Steve Williamson, among others.
Serafina Steer graduated from the prestigious Trinity College of Music, London. A very talented harpist, she has performed at venues including The Vortex jazz club, London, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and the Royal Opera House.
Friday 7th March
MY BEST GIRL (Sam Taylor, US 1925, 80\')
with live musical accompaniment by the Elysian Quartet
NFT 3 6.30PM
Maggie falls in love with Joe, her new colleague in the stock room, unaware that he is the son of the department store owner working undercover to prove his business skills.
The Elysian Quartet is one of the UK\'s most innovative young ensembles. They have worked with artists as diverse as virtuoso beat-boxer Killa Kela, jazz pianist Keith Tippett, and experimental electronic composer Simon Fisher-Turner
Saturday 8th March
I DON\'T WANT TO BE A MAN! (Ernst Lubitsch, Germany 1918, 41\')
with live musical accompaniment by ZOE RAHMAN
NFT 3, 6.10PM
With Ossi Oswalda, Curt Goetz, Victor Janson, Ferry Sikla, Margarete Kupfer.
Ossi\'s father hires a guardian to educate his rebellious daughter. Escaping from house-arrest dressed as a man, Ossi begins to investigate whether life is more liberated this way.
Described in The Observer as \"one of the finest young pianists in Europe\", Zoe Rahman has firmly established herself as one of the brightest stars on the contemporary jazz scene. Her most recent album, \'Melting Pot\', has been short-listed for the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize and was voted \'Jazz Album of the Year\' at the 2006 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
The Danger Girl (Clarence G.Badger, USA, 1916, c18\')
with live musical accompaniment by JUICE
With Gloria Swanson, Bobby Vernon. When vampish Helene uses her charms on Bobbie, Gloria breaks up the pair by disguising herself as a man to seduce Helene.
Juice is an experimental vocal trio who specialise in vibrant, theatrical performances. They draw on world music, jazz, folk and pop, have commissioned countless new works and featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and Resonance FM. In June 2007, they came second in the internationally-renowned Tampere Vocal Festival, the only UK group ever to be prize-winners.
THE VAGABOND QUEEN (Géza von Bolváry, UK, 62\')
with live musical accompaniment by ALCYONA
NFT 3 Monday 10 March 6.15PM
Cash-strapped maid Sally (Balfour) is the doppelganger of Princess Zonia of Bolonia. Impersonating the princess during her coronation, feisty Sally has to endure Zonia\'s randy husband as well as several hilarious assassination attempts.
Alcyona studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Music with Liam Noble and Pete Saberton. Her album was shortlisted for a Parliamentary Jazz award in 2007 and her quintet, \'Blink\', won the most recent Promoter\'s Choice award.
SHOW PEOPLE (King Vidor, US, 82\')
with live musical accompaniment by JEAN HASSE
NFT 2 Tuesday 11 March 6.20PM
Peggy Pepper begins her career in slapstick movies, where she falls for fellow comedian Billy Boone, but when - as \'Patricia Pepoire\' - she graduates to high art productions, she rejects him.
MABEL\'S DRAMATIC CAREER (Mack Sennett, US, 1913, 4\')
With Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett, Ford Sterling, Roscoe \'Fatty\' Arbuckle. Mabel finds work as an actress in a film studio in this wonderfully self-reflexive short.
Jean Hasse is a Bristol-based American composer, performer, music editor and publisher. In 2007, her new score to accompany the silent film, Faust, premiered in Bristol and then travelled to London\'s Barbican Centre.
THE LOVE EXPERT (David Kirkland, US, c63\')
with live musical accompaniment by JANE GARDNER
NFT 2 Wednesday 12 March 6.20PM
Self-appointed \'love expert\' Babs uses her matchmaking skills to marry off the women who stand in the way of her own romantic interest.
BLUEBOTTLES (Adrian Brunel, UK, 28\')
A young woman blows a policeman\'s whistle and confuses police and thieves alike.
Jane Gardner is a silent movie pianist and composer, whose solo piano performances to film include Buster Keaton\'s \'The Navigator\' & \'Steamboat Bill Junior\'. Her concert hall works have been widely performed by ensembles such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN\'S DAY PARTY: WHITECHAPEL LATE NIGHTS SPECIAL EVENT
WHITECHAPEL GALLERY 7PM
Saturday 8th March
B-movie themed antics with a stunning all girl line up of live performances (Peggy Sue & the Pirates, Florence and the Machine, and Plaster of Paris), DJ sets (Broken Hearts, Isa GT and DJ Pearl) and visuals (VJ bopa, Jewelspit and Your mum). Hosted by The Laundrettas and Girlcore.
TO BOOK
For full programme information, visit www.birds-eye-view.co.uk