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 Claire McCarthy
Written by Claire Peate
IN UK CINEMAS & ON SKY CINEMA
In the grey industrial midlands of the 1920s, a determined, imaginative working-class factory worker, Clarice Cliff, defies expectation and circumstance to become a trailblazer of Art deco, breaking the glass ceiling and revolutionising the workplace in the 20th century.
Living in the smoky terraces of working class Stoke-on-Trent with her widowed mother Ann (Kerry Fox – Rare Beasts) and youngest sister Dot (Darci Shaw – The Irregulars). Clarice (Phoebe Dynevor, Bridgerton), driven by her imagination and ambition, makes the bold move to take a lower paying job at a prestigious pottery factory owned by eccentric Colley Shorter (Matthew Goode – The Imitation Game) and his more cautious brother Guy (Luke Norris – Poldark). Here she was apprenticed to renowned designer, Fred Ridgway (David Morrissey – Hilary and Jackie), whose designs were as traditional and conservative as her designs were not.
While the expectation of most women working in the industry at that time was an apprentice wage throughout their working life, Clarice had no qualms about pushing the boundaries, fighting her way through the deep prejudice of the times to design her unprecedented ‘Bizarre’ range and become one of the greatest Art Deco designers and a household name.
THE MAKING OF THE COLOUR ROOM
Co-produced by Sky, Caspian Films and Creative England (now Creative UK), the Sky original film was written, directed and produced by an all-female team. “The story was inspired by a single image,” Peate described: “A young factory worker leaving her grim, industrial reality behind her and stepping into the rainbow of the Colour Room – a world of joy and possibility.” Peate won the BAFTA Rocliffe award for her script of The Colour Room in 2016.
The film was shot on location in and around Stoke on Trent and Birmingham with development supported by Ffilm Cymru Wales and production support from Creative England. Produced by Caspian Films, a production company founded in 2018 by producers, Thembisa Cochrane and Georgie Paget (participants on our Filmonomics V programme – supported by ScreenSkills – with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds), to make engaging, entertaining films with unique voices and fresh perspectives for international audiences.
As well as The Colour Room (2021), the company has also completed Us Among the Stones (2019), and is in development on a variety of other films with acclaimed international writers and directors.
January 1899 – 23 October 1972
Clarice Cliff is considered one of the most important, influential ceramic artists of the 20th century, producing much-celebrated, beautifully-made work that is now highly collectable.
Born in Stoke-on- Trent in 1899, she started working in the ceramics industry at the young age of 13. In 1916 she started at the AJ Wilkinson factory where she honed her skills and began to design her own patterns.
Not much is known about her personal life, but we know from her work that she was unlike anyone else around her. She lived her whole life in the smoky Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent, but her famous bold colours and designs drew on an incredible international range influences to develop which new colours, styles and vividly innovative shapes that became an iconic part of the Art Deco movement.
Her work was produced up until 1964 and is still celebrated across the world today with famous collectors like Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Whoopi Goldberg. In Britain, her pieces often appear on the Antiques Roadshow and fetch high prices at auction.
Follow #TheColourRoom on social media to find out more.
@caspianfilms
IN UK CINEMAS & ON SKY CINEMA
Click HERE for where to watch
We would like to invite a performative response to REBEL DYKES (directed by Harri Shanahan & Sian A. Williams) from an early career Scotland-based performer / drag act / poet.
Your performance will be a creative response to the film, and can be performance of any kind, within the technical limitations of the cinemas we’re working with. This micro-commission is designed to cover the costs of creating or adapting a new response to the Rebel Dykes film which could be through a 5-10 minute performance of any kind, to be performed and filmed on the following dates:
17 December at Filmhouse, Edinburgh
18 December at Belmont, Aberdeen
We’re looking for fresh perspectives on the film and the themes within it from those with lived experience within the LGBTQI+ community of any age.
REBEL DYKES: is a rabble-rousing documentary set in 1980s post-punk London, UK. The unheard story of a community of dykes who met doing art, music, politics and sex, and how they went on to change their world.
Click HERE to watch the trailer
Now in its 18th year, BIRDS’ EYE VIEW continues to spotlight, celebrate and create impact for films by women and non-binary people while building a community for those who make, show, release and watch them.
RECLAIM THE FRAME aims to re-tell the story of cinema by drawing ever greater audiences to films by women & non-binary creatives, and re-claim cinema as a truer reflection of the world we live in. Click HERE to find out more about the project.
Details
Micro-Commission Fee: £750
Performance Fee: £300 for both nights incl travel
Travel/ materials/misc: £100
Applicants will be Scotland-based performers and will deliver the finished work to Birds’ Eye View by the deadline below.
Timeline
Deadline for applications: midday on midday 30 November
Successful applicant will be notified by: midday 2 December
Performance at Filmhouse, Edinburgh: 17 December
Performance at Belmont, Aberdeen: 18 December
To apply
To apply please send the following to Birds’ Eye View – mail@birds-eye-view.co.uk with the subject heading Birds’ Eye View x Rebel Dykes
Proposal (max 1 A4 page) including what you would like to do, how it engages with the brief, examples of past performances together with the lived experience you bring to your work, how you intend to create and deliver your idea along with a link to your portfolio/cv, website and social media handles.
Notes to Applicants:
Engaging creative and representative individuals is a vital part of the RECLAIM THE FRAME project. We are therefore committed to ensuring the best candidates are appointed for this project, we welcome and encourage applications from individuals from all backgrounds, including under-represented groups.
Reclaim The Frame is funded by the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery.
