After another successful film festival last year, Underwire are returning for their 4th annual event that’s the only short film festival in the UK dedicated to showcasing the raw cinematic talents of women that runs from 19-23 November at The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick, London.
Featuring an eclectic mix of genres, themes and aesthetic styles, this year boasts 65 films across 10 competition screenings. These ten craft awards aim to recognise outstanding female film practitioners working in the UK today. This year’s festival also includes 23 dynamic events, bringing industry icons and familiar faces to our audience.
Highlights from this year?s festival include two guest programmes; Aesthetica Short Film Festival present the highlights from 2013 and LOCO return with the annual event LiveWire, a night of film and live comedy, featuring the Edinburgh Fringe favourite Lou Sanders; the mysterious Miss L, creator of cult website Casting Call Woe; and the brilliant Sony Award winning stand-up, actor, writer and musician Isy Suttie.
There will also be collaborative events with Shooting People (Crowdfunding Masterclass), Imagem (Matching Sound to Music) and Euroscript (The Story and Script Clinic).
Alongside the film programme, UnderWire is hosting a day of affordable industry events on Saturday 23rd November.
Sessions include ‘Girls on Film’, a day of panel discussions in partnership with Little White Lies, featuring ‘The Bechdel Test: The Ugly Truth?’ tackling the difficult question about the portrayal of women and ‘Honest Lies: The Representation of Prostitution in Cinema’. Birds Eye View Film Festival present ‘Short Films to Features’; joined by feature director Frances Lea (STRAWBERRY FIELDS) and BAFTA presents a craft masterclass with award-winning make-up artist Morag Ross, the designer behind Martin Scorcese’s HUGO and THE AVIATOR.
The films in this year’s festival reflect the diversity of East London, with a mix of animation (FOXTROT, CELLS HAPPEN), documentaries (STAY THE SAME, BORN POSITIVE) and drama (JONAH, MORNING), while putting intriguing female characters in the spotlight, featuring a J-Pop maverick from the 80’s, an eccentric launderette resident and a Midwife who rides the dangerous roads of rural Ghana on a motorbike. These films will inspire and excite audiences.
Follow Underwire – facebook.com/underwirefestival and twitter.com/underwirefest
