The 2007 Birdí¢â‚¬â„¢s Eye View Film Festival, 8th í¢â‚¬“ 14th March

Last week saw the launch of the 2007 Birds Eye View Film Festival in London and for only its 3rd year in existence, the festival offered an impressive line up of films, events and workshops.

Taking as its inspiration the fact that currently only 7% of directors are women, the festival aims to showcase a vast range new female film-making talent from around the world and the programme certainly was diverse.

I was there to catch Sarah Polleyí¢â‚¬â„¢s stunning directorial debut Away From Her starring Julie Christie. Christie plays Fiona, a woman suffering from Alzheimerí¢â‚¬â„¢s who decides to move into a local nursing home, much to the dismay of her husband Grant. Moving and touching without delving into the saccharine, ití¢â‚¬â„¢s hard to believe that such a mature piece of film-making could have come from a 27 year old, especially for her first feature effort.

On the other end of the spectrum, the festival also ran a series of short film programmes including a fantastic series of shorts from women film-makers in the developing world in association with ActionAid. At a time when most festivals focus solely on white and western directors, it was refreshing to see this addition to the programme.

I managed to catch the International Shorts 1 and was pleased to see some original and compelling short pieces that I hadní¢â‚¬â„¢t seen before. However at only 55mins long with five films, I couldní¢â‚¬â„¢t help feeling a little bit short-changed by the í‚ £8 entry fee.

Electric Ladyland offered the chance to watch music videos directed by women as well as engage with a panel of directors working within the music world. Some of the videos shown were excellent and the panel discussion at the end was insightful, but again, for í‚ £8 (thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s more than $16 Canadian dollars, people) I wanted to see more.

The festival has certainly succeeded in its diversity of programming but the steep pricing may go some way to explain the conspicuous number of empty seats in many of the screenings. Nevertheless, a promising beginning to this festival that is still very much in its infancy and will hopefully go some way into ensuring that the percentage of female directors is higher than 7% in the coming years.

Check out: www.birds-eye-view.co.uk