THE VOICE OF A WOMAN TALKS : FILM LINEUP

• VOW|FEST
• 1st October 2013
• 30

IN CONVERSATION WITH WOMEN IN FILM

Rebecca O’Brien - Film Producer
Dimitra Tsingou - COO, Protagonist Pictures
Cath Le Couteur - Founder, Shooting People
Kate Kinninmont - Executive Director, Women in Film & TV

Rebecca O’Brien began her film life working at the Edinburgh Film Festival. After a short stint in theatre admin she took a one week film production course and fell headlong into production. She worked on early Channel Four films and dramas, including “My Beautiful Laundrette”. Her producing debut was “Friendship’s Death” written and directed by Peter Wollen and starring Tilda Swinton and Bill Paterson. Her first film with Ken Loach was “Hidden Agenda” and since then they have made twelve feature films together and many other documentary and short projects as well as formed Sixteen Films. Apart from the Loach/Laverty films, Rebecca also produced the “Bean” movie for Working Title, “Princesa” for Parallax Pictures and has executive produced for Camilla Bray, Ian Knox and Henrique Goldman.

Cath Le Couteur is a co-founder of Shooting People, the UK’s independent filmmakers network of over 38,000 members and sits on the board for Directors UK. She is a writer/director and NFTS graduate.

Dimitra Tsingou is Chief Operating Officer at Protagonist Pictures. She previously worked as Senior Business Affairs Executive at Future Films and Aramid Capital Partners before moving to the role of Head of Production and Business Affairs at Swarovski Entertainment in 2010. Most recently Tsingou was at Film4 in a senior legal and business affairs position working on projects including Protagonist titles The Lobster and Dark Horse.

Kate Kinninmont MBE An award-winning TV producer and director for almost 30 years, Kate Kinninmont is now the CEO of Women in Film and Television, the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK, and part of an international network of over 13,000 women worldwide. Kate is a member of BAFTA, the Royal Television Society, Women in Journalism, Directors UK, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is an alumna of Women of the Year, an Honorary Associate of The London Film School, and was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours List 2014 for services to the women in the TV and film industry.

VOW FILM FEST TALK DIGITAL with REBECCA WINCH

Rebecca Winch 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. She will share with us her passion for the possibilities between linear visual storytelling and the new digital world and the craft and limitless imagination that go in to bringing stories and characters to life using digital. This passion has led to her Project Factory winning BAFTA and Emmy nominations, and winning accolades around the world for its projects.

KATE BLEWETT

Join filmmaker KATE BLEWETT in a screening and after-film discussion about her film Dying Days and the power of film to transform.

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.

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 screened in 26 countries and prompted an enormous outcry. 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.

Q&A

VOW MASTERCLASS with JILLE AZIS

JILLE AZIS has had a very long career in a very male dominated field, as Set Decorator for Angelina Jolie directorial projects, Roman Polanski, Woodie Allen, Ron Howard, Tony Scott, the list of established industry names goes on. Not to be missed hear her reveal her craft, but most importantly her journey to establish skills in a craft where very few women hold positions of leadership, her point of view and her much valued experience speaks to all whether interested in Set Decorating or not.

Q&A

AFTER-FILM DISCUSSION WITH LIZZIE GILLETTE

Lizzie Gillette managed 105 people in six countries as producer of The Age of Stupid. Alongside the film's director Franny Armstrong 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.  Hear from Lizzie about financing your independent film.  No more waiting for money to fall out trees, hear from Lizzie what it took for her to take matters in to her own hands and just make the film that they believed could help change the world.

Q&A

FILMMAKER/ACTRESS - ESTHER ANDERSON

Esther Anderson first came to prominence in London as an actress in the 60's, 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.  She helped Chris Blackwell set up Island Records and helped to propel Bob Marley's career, Bob Marley & Me is an intimate portrait of her relationship with the icon before fame.

Q&A

DEEYAH KHAN (Banaz: A Love Story)

Deeyah Khan, is a Peabody award-winning documentary film director, whose work highlights human rights, women’s voices and freedom of expression. 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.

Q&A