We are very proud to support UnderWire, a festival of short films by women, which is all the more important this year as it has just been announced that Bird’s Eye View will take a break in 2012. This year Underwire have introduced two new categories – Film Composition and Film Journalism – and they have doubled the workshops and debates from last year, hoping to plant the seeds of engagement and discussion.

We are very excited to be taking part in their discussion event Wired Words: Film Criticism Workshop on Saturday 26 November, 2-3:30pm at the Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey:

Championing new waves of cinema and shining a light on the under-seen, film criticism is an essential driver in cinephilia. But how do radical ideas find a place? Featuring presentations from writers and editors, this workshop session explores how film criticism operates as a space for new ideas in film culture.

Do join us for what promises to be a stimulating and energising debate!

The films in this year’s festival look at issues ranging from national identity (The Cake, Sunday), female sexuality (First Bite, Nocturn), adolescence (Biatch, I Luv Matt Johnson) and social responsibility (N25, Himalayan Sisters). Alongside the film programme, UnderWire is hosting a day of affordable industry events on Saturday 26 November at The Shortwave Cinema and The Bermondsey Square Hotel. Sessions include Ladies First: Representation of Women in Music Videos; A Room of Her Own: Writing Leading Ladies and The Feminist and the Flirt: Performance Video Art, among others. Supported by Women in Film and Television, they are holding a networking Breakfast exclusively for their Underwire filmmakers on the Saturday morning. Bidisha will host the Awards Ceremony that same evening.

For the full festival programme go to the Underwire website.

Monsters

‘Aliens and the Imagination’ at The British Library

A special evening of talks about ‘Aliens and the imagination’ on the theme of our fascination with extraterrestrials at The British Library to accompany their current exhibition ‘Out of this world – Science Fiction, but not as you know it’ (to 25 September 2011)

Alex Fitch (Electric Sheep Magazine/Resonance FM presenter) hosts an evening of talks by some of the current generation’s most distinguished SF participants: researchers Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, David Clarke, and Strange Attractor publisher Mark Pilkington (publisher of the Electric Sheep book), author Gwyneth Jones (Kairos, Bold as Love) and filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Monsters).