| A free
film festival that battles the celluloid ceiling, celebrating the
diverse and extraordinary work of women filmmakers and their
not-to-be-underestimated diverse and extraordinary audiences. Seen and
Heard in 2010, its second year, will follow on from a showcase of
questions on class, race, ability/disability, gender and
sexuality. Seen & Heard in 2010: January 14th-17th The Red Rattler 6 Faversham St, MARRICKVILLE NSW, Sydney Raffle prizes every night! Thursday Jan 14th - Stranger than Fiction: starting 8pm; exhibiting both fiction and documentary shorts - screenings inlcude Pleased to Meat You by Megan Huitema, animated short Man Makes History by Sally Bothroyd, docco The Butcher's Wife by Kylie J Plunkett and short film Love Bites with guest speaker filmmaker Sunny Grace Friday Jan 15th - Scarlet, White and Blue: starting 8pm; causing a fuss in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia - short films produced by Kath Shelper (producer of Samson & Delilah, 2009) and feature documentary Embedded with the Murri Mob by Sophie Meyrick Saturday 16th - Festival Gala Night: starting 8pm; featuring special guests and performances - screening creative and documentary shorts with live band FAG PANIC Sunday 17th - She's So Unusual: starting 8pm; experimental shorts - featuring guest speaker filmmaker Gillian Leahy with a screening of her film MY LIFE WITHOUT STEVE: "A SMALL MASTERPIECE ... the most moving and perfectly structured Australian short film seen in a long time." - Anna-Maria Dell'Oso, National Times. Find us on Facebook  With sponsorship by The Feminist Bookshop and Filmink Magazine Why a festival of work by women? Commercial cinema has a long history of having been a male dominated industry. Films that have dominated the mainstream were action films with male leads (need we list James Bond, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon?), comedies with male leads, from Ferris Bueller's Day Off to Shaun of the Dead, dramas with male leads, such as L.A. Confidential, Saving Private Ryan and Fight Club, have also dominated the choices of the movie-going public, leaving women-directed films a lesser-known, close to extinct choice. The modern film industry, however, is undergoing a dramatic change. Audiences now are more often making the choice to see arthouse films and independent cinema, such as Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Babel, and The Lives of Others, and the media attention given to these films continues to expand. With this shift in the audience's choice to see "decent" films, rather than films of somewhat thinner substance, there is no reason why women filmmakers should be ignored. In spite of the great depths filmmakers are currently exploring and audiences are embracing, there is a seemingly undying fear that women directors make films about women's themes. Just when audiences started to think that they were finally no longer being underestimated, women directors and cinematographers still go without widespread attention, and most importantly, work, because of the desire for capital "women's themes" do not make money in the movie business. The film industry shuts out both women filmmakers and audiences. Making just more than half the population, there are huge numbers of women who belong to at least one. The problem is not a lack of women who wish to work as filmmakers: the numbers of film school graduates are evenly male and female. Despite this, only 4% of directors are women. In the history of the Academy Awards, only three women have been nominated for Best Director (none of them have won). Sofia Coppola was the last woman to be nominated, in 2003, for Lost in Translation. Prior to this, Jane Campion was nominated in 1993 for The Piano. The third, and the first woman ever to be nominated, was Lina Wertmuller in 1976 for her film Seven Beauties. There has never been an Academy Award nomination for a woman cinematographer. The issue should not be the concern of filmmakers alone, audiences are also at the receiving end of the problem. To release films which feature "women's themes" may be believed to shut male audiences out, with films heavily featuring men's themes disguised as "people themes". The Seen and Heard Festival features more than 25 titles. Click on film titles to read more. Saturday 3/1/09 OPENING NIGHT: The Films of Jennifer Cox - screenings from 8 and 9pm Sunday 4/1/09 Afternoon Tea: Women and Work - screening from 3pm Evening Screening: Call Me Mum - feature screening from 8pm Monday 5/1/09 Shorts Showcase - screening from 8 pm till late Tuesday 6/1/09 Crossing the Line - short feature documentary screening from 8pm Wednesday 7/1/09 Rethinking Ability: films centered on "ability" and "disability" screening from 8pm featuring White Sound, the films of Jessica Tyrrell and Unlock Thursday 8/1/09 Scarlett Productions: Films Produced by Kath Shelper - featuring six shorts all directed by women, produced by Shelper, about and by Indigenous Australians Friday 9/1/09 Grind Girls and Love Refugees - screening from 8pm Saturday 10/1/09 Afternoon Tea: Call Me Mum - screening from 3pm Evening Screening: Rethinking Ability: films centered on "ability" and "disability" screening from 8pm featuring White Sound, the films of Jessica Tyrrell and Unlock Sunday 11/1/09 Afternoon Tea: The Films of Jennifer Cox from 3pm Evening Screening: Shorts Showcase - screening from 8 pm till late Monday 12/1/09 Women and Work - screening from 8pm Tuesday 13/1/09 CLOSING NIGHT: Come Home - tributes to lost souls: Bird, Dugong and Playground - screening from 8pm |