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.
Updated: May 11, 2023
The 17 May is marked as International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia. The date was specifically chosen to commemorate the World Health Organisation’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. This Day aims to celebrate sexual and gender diversity, and campaign against the violence and discrimination experienced by LGBTQ+ people internationally.
There are 71 countries in the world where same-sex relationships are illegal, and in around 10 of these countries the punishment could be death. It is estimated that 70% of the world’s population live under laws and directives that limit freedom of expression around sexual orientation and gender identity.
The day is more important than ever with a resurgence in homophobic and transphobic laws being passed and transphobic news stories gaining mainstream attention. The Government’s own 2018 LGBT survey found that trans people are nearly twice as likely as lesbians and gay people to be offered and to undergo interventions; and these interventions, it found, may include beatings, deprivation and verbal abuse. Despite these deeply harmful practices, trans people, as confirmed at the Queen’s Speech last week, will not, along with gay and bisexual people in England and Wales, be covered in a long delayed conversion therapy ban – a ban that has been implemented in other countries like Brazil, Switzerland and Germany.
Given this, the government’s Ministerial Foreword, on banning conversion therapy on their website (December 2021) : “The government is proud to champion equality for LGBT people everywhere”, rings more than a little hollow. It will be interesting to see if their: ‘Safe To Be Me: A Global Equality Conference’, taking place next month, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first official London Pride marches, will go ahead given that their U-turn will, for many trans people in the UK, make it decidedly: “Unsafe To Be Me”.
Birds Eye View stands with our trans community and joins the calls for an end to discrimination and violence faced by LGBTQI people globally. At work and in our communities, we all deserve to feel safe!
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Dir by Desiree Akhavan
Pennsylvania, 1993. After getting caught with another girl, teenager Cameron Post is sent to a conversion therapy center run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother, Reverend Rick, whose treatment consists in repenting for feeling “same sex attraction.” Cameron befriends fellow sinners Jane and Adam, thus creating a new family to deal with the surrounding intolerance.
new to BFI Player
Dir by Kristine Stolakis
In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a bible study to help each other leave the “homosexual lifestyle.” They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalized as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organization in the world. But leaders struggled with a secret: their own “same-sex attractions” never went away. After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members, and a survivor, PRAY AWAY chronicles the “ex gay” movement’s rise to power, persistent influence, and the profound harm it causes.
Click HERE for where to watch
Dir by Jamie Babbit
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn’t like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she’s pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to “sexual redirection” school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Click HERE for where to watch
A French family moves to a new neighborhood with during the summer holidays. The story follows a 10-year-old gender non-conforming child, Laure, who experiments with their gender presentation, adopting the name Mikäel.
Click HERE for where to watch
Troy and his young transgender son Joe are on the run from his conservative mother in the Montana wilderness, with a detective in hot pursuit.
Click HERE for where to watch
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Click HERE to see a map of the countries that criminalise LGBT people.
Updated: May 11, 2023
LYNN SHELTON
27 August 1965 – 16 May 2020
On Friday 17 April 2020, as part of our Reclaim The Frame Female Filmmaker Friday strand Eye to Eye, Mia Bays, our then Director, was in conversation with Lynn Shelton. It was a conversation that was full of warmth, insight and humour and is one of our all-time favourites. Lynn died suddenly and unexpectedly a month to-the-day later. We will continue to miss her humanity, humility, and humour and all the wonderful films she would undoubtedly have given to the world. Our thoughts today are with all those who knew and loved her.
If you would like to watch this conversation again, it’s here on our Facebook Live page. Live captioning is available.
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A LITTLE ABOUT LYNN
Lynn Shelton was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and raised in Seattle, Washington. She described herself as having been audacious as a young girl, but having lost confidence in her creativity in adolescence. This experience contributed to a theme she explored in her 2006 film We Go Way Back.
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After high school, Shelton attended Oberlin College in Ohio and then the University of Washington School of Drama. She then moved to New York and followed the Master’s of Fine Arts program in photography and related media at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
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Shelton began working in the film industry as a film editor and made a series of experimental short films which have been described as “accomplished” and providing the basis for the “subtle, almost anthropological scrutiny” brought to bear in her later works. Among the jobs she held to support her film career was working aboard a fishing trawler in the Bering Sea.
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Shelton had wanted to be a director, but was worried that being in her mid-30s, it was too late to begin. When she saw French director Claire Denis speak at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum in 2003, Denis revealed she was 40 when she directed her first feature film, and that revelation made Shelton realise that she still had plenty of time.
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In 2004, Shelton began writing and directing her first feature film, We Go Way Back. Described as “polished” and “impressionistic”, the film depicts a 23-year-old actress, Kate, confronted by her 13-year-old self. The dialog between the older and younger Kates begins in memory, and then climaxes in an apparitional experience with the spectre of her own, repressed, precocious youth. We Go Way Back premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2006.
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In 2008, Shelton’s dark comedy My Effortless Brilliance played at South by Southwest and Maryland Film Festival.
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Her film Humpday premiered at Sundance, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures, and has been shown at Cannes, SIFF, South by Southwest and other film festivals. It opened in theatres in New York and Seattle on July 10, 2009.
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Her film Your Sister’s Sister premiered in 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film starred Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass. When asked about exploring the relationship between sisters in a 2012 interview with FF2 Media’s Jan Lisa Huttner, Shelton said:
“Everybody has had that experience of going home for Thanksgiving and starting to act ten years old again because they’re in the same situation with their parents and their siblings. So you get back into this rut again of who you were when you were first becoming a grownup. It’s not until you get out that you can break out of those bonds, but we still get trapped by them when we return.”
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Touchy Feely premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2013, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. It starred Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, and Elliot Page.
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Laggies was the first film Shelton directed that she had not also written. The film starred Keira Knightley and Chloë Grace Moretz, and premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by A24 Films.
In 2015, Shelton was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Director’s Branch.
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In 2017, her film Outside In premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. It starred Jay Duplass, Edie Falco, Kaitlyn Dever, and Ben Schwartz.
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Her 2019 comedy Sword of Trust had its world premiere at South by Southwest. In it, Cynthia (Jillian Bell) inherits a sword from her deceased grandfather, which he believed proves the South won the Civil War.
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Shelton directed episodes for TV shows since 2009 including The Good Place, GLOW, New Girl, Mad Men, Casual and, in 2020, the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere, starring Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon.
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Shelton described her approach to comedy as doing the opposite:
“When we were on set, it was really essential that none of us—not the actors or myself either—think that we’re in “a comedy,” because that’s when I find (especially with improvisation) you start reaching for jokes. You start sort of “soft-shoeing,” and trying to entertain people, and I don’t want that. I want us to just always be playing to the truth of the scene and I really have no idea how many laughs there are going to be. We’re playing it so straight that it’s really hard to tell the forest for the trees.”
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Click HERE to see where you can watch the films under.
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SWORD OF TRUST (2019)
When Cynthia and Mary show up to collect Cynthia’s inheritance from her deceased grandfather, the only item she’s received is an antique sword that he believed to be proof that the South won the Civil War.
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OUTSIDE IN (2018)
An ex-con struggling to readjust to life in his small town forms an intense bond with his former high-school teacher.
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LAGGIES (2014)
Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind – while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week – hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika and Annika’s world-weary single dad Craig.
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TOUCHY FEELY (2014)
Abby is a sought after massage therapist and a free spirit, while her brother Paul thrives on routine, running a failing dental practice with his assistant and daughter Jenny. Suddenly, Abby develops an aversion to bodily contact, which not only makes her unable to do her job, but also severely affects her relationship with her boyfriend. As Abby navigates her way through an identity crisis, her brother’s dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.”
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YOUR SISTER’S SISTER (2011)
Iris invites her friend Jack to stay at her family’s island getaway after the death of his brother. At their remote cabin, Jack’s drunken encounter with Hannah, Iris’ sister, kicks off a revealing stretch of days.
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HUMPDAY (2009)
Imagine your life is somewhat complete with a house, job, and wife but then your best friend from college comes knocking at your door at 2 AM. During a pot-induced hedonistic party, a plan is hatched between the two friends to create an Art Film of “two really straight men having sex.” If they only knew how much this would affect all of their lives.
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MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE (2008)
A study in the relationship between cocky, fussy, thoroughly-city-mouse author Eric (Sean Nelson) and his ex-best-friend, the tersely powerful journalist and wood-chopper Dylan (Basil Harris). Dylan, fed up with Eric’s self-involved antics, dumps him and disappears to live in a log cabin in the woods of Eastern Washington; two years later, Eric arrives (sporting a Prius, white sneakers, and a fear of spiders) to mend the friendship.
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Unfortunately “My Effortless Brilliance” is no longer available to stream on Netflix UK. It may return in the future and you can always ask Netflix to put it back again. For information about how to request films and TV shows please follow this link: How To Ask Netflix To Add Your Favourite Movie or Show
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WE GO WAY BACK (2006)
A tragic-comic tale with surrealistic tendencies about a lost 23-year-old who is haunted by her disappointed 13-year-old self.
WE GO WAY BACK (2006)
A tragic-comic tale with surrealistic tendencies about a lost 23-year-old who is haunted by her disappointed 13-year-old self.
Main photo by Carlo Allegri
Updated: May 11, 2023
Loneliness
One in four adults feel lonely some or all of the time. There’s no single cause and there’s no one solution, but, the longer we feel lonely, the more we are at risk of mental health problems. Some people are also at higher risk of feeling lonely than others.
Source: Mental Health Org
The Office for National Statistics has been researching people’s well-being for nearly a decade, providing a different perspective on how our country is doing, and on social inequalities. “Lockdown” affected everyone, but responses differed. During that first month, the equivalent of 7.4 million people said their well-being was affected through feeling lonely.
“Lonely” people were more likely than others to be struggling to find things to help them cope and were also less likely to feel they had support networks to fall back on.”
For information on how to cope with loneliness and improve your mental health click HERE
#IveBeenThere #mhaw #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthawarenessweek #bekind #kindness #wellbeing
To mark #MHAW, we will be watching:
Directed by Debra Granik
Granik is most known for 2004’s Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010’s Winter’s Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and for which Granik was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and for Leave No Trace (2018) based on the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock.
Will (Ben Foster), and his daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), live in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.
In “Leave No Trace,” she [Granik] immediately sets you down in a forest that’s so inviting, so tranquil, that it seems like utopia and all the possibilities that wistful, elusive ideal implies” – Manohla Dargis NY Times
“When the movie opens, the young teenage girl, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), and her father, Will (Ben Foster), aren’t just living — foraging, surviving, apparently thriving – in the forest, they are existing in a state of willed invisibility”. – Manohla Dargis NY Times
Click HERE for where to watch Leave No Trace
Available to watch with closed captioning
Click HERE to see where to watch other films by Debra Granik
