2025 marks 20 years since the inaugural Birds’ Eye View Film Festival – a platform for women filmmakers that was launched at BFI Southbank. Now, as Reclaim The Frame, the charity, is returning to celebrate this milestone together with talent from across the UK, in collaboration with British Council. Join us this International Women’s Day for a special curated selection of shorts - encompassing drama, documentary, animation, and experimental - followed by a conversation with the filmmakers.

From one's intimate relationships - with their mothers, and their own bodies - to their communities or society at large - these shorts explore nuanced and multifaceted experiences of womanhood, gender, identity and expression.

Introduced by Reclaim The Frame director Melanie Iredale, Birds’ Eye View co-founder Pinny Grylls, and British Council’s Film Relationship Manager Fiona Fletcher. Followed by a conversation with the filmmakers, together with Head of Audience Engagement Aashna Thakkar.

This event marks the launch of a programme which will go on to be presented globally, through British Council’s International Touring Programme.

THREE MEALS

Director: Pelin Keskin

European Premiere

UK/USA 2024, 14 min

Set in one location and segmented across three meals over the course of a day, THREE MEALS, a mother and daughter drama, charts the chasm between them, despite their intimate connection, and navigates towards a resolution that could save their relationship.

MADE IN THAMESMEAD

Director: Mary Martins

UK 2024, 13 min

With a focus on the sense of belonging, MADE IN THAMESMEAD, intertwines the testimonies of local residents of Thamesmead and the surrounding area of Abbey Wood, located in South East London. Reflecting on their lived experiences of past racial tensions, this film also celebrates how Thamesmead is now one of the most diverse areas of the UK.

QUANTISED BITS OF LIGHT TILL IT ADDED TO A WHOLE

Director: Riley Tu

UK 2024, 6 min

Critiquing gender construction in digital technology, QUANTISISTED BITS OF LIGHT TILL IT ADDED TO A WHOLE reimagines cyborg bodies, investigating the intersections of technology, gender, and resilience. Drawing from feminist theories and speculative fiction, this animation examines the complexities of rendering identity in virtual spaces.

ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW

Director: Lipa Hussain

London Premiere

UK 2024, 10 min

Filmmaker Lipa Hussain interrogates a neurological condition she has experienced since childhood and the parallels it represents with her own religious and racial struggles. ‘Alice In Wonderland’ syndrome causes the sensation of shrinking and losing bodily control;  ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW explores the idea of utilising AIW to confront an enemy from Lipa’s past.

DÉDÉ (ANCESTOR)

Director: Yasmine Djedje-Fisher-Azoume

World Premiere

UK 2024, 3 min

DÉDÉ (ANCESTOR) delves into diasporic female identity through an exploration of Director/Animator's Bété ancestry, a tribe in central Ivory Coast. The film is a journey into the region’s feminine cosmology and folkloric traditions, guided by feminine icons such as tribal fertility carvings, masks, sculptures, mythological fables and deities.

ROBERT AND GEORGIE

Director: Clare Richards

UK 2024, 16 min

Robert George Sanders is a fashion design graduate who is in a constant battle to both artistically define himself yet remain label free. He creates flamboyant and fantastical costumes that challenge our perception of gender, while exploring his identity as an artist, a trans woman and a son.

Presented with on-screen Descriptive Subtitles. All live elements will include British Sign Language interpretation and live captions.

Presented as part of Reclaim, Reframe, Rejoice, in partnership with British Council and University of Westminster QHT Live Performance Project, and supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.