Femspectives 2021: Dreaming While Black
Dreaming While Black, the short film programme curated by Tanatsei Gambura went live last weekend at the Femspectives festival in Glasgow and there's just one word to describe what went down and that word is dreamy. The week-long screening of selected films was a beyond refreshing collection of short movies tackling the themes of dreams, identity, culture and history, all from a black perspective.
Glasgow Short Film Festival 2021 Review
In March our writers attended the Glasgow Short Film Festival, which was entirely online, and watched a wide range of different films by female and non-binary filmmakers. Some films provided an exploration of lockdown and pandemic themes with new programmes added called No New Normal, Big Dog Energy and Locked Down to reflect on the strange last year and, while other films explored more timeless and ongoing issues, there were a few that were pure escapism. Read our writers thoughts on these eclectic and exciting films:
BFI Flare 2021: Features Review
Each year as a team we attend BFI Flare, the UK’s largest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival. Completely virtual this year, there were a variety of screenings, panels, and events across a 12-day period. Below, our editorial team share their thoughts on some of their favourite feature films from female and non-binary filmmakers.
BFI Flare 2021: Shorts
As well as a great programme of feature films, we also watched plenty of short films at BFI Flare – at this year’s completely virtual festival, there were nearly 40 shorts exploring LGBTQ+ themes, and they were all available to watch for free. Below, our editorial team share their thoughts on some of their favourite shorts from female and non-binary filmmakers.
BFI Future Film Festival 2021
Next up on our 2021 festival tour is BFI Future Film Festival, showcasing the best short films from creatives aged 16 to 25. Hosted by the British Film Institute, it’s the UK’s largest festival for young and emerging filmmakers and hosts a variety of free events and screenings – and, this year, it was all virtual. Below, our editorial team share their thoughts on some of the festival’s female-directed films.
London Short Film Festival 2021
Kickstarting our festival tour of 2021 was London Short Film Festival, taking place online for the first time ever, it boasted 59 short films from around the world as well as some brilliant Industry talk events including Lynne Ramsey. Our writing team focused on the UK Awards selection and shared their thoughts on some of the female directed films featured.
Leeds International Film Festival 2020
This year we were fortunate enough to attend Leeds International Film virtually where we caught some incredible feature features and fantastic short films too. Our team shares their thoughts on some of their favourite picks from the festival, our only regret is that we couldn’t watch everything, because it was a brilliant selection!
Sheffield Short Film Festival 2020
This year marked the launch of Sheffield Short Film Festival, founded by Joe Morris and Louise Marie Cooke. Taking place online like many festivals of 2020, our team were able to enjoy a wonderful range of short films and have shared their thoughts on some of their favourites below from the women and non binary film makers in the selection.
LFF 2020: Kajillionaire triumphantly rides a wave of its own tongue-in-cheek-ness
I like a film that doesn’t take itself seriously, and Kajillionaire triumphantly rides a wave of its own tongue-in-cheek-ness.
LFF 2020: Biopic and psychological surreality interweave in Shirley
The film is transfixing from start to finish, partly for this reason – it situates Shirley inside one of her own tales, throwing her into the middle of her own “thrillingly horrible” story. I loved every minute of it.