A recent dip in female-led theatrical releases in the UK - back to 2018 levels of 26% reminds us that our work is far from over; that we cannot be complacent.
Below you can read about the research we conduct into gender representation in film and the wider industry, tracking the release landscape to present an accurate picture of investment in films by filmmakers of marginalised genders.
Here you can also find out about news and opportunities at Reclaim The Frame, along with curated film recommendations, filmmaker interviews, and creative responses.
Directed by
Kasi Lemmons
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
To find out where to watch click HERE
Kasi Lemmons is an American film director, screenwriter and actress.
She began her career with roles in commercials with McDonald’s and Levis, then she moved to the small screen with shows such as 11th Victim (1979) and then moved to the big screen in Spike Lee’s School Daze (1988), followed by the comedy Vampire’s Kiss (1989), before being cast as Ardelia Mapp in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She subsequently co-starred with Virginia Madsen in the horror film Candyman (1992).
Lemmons made her directorial debut with 1997’s Eve’s Bayou, followed by Dr. Hugo (1998), The Caveman’s Valentine (2001), Talk to Me (2007), Black Nativity (2013), and her highest-grossing film, 2019’s Harriet, about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. She was described by film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon as “an ongoing testament to the creative possibilities of film.”
Lemmons adapted the novel Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles Blow into an opera libretto for the composer Terence Blanchard. It was premiered by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis on June 15, 2019, and is scheduled to open the 2021/2022 Metropolitan Opera season when it will become that institution’s first opera by an African-American composer.
HARRIET TUBMAN
Harriet Tubman, née Araminta Ross, (born c. 1820, Dorchester county, Maryland, U.S.—died March 10, 1913, Auburn, New York), American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad—an elaborate secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose.
Born into slavery, Araminta Ross later adopted her mother’s first name, Harriet. At about age five she was first hired out to work, initially serving as a nursemaid and later as a field hand, a cook, and a woodcutter. When she was about 12 years old she reportedly refused to help an overseer punish another enslaved person, and she suffered a severe head injury when he threw an iron weight that accidentally struck her; she subsequently suffered seizures throughout her life. About 1844 she married John Tubman, a free Black man.
In 1849, on the strength of rumours that she was about to be sold, Tubman fled to Philadelphia, leaving behind her husband (who refused to leave), parents, and siblings. In December 1850 she made her way to Baltimore, Maryland, whence she led her sister and two children to freedom. That journey was the first of some 13 increasingly dangerous forays into Maryland in which, over the next decade, she conducted about 70 fugitive enslaved people along the Underground Railroad to Canada.(Owing to exaggerated figures in Sara Bradford’s 1868 biography of Tubman, it was long held that Tubman had made about 19 journeys into Maryland and guided upward of 300 people out of enslavement.) Tubman displayed extraordinary courage, persistence, and iron discipline, which she enforced upon her charges. If anyone decided to turn back—thereby endangering the mission—she reportedly threatened them with a gun and said, “You’ll be free or die.” She also was inventive, devising various strategies to better ensure success. One such example was escaping on Saturday nights, since it would not appear in newspapers until Monday. The railroad’s most famous conductor, Tubman became known as the “Moses of her people.” It has been said that she never lost a fugitive she was leading to freedom.
Rewards offered by slaveholders for Tubman’s capture eventually totalled $40,000. Abolitionists, however, celebrated her courage. John Brown, who consulted her about his own plans to organize an antislavery raid of a federal armoury in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia), referred to her as “General” Tubman. About 1858 she bought a small farm near Auburn, New York, where she placed her aged parents (she had brought them out of Maryland in June 1857) and herself lived thereafter. From 1862 to 1865 she served as a scout, as well as nurse and laundress, for Union forces in South Carolina during the Civil War. For the Second Carolina Volunteers, under the command of Col. James Montgomery, Tubman spied on Confederate territory. When she returned with information about the locations of warehouses and ammunition, Montgomery’s troops were able to make carefully planned attacks. For her wartime service Tubman was paid so little that she had to support herself by selling homemade baked goods.
After the Civil War Tubman settled in Auburn and began taking in orphans and the elderly, a practice that eventuated in the Harriet Tubman Home for Indigent Aged Negroes. The home later attracted the support of former abolitionist comrades and the citizens of Auburn, and it continued in existence for some years after her death. Tubman also became involved in various other causes, including women’s suffrage. In the late 1860s and again in the late ’90s she applied for a federal pension for her work during the Civil War. Some 30 years after her service a private bill providing for $20 monthly was passed by Congress.
Source Britannica
To mark #AskAnArchaeologist Day, we’ll be watching
Screenplay by Moira Buffini
As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain’s past resonate in the face of its uncertain future.
“Buffini is an English dramatist who began writing plays when she was only 14 and has bucked against the traditional (read: white, male) makeup of that world by producing bold and imaginative scripts like the musical Wonder.land, Alice reimagined for the digital age, and a re-gendered Macbeth. In 2003, her West End play Dinner was nominated for an Olivier for best comedy and in 2010 she crossed over into feature filmmaking with her screenplay for the British rom-com Tamara Drewe with Gemma Arterton.
In the subsequent years, she wrote the Jane Eyre adaption starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender and then adapted her own play, A Vampire Story, into the Arterton and Saoirse Ronan fantasy-horror Byzantium. In 2017, Buffini and actress-turned-showrunner Jessica Brown Findlay created and wrote Harlots, a Hulu Original that ran for three seasons and flipped the narrative of London sex workers turning the Red Light District into a space for women to become successful entrepreneurs”.
More HERE from Valentina Valentini Jan 28, 2021
CLICK HERE FOR WHERE TO WATCH THE DIG
#AskAnArchaeologist Day on Twitter is an official part of the CBA Festival of Archaeology and is a chance for people from all over the world to ask archaeologists questions, and an opportunity for archaeologists to share their knowledge.
Anyone with access to Twitter can ask a question using the #AskAnArchaeologist hashtag and any archaeologist who has an answer is encouraged to respond.
The idea is based on the hugely successful #AskACurator day, set up by Mar Dixon, which has run for several years on Twitter. The team at National Trust Midlands came up with the idea for the same sort of day for Archaeology, and so #AskAnArchaeologist Day was born.
The first #AskAnArchaeologist day was in 2018 and was very successful. People from all over the world took part with lots of fascinating questions and discussions taking place. There’s nothing too formal about the day and there’s no such thing as a silly question – whatever you want to know about archaeology, ask away and someone will (hopefully) know the answer.
That’s it really! In the meantime, spread the word and get thinking of questions (or polishing up your answers).
Every year on July 17, International Justice Day is observed all around the world.
To mark this day, we’ll be watching
Directed by
Julie Cohen & Betsy West
An intimate portrait of an unlikely rock star: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. With unprecedented access, the filmmakers explore how her early legal battles changed the world for women.
At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had developed a breath-taking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But without a definitive Ginsburg biography, the unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior’s rise to the nation’s highest court had been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG is a revelatory documentary exploring Ginsburg’s exceptional life and career from Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and co-produced by Storyville Films and CNN Films.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
15 March 1933 – 18 September 2020
CLICK HERE FOR WHERE TO WATCH
The aim of the day is to promote international criminal justice and as a way of supporting the work of the ICC.
What is the ICC?
ICC stands for the International Criminal Court. It came about when 120 states adopted a statute in Rome. It was known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“the Rome Stature”). All the countries that agreed to adopt the statute were accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC, with regards the prosecution of very serious crimes. The idea was not for the ICC to replace national courts. It is only able to intervene when a country can’t or won’t carry out investigations and prosecute perpetrators.
The aim of World Day for International Justice is to unite everyone who wants to support justice as well as promote victims rights. It is to help prevent serious crimes and those that put the peace, security and well-being of the world at risk.
How You Can Mark the Day
There are a number of different ways you can play a part. Why not write an article or a blog to highlight the need for justice where you live? You could send a communication to your local elected representative and voice your opinion. Speak to members of your government. Or take part in one of the many events that will be held in cities around the world.
