bloody women
Since February is ‘Women in Horror Month‘ I thought I’d promote an excellent programme being featured in this year’s Bird’s Eye View Film Festival in the UK, called ‘Bloody Women: From Gothic to Horror‘. It’s taking place from March 8th-17th 2011 in the BFI Southbank, ICA & Southbank Centre.
Bird’s Eye View is the UK’s first major women’s film festival, and has year-round activity with its First Weekenders Club, BEV Labs, touring programme and online community.
The Bloody Women prorgramme includes seminal silents by women pioneering the genre, recent classic horror movies made by women, a programme of cutting-edge horror shorts by emerging women filmmakers, and a panel discussion on women’s role in the genre.
The panel discussion will feature Emily Booth (actress & Horror Channel presenter), Alan Jones (critic and Film4 Frightfest co-director), Linda Williams (University of Southampton film professor), Muriel Gray (author & journalist), and Kerry Anne Mullaney (BAFTA-nominated director, The Dead Outside).
Just to give the newcomers to the horror film industry a bit of a boost, here are the short films that will be screened:
Switch
Dir Melanie Light, UK 2009, 4min
Playing on the genre’s usual suspects, a stalker pursues a female jogger through the beautiful snowy forest
Dirty Bitch
Dir Sun Koh, Singapore 2009, 14min
A love letter to the Singapore censors, inspired by a violently censored VHS of Claire Denis’ Nénette et Boni. Best Fiction and Best Direction winner, Singapore Short Film Awards.
Bon Appetit
Dir Kate Shenton, UK 2010, 4min
A deliciously dark comedy, this culinary nightmare is served in a broth of baked beans and blood.
Short Lease
Dir. Prano Bailey-Bond & Jennifer Eiss, UK 2010, 13min
When a woman finds a man hanging in a country house. British Horror Award-winner.
Daddy’s Girl
Dir Helen Komini Olsen, Norway 2009, 8min
A girl needs to get rid of her father. This eerie, deadpan film won Best Short Fiction at the 2010 Minimalen Festival.
Nursery Crimes
Dir Laura Whyte, UK 2010, 4min
Little Bo Peep has slaughtered her sheep and doesn’t know where to hide them… This gory stop-motion animation won the British Horror Festival Audience Award and Best Film at Village of the Damned.
I Spit on Eli Roth
Dir Devi Sniveley, USA 2009, 5min
Angered by the ‘Chick Vision’ extra on Roth’s Cabin Fever DVD, this is a cautionary tale for men who underestimate the women of horror.
I should also mention that the inaugural Athena Film Festival opens tomorrow at Barnard College, subtitled “A Celebration of Women and Leadership.”
Highlights include the New York premier of The Mighty Macs, a documentary about the Immaculata University women’s basketball team, and a screening of the Oscar contender Winter’s Bone, followed by a session with the director, Debra Granik.
The Athena Film Festival is a production of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood.