THE VOICE OF A WOMAN FILM FESTIVAL
FRIDAY 2ND OCTOBER, 2015
THE VOICE OF A WOMAN FILM FESTIVAL
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART (ICA)
PRESENTS
DAY 1 OF FILM SCREENINGS & TALKS
Led by Lynda Myles & Chris Auty
The National Film & Television School (UK)
VOICE OF A WOMAN TALKS DIGITAL GAMING
FRIDAY 2ND OCTOBER
3:00AM – 4:30PM
APPLE STORE, COVENT GARDEN
1-7 Covent Garden Piazza
London WC2E 8HA
REBECCA WINCH is Head of Production for the digital entertainment company, The Project Factory. She has produced award-winning interactive productions for shows such as Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Ken Loach’s The Spirit of 45, and the forthcoming major BBC drama, The Last Kingdom.
Rebecca is passionate about the intersection between linear visual storytelling and the new digital world, bringing stories and characters to life using social media, games and mobile platforms. This passion has led to The Project Factory winning BAFTA and Emmy nominations, and winning accolades around the world for its projects.
FRIDAY 2ND OCTOBER
6:15PM – 8:30PM
CURZON CINEMA SOHO
99 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 5DY
OPENING NIGHT FILM & TALKS moderated by the Guardian features writer, Kira Cochrane in conversation with the film's director Kim Longinotto and Baroness Lola Young - Parliamentary Committee on the prevention of sexual violence.
KIM LONGINOTTO - FILMMAKER
Winner of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Award for Documentary, Kim Longinotto is one of Britain's pre-eminent documentary filmmakers. Kim Longinotto's films focus largely on women, she says that she empathises with "the outsider, the people struggling. If women have no rights, if they are completely powerless, then they're the ones that you're going to want to make films about. If there was a place where men were being kicked around and women were locking them in cages, then I'd focus on the men."
SYNOPSIS
Brenda is a real-life 'superheroine' on a mission to disrupt the cycle of neglect, violence, and exploitation endured by girls and women in inner-city Chicago. On any given day, she's performing interventions with at-risk teenagers, female prisoners, and prostitutes on street corners. She uses unconditional love, non-judgmental support, practical help, whatever it takes for them to change their own lives. But the most powerful weapon in Brenda's healing arsenal is the raw honesty she offers, because she's been where they are. Using unobtrusive verite camera work that inhabits Brenda's miraculous perspective, master director Kim Longinotto follows intimate stories along Brenda's path. Child molestation, physical abuse, poverty, and silence are among the common denominators that have trapped many women in to dire situations. Like a shining star in the darkness, Brenda appears, helping them transform their lives.
QUEEN OF VERSAILLES (89 mins)
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
9:00AM – 10:40PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
LAUREN GREENFIELD - DIRECTOR
Acclaimed documentary photographer/filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield is considered a preeminent chronicler of youth culture, gender and consumerism, as a result of her monographs “Girl Culture,” “Fast Forward,” “THIN” and other photographic works, which have been widely published, exhibited, and collected by leading museums around the world. American Photo named Lauren one of the 25 most influential photographers working today.
SYNOPSIS
The Queen of Versailles is a character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. With epic proportions of Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. The film begins with the family triumphantly constructing the biggest house in America, a 90,000 sq. ft. palace. Over the next two years, their sprawling empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis. Major changes in lifestyle and character ensue within the cross-cultural household of family members and domestic staff.
THE AGE OF STUPID by Frannie Armstrong
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
11:05AM – 12:30PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
FRANNIE ARMSTRONG - DIRECTOR
Multi-award-winning documentary director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Restrepo) pioneered the now ubiquitous "crowd-funding" model to finance the film, and then spent four years following seven real people's stories to be interweaved with Pete Postlethwaite's fictional character.
LIZZIE GILLETT - PRODUCER
Lizzie managed 105 people in six countries as producer of The Age of Stupid. Alongside Franny she pioneered the enormously successful "crowd-funding" scheme raising £900,000 from 300+ people. She produced Stupid’s Global Premiere, featuring Kofi Annan and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.
FILM SYNOPSIS
The Age of Stupid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off) as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
1:40 pm - 2:40 pm: After-film discussion with Producer Lizzie Gillett
DYING ROOMS by KATE BLEWETT
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
12:55PM – 2:30PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
KATE BLEWETT - DIRECTOR
Kate Blewett grew up in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand and has filmed in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Micronesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan. She worked for two years developing The Dying Rooms about orphanages in communist China, pretending to be a staff worker in the orphanages. She found evidence that very young children were deliberately neglected and allowed to die in agonizing ways. Kate has also worked to expose forced labour in cocoa production, in her film Chocolate and Slavery, and to expose the abandonment of children in a special care home in Mogilino in her documentary Bulgaria's Abandoned Children.
FILM SYNOPSIS
In 1978 a law was introduced in China - the "one-child-policy" - which stated couples could only have one child, as a result of the dramatic increase in population. Couples could apply to have a second child if the first was a girl or had an illness but few were approved. Parents across China decided they needed to get rid of their female/disabled babies. A loophole was soon found in the law. It was illegal to kill your child directly (as in to stab or shoot them) but it was not illegal to kill them through neglect. This is a behind the scenes look at the 'orphanages' that were opened to cater to the new demand.
The Dying Rooms was televised in 26 nations and prompted an enormous outcry. In 1996 it won the Peabody Award and subsequently an end was brought to this inhumane practice. Since the film adoption of abandoned children outside China increased by more than double.
BANAZ: A LOVE STORY by DEEYAH KHAN
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
5:10PM – 6:10PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
DEEYAH KHAN
Deeyah Khan, is a critically acclaimed music producer and Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director, whose work highlights human rights, women’s voices and freedom of expression. Her skill as a multidisciplinary artist led her to use music and film as the language for her social activism. Born in Norway to immigrant parents of Pashtun and Punjabi ancestry. The experience of living between different cultures, both the beauty and the challenges, dominates her artistic vision.
BANAZ: A LOVE STORY - SYNOPSIS
Banaz: A Love Story has won several international awards. This documentary, chronicles the life and death of Banaz Mahmod, a young British Kurdish woman killed in 2006 in London on the orders of her family in a so-called honour killing. Deeyah is also the recipient of several awards for her work supporting freedom of expression and in 2012 she was awarded the Ossietzky prize by Norwegian PEN. The focus of her work and access to voices that are often overlooked and misunderstood has led to increasing demand as a speaker at international human rights events and platforms including the United Nations.
SECOND COMING by debbie tucker green
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
6:30PM – 8:00PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
debbie tucker green
debbie tucker green has written a number of plays, including born bad for which she won the Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2004. She has also won a BAFTA for Random, which was broadcast on Channel 4. Most of her stage plays have been produced at the Royal Court Theatre and the Young Vic in London. Debbie wrote and directed Second Coming, a film set in London starring Nadine Marshall and Idris Elba. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was given a limited release in the UK by Kaleidoscope Entertainment in June of 2015 making green only the 4th British black woman to ever have a movie distributed in the UK following Ngozi Onwurah, Amma Asante and Destiny Ekaragha.
SYNOPSIS
This debut feature from British playwright Debbie Tucker Green is a family drama shaded with mystery and driven by confident, searching writing. It's a close portrait of a recognisable London family, with Jax (Nadine Marshall) working behind a customer-services desk for the local benefits service, her husband Mark (Idris Elba) doing long shifts on the railways and their 11-year-old son JJ (Kai Francis Lewis) negotiating school and growing up. But, among the details of family and work life, all presented in an elusive, time-hopping style, Tucker Green explores something stranger: it turns out that Jax is pregnant, and it's a cause of great tension, even agony, as it's unclear who, if anyone, could be the father.
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT ON - KIM LONGINOTTO
Kim Longinotto is a British documentary filmmaker, well known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto studied camera and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where she now tutors occasionally.
Longinotto is an observational filmmaker. Observational cinema, also known as direct cinema, free cinema or cinema verite, usually excludes certain documentary techniques such as advanced planning, scripting, staging, narration, lighting, reenactment and interviewing. Longinotto’s unobtrusiveness, which is an important part of observational documentary, gives the women on camera a certain voice and presence that may not have emerged with another documentary genre. She has received a number of awards for her films over the years, including a BAFTA for her documentary Pink Saris.
.
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
9:00PM – 9:52PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
THE GOOD WIFE OF TOKYO - by Kim Longinotto & Claire Hunt
“Forget those demure ladies with fragrant fans and meet the new breed of Japanese women!” Kazuko Hohki goes back to Tokyo with her band, the ‘Frank Chickens’, after living in England for 15 years. This wry and delightful film records her re-experiencing of Japan after a long absence, examining traditional attitudes to women and those of Kazuko’s friends who are trying to live differently. “This is a remarkable film...” — Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.
EAT THE KIMONO (60 mins) by KIM LONGINOTTO & CLAIRE HUNT
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
10:15AM – 11:15AM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
EAT THE KIMONO
EAT THE KIMONO is a brilliant documentary about Hanayagi Genshu, a Japanese feminist and avant-garde dancer and performer, who has spent her life defying her conservative culture’s contempt for independence and unconventionality. She denounced Emperor Hirohito as a war criminal, and dismissed death threats made against her by right-wing groups. “You mustn’t be eaten by the kimono,” says Genshu, making reference to the traditional Japanese dress designed to restrict movement for women, “You must eat the kimono, and gobble it up.”
... MARLEY: MAKING OF A LEGEND by ESTHER ANDERSON
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
2:55PM – 4:40PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ,
ESTHER ANDERSON - DIRECTOR
Esther Anderson first came to prominence in London as an actress, starring opposite American actor Sydney Poitier in the film "A Warm December." She was also featured in the Avengers, Genghis Khan (Columbia), The Touchables (20th Century Fox) and other films.
SYNOPSIS
Based on footage shot in the early seventies, that was lost for more than thirty years and now restored, Esther Anderson takes us on a personal journey to explore the powerful relationship between her, as a young woman, and Bob Marley as a young man.
JOY ITS NINA by JOY ELIAS & JANE THORNBURN
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
1:05PM – 1:40PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
JOY ELIAS-RILWAN
Joy Elias-Rilwan appeared in Sally Potter's "The Gold Diggers," her first feature film whilst still training at Dartington College of Arts. On graduating she attended a workshop given by Mike Figgis who invited her to join The People Show to do site- specific multi media experimental productions internationally. As well as other credits in film, television and theatre, she appeared in The Secret Laughter of Women with Colin Firth.
JANE THORBURN
Jane Thorburn is Principal Lecturer and Course Leader for BA Television Production at the University of Westminster. She has been researching the Nigerian Film and Video industry for the last five years and has made six documentaries in Nigeria. As well as many other works, an early success was the Arts Magazine programme Alter Image which ran for three series on Channel 4. The programmes received a number of international awards.
SYNOPSIS
Shot in England and Nigeria this evocative and original film weaves together short stories that share a theme of the varied experiences of African women living in the UK separated from their families. The stories are based on news and court reports and Joy Elias-Rilwan’s own life, including voice mails left on her answer-machine by the legendary singer Nina Simone, her friend and self proclaimed ‘Spiritual Mother’.
PINK SARIS by KIM LONGINOTTO (96 mins)
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
2:05PM – 3:41PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
PINK SARIS (96 mins)
by KIM LONGINOTTO
SYNOPSIS
“A girl’s life is cruel...A woman’s life is very cruel,” notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the center of PINK SARIS, internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto’s latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women. Sampat should know – like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which made her work hard and beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep to form the Gulabi Gang, Northern India’s women vigilantes in pink.
STROLLING by Cecile Emeke
SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER
4:05PM – 5:00PM
THE HOSPITAL CLUB
24 ENDELL STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON WC2H 9HQ
CECILE EMEKE
Cecile Emeke is a director, writer and artist from london. she is most known for the global online documentary series 'strolling' and the short film/web series 'ackee & saltfish'. Cecile's work has featured everywhere from the new york times, shadow & act, the washington post, ebony magazine, fader, nylon, mashable dazed, afropunk, okay africa, to the tribeca film festival, the bfi london film festival, the american black film festival, the trinidad and tobago film festival, to the brooklyn museum, the southbank centre and more.
SYNOPSIS
The stories of the African diaspora are scattered all over the world and 'strolling' helps connect them. 'Strolling' is a short documentary film series created by Cecile Emeke where we take a stroll with people in various cities and countries around the world, having refreshingly raw and honest conversations about various issues at the forefront of their society. We touch on everything from feminism, sexuality, gender, race, politics to philosophy, art, history, capitalism, war and poverty and everything else you can think of.
