Read on to find out more about this exciting new programme, launched at Plymouth Arts Centre, designed to build a local and national network of film fans supporting women in film!
To join us in supporting women in film, sign up here – it’s free and in return you’ll receive free cinema tickets, DVDs and merch.
Birds Eye View (BEV) launches a pilot programme designed to grow audiences for films created by women. The project seeks to empower audiences to make a positive intervention in the distribution and exhibition space. Supported by BFI Audience Fund, “Reclaim The Frame” Influencer Project (which will run from April to September 2018) will spotlight 4 films in 5 cities over 6 months. The project aims to develop a growing network of people who are dedicated to broadening the frame through which we engage with film.
The Reclaim The Frame project will:
- Champion 4 films in 5 cities over 6 months
- Empower a grass-roots network of ‘Influencers’ in 5 UK cities: Plymouth, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham
- Appoint ‘Super Influencers’ in each city to develop and nurture networks on the ground
- Raise awareness of gender inequality in film and wider society by aligning activism with conscious consumerism in the cinema
- Reward influencers with free tickets, DVDs / VOD views and subscriptions
- Build on BEV’s 15 year experience spotlighting films by women
- Offer a curated slate of films from the UK and the World (fiction and documentary) that celebrates and challenges perceptions of the female gaze on screen
WHY NOW?
With gender inequality in film and across wider society dominating the headlines, we are proud to a programme that makes a positive intervention in the cinema by enabling audiences to make a change to our film culture and support narratives told from the female gaze. Men account for 92% of directors and 90% of screenwriters of the Top 200 Films at the UK box office in 2016.
We are almost always being made to watch a one-sided view of the world. It’s time to start asking: what are the stories we are missing out on? The gender imbalance throughout the film industry also helps explain why women are very often objectified, stereotyped or secondary when we see them on the screen. Film is a powerful medium but is not reflecting the world that we inhabit … and we want to change that.
ABOUT BIRDS EYE VIEW
Birds Eye View (BEV) is a year round agency that campaigns for gender equality in film celebrating its fifteenth anniversary: they spotlight, celebrate and advocate films created by women, and support women working in film. They’re not just for women, but for everyone. Director of Birds Eye View, Mia Bays said: “The up-swell of energy, anger and passion-for-change following the revelations of widespread sexual harassment and misconduct in Hollywood and beyond has strengthened our resolve to tackle gender inequality and the power imbalance in film. The time for change is now, and we see this unique programme as fitting squarely into this aspiration.”
BEV have supported over 30 films in the last two years with promotions and events, such as Suffragette (2015), Toni Erdmann (2016) and Step (2017). They host these events with leading filmmakers, cultural influencers and social justice campaigners, such as director Gurinder Chadha OBE, publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove and acclaimed film critic Anna Smith.
PARTNERS
The Reclaim The Frame project is supported by distribution partners: Curzon Artificial Eye (and Media Europe), Altitude Entertainment and Vertigo Films. Lia Devlin, Head of Marketing, at Altitude said: “This idea has significant value to us as a distributor, enabling us to raise the profile of the films and the filmmakers, break out independent films across the UK and ultimately promote the diversity that the BFI and Birds Eye View are committed to”.
Plymouth Arts Centre launched the project, and additional venue partners are HOME in Manchester, Tyneside in Newcastle, Midlands Arts Centre & Mockingbird Cinemas in Birmingham, and Genesis and Picturehouse Central in London.
We are also delighted to have the support of industry partners Mubi and Pulse Films.
THE FILMS
The first “Reclaim The Frame” film will be REVENGE by French first-time feature filmmaker Corelie Fargeat. This provocative, rape-revenge B-Movie sets the tone for a project that seeks to counter conceptions of ‘the female gaze’ as a one-size-fits-all description. REVENGE is genre-bending, kick-ass grindhouse movie that demonstrates women can make all kinds of movies!
Guest speakers will frame discussions around the film by exploring the psychology of revenge, representations of rape on screen, the female gaze on screen and the B-Movie / Slasher genres.
Our second film, a British first-time feature, will screen in July 2018; the third film will preview as part of the Reclaim The Frame project in August; our final film will screen at all six partner cinemas in September 2018.
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