UnderWire comes to you!

Meet your peers and mentors at an intimate dinner, together setting goals and objectives to support you through to the next level of your creative career.

Aimed at female directors, producers and writers who have already made their first short or two and have professionally established themselves to a certain level, the Forums are focused, craft-specific meetups over dinner . We want to create a space to allow you to think ambitiously and confidently about progressing in your creative career. A female mentor from the local region will also attend the dinner, to share with the forum her experiences and advice. We want you to talk about your work, what problems you might be facing in progressing in your career and together we will set goals for the year.

UP COMING SESSIONS

To be announced

PAST EVENTS

London

Documentary Forum - mentor, Jeanie Finlay

This forum dinner is in partnership with Open City Docs Fest.

Jeanie is a British artist and filmmaker who creates intimate, funny and personal documentary films and artworks. Her focus is on creating compelling portraits and is obsessed with telling other people’s stories. Her work includes The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Sound It Out, Goth Cruise and Teenland. Her next project, ORION: The man who would be King, successfully reached it’s crowd funding target this month.She set up Glimmer Films in 2008 to deliver ambitious, engaging and empathetic work for cinema, broadcast and exhibition.

When: 18th June, 7pm

Where: TBC

Cost: £2o

There are only 7 places available at the dinner, and you must apply and be accepted to attend. Please email [email protected] with a brief description of your work to date and why you would like to attend the forum. You will receive a response no later than 7th of June to confirm your place.

London

Producers’ Forum - mentor, Elizabeth Karlsen

This forum dinner is in partnership with London Short Film Festival.

Norwich

Writers’ Forum - mentor, Christabelle Dilks

Christabelle Dilks is a writer and script editor with a background in drama commissioning at Channel 4. She has worked with the BBC, Channel 4, UK Film Council, Warp Films, Sentinel, History Channel and Wavelength films as well as developing several independent feature films.

This forum dinner is in partnership with write2screen.

When: 24th April, 7pm

Where: [tbc, Norwich central]

Cost: £20

There are only 7 places available at the dinner, and you must apply and be accepted to attend. Please email [email protected] with a brief description of your work to date and why you would like to attend the forum. You will receive a response no later than 12th of April to confirm your place.

Manchester

Director’s Forum - mentor, Noreen Kershaw

Noreen Kershaw trained at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre and, at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, originated the title role of the play Shirley Valentine, later made famous by Pauline Collins. She has directed episodes of the top rated ITV1 soap opera, Coronation Street, as well as Channel 4′s comedy drama, Shameless, ITV1 series Emmerdale and Heartbeat and BBC Scotland”s River City. In 2008, she directed the feature film Act of Grace.

when: 16 August 2012, 7pm

where: The Black Lion

Producer’s Forum - mentor, Nicola Shindler

Nicola Shindler set up Red Production Company in January 1998 to work with writers on modern, innovative and entertaining drama. Red first went into production in Spring 1998 on Russell T Davies’ 8 part serial, Queer As Folk, for Channel 4 and has since gone on to produce drama for the BBC, ITV and SKY. Nicola’s recent successes include Scott & Bailey, written by Sally Wainwright, Love Life by Bill Gallagher, Bedlam for SKY Living and SKY Atlantic’s first UK commission, Hit & Miss written by Sean Conway and starring Chloe Sevigny. Nicola is currently busy in production on Heading Out, a new comedy drama for BBC2, written by and starring Sue Perkins.

when: 31 October 2012, 7pm

where: The Black Lion

Bristol

Joint Director/Producer Forum - dir mentor, Esther May Campbell & prod mentor Sue Howells

Award winning writer/director Esther May Campbell developed her career and distinct directorial voice through a number of successful short films including Delilah, Charley Harry’s Wondrous Nothing and two shorts, Poppy and September, which were funded by the UK Film Council. Esther has directed episodes for a number of high-profile television programmes, including Doctors, Wallander, and the Bristol-based teen hit, Skins.

Most recently, Sue Howells has Executive produced the second series of Trollied for Sky1 starring Jane Horrocks, Mark Addy, Jason Watkins & Stephanie Beecham following critical acclaim for the first series. Sue’s Producer credits include work for Channel 4, ITV2 and the BBC. Previously to exec producing, Sue worked as Line Producer on Father Ted, Hardware, and Room 101, and worked as part of the production teams responsible for Game On and History’s Turning Points. Sue was also Head of Production for Hat Trick Productions, responsible for overseeing all of the company’s output from Light Entertainment such as Have I Got News For You to The Kumars at No 42.

when: 19 September 2012, 7.30pm

where: Bordeaux Quay

Screenwriter’s Forum - mentor, Liz Banks

Liz is a writer/director whose documentaries and short drama have been screened at film festivals around the world. She has wide experience of pitching scripts and proposals to broadcasters and funders, which has led to commissions from the BBC and the UK Film Council. She teaches screenwriting, short drama and documentary filmmaking at UWE.

when: 6 November, 7pm

where: Bordeaux Quay

Brighton

Joint Director/Producer Forum - dir mentor, Pinny Grylls & prod mentor Kat Mansoor

In December 2010 Pinny Grylls was featured in the Observer as one of a crop of daring and innovative young directors working today. Her smash hit documentary Peter and Ben has had over 350,000 views on YouTube and has been described by fourdocs as one of the best short documentaries ever made. Her films have been screened at international festivals and broadcast on Channel 4 and the BBC. Pinny has worked with The National Theatre, The Arts Council and the Dove Real Beauty campaign, amongst others. Awards for her work include FourDocs Best Documentary, Grand Jury Prize at SXSW and Shooting People’s Werner Herzog competition.

Kat Mansoor is co-director of Animal Monday, which is a multi award winning independent film and TV company based in Brighton. Since its inception in 2002, Animal Monday have made their reputation making quality independent content. Kat’s Credits include: Co- Director and Producer of Here’s Johnny (Channel 4 Britdoc/Wellcome Trust). The film was the first to win two Grierson awards and also received an RTS nomination. Kat has also worked as Producer on Wojtek - the Bear that Went to War (BBC Scotland/MDR/PISF), Retrograde, Black Out ad recent feature doc Lost and Sound. Kat is also director of a long-term film project, A World Beyond Words, set in a home for non-verbal autistic children.

when: 24 September 2012, 7pm

where: Jamie’s Italian

Screenwriter’s Forum in partnership with New Writing South - mentor, Natasha Langridge

Natasha Langridge trained and worked as an actress before developing her skills as a writer. In 1998 she wrote and directed The Deal for The Brixton Shaw Theatre and co-edited Rage And Reason - Women Playwrights on Playwriting published by Methuen. Natasha co-produced her play Shraddha directed by Lisa Goldman with Soho Theatre which won the Meyer Whitworth Award in 2010. She completed the 2010 BBC Writers Academy and has written episodes of Doctors and Eastenders. Natasha wrote the short film Occupy Your Heart for The Central School of Speech and Drama MA in Screen Acting Showcase.

when: 30 October 2012, 7pm

where: Jamie’s Italian

Newcastle

Joint Director/Screenwriter/Producer Forum - dir/wri mentor, Tina Gharavi, prod mentor, Samm Haillay

Born in Tehran, Iran, Tina Gharavi is an award-winningfilmmaker, artist, and academic trained in the United States, UK and France. Her work has been broadcast internationally and she is noted for innovative cross-platform work on migration as well as issues related to equality and diversity. She is the director of Closer, The King of Last Shields, and I am Nasrine as well as the founder of Bridge + Tunnel, a multidisclipinary media production company in Newcastle. She currently teaches Digital Media at Newcastle University while pursuing her PhD.

Samm Haillay is the producer of Duane Hopkins’ multi-award winning short films and his feature debut Better Things (2008), which premiered to critical acclaim at Cannes. Samm also produced Hopkins’ film installations series Sunday, which played at Baltic and as part of Abandon Normal Devices before traveling to Yokohama and Toronto. Cigarette at Night (2011) one of the films in the Sunday series also screed at Cannes in 2011 and went on to have a festival life in its own right. He is currently preparing Hopkins’ second feature Bypass and a new gallery series. Samm’s short film productions have won over 45 awards and in 2010 he co-produced Gillian Wearing’s feature debut Self Made (2011).

when: 25 September 2012, 8.00pm

where: La Strada

Birmingham

Joint Directors/Producers/Writers Forum - dir mentor, Penny Woolcock; prod mentor, Deborah Aston; writ mentor, Claire Bennett

Penny Woolock is a filmmaker and opera director working across different genres, documentary, television fiction, feature films and opera. Her most recent documentary One Mile Away, about stopping gang violence in Birmingham, just won the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. She has directed On the Streets, The Pearl Fishers, Doctor Atomic, Death of Klinghoffer, Principles of Lust, and Exodus, and her work has won prizes from the Grierson Trustees Awards to the Sheffield DocFest Inspiration Award.

Deborah Aston has a background in production as a broadcast technician experienced in camera operation, editing and live gallery operation/ TX control before moving into production management and producing. Having produced and directed a slate of short films that have been screened at festivals around the world and winning numerous awards, Deborah has now moved into features and has a slate of film and documentary projects in development.

As a core writer on Doctors and Holby City, Claire Bennett is proud to be associated with television drama in Birmingham. Her episodes have been nominated in the Best Episode category in the British Soap Awards for three years running and in 2007 she won. Claire has written single dramas and series for Radio 4. She won the commission to write Hotbed Media’s feature screenplay The Man Who Wouldn’t Paint Hitler. She has also written extensively for low-budget/no-budget pub theatre in Birmingham.

when: 15 October, 7pm

where: Jamie’s Italian

Nottingham

Joint Director/Producer/Screenwriter Forum - dir mentor, Jeanie Finlay, prod mentor, Tina Pawlik, wri mentor Catharine Ashdown

Jeanie Finlay is a British artist and filmmaker who is obsessed with music and telling other people’s stories. Her work includes Sound It Out, a documentary portrait of the the very last vinyl record shop in Teesside, feature documentary; Goth Cruise for the Independent Film Channel (USA,) which became the most downloaded title ever on IFC; Teenland (BBC4) which was broadcast to critical acclaim and award winning interactive documentary Home-Maker. Jeanie was named a “Star of Tomorrow” in Screen International’s prestigious yearly review of new filmmakers. In 2008 she set up Glimmer Films and is currently in co-production on two new feature documentaries with Met Film –The Great Hip Hop Hoax for BBC Scotland and BBC Storyville and ORION: The man who would be King.

In 2007 Tina Pawlik was selected by Screen International as one of their ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ for her producing work on the short film Lady Margaret. After receiving an MA in Cinema Studies from Nottingham Trent University, she worked at Anglia Television before re-locating to the East Midlands. There, Tina spent two years working in feature film production and short film producing, working with a number of new talent. Tina is currently developing her first feature film, Pin Cushion, as well as Associate Producing a Monty Python documentary for Independent Film Channel.

Catharine Ashdown is a Writer and Script Editor in film, television and theatre. She has worked extensively as a Script Reader (Media Desk, Northern Ireland Screen, Irish Film Board), Script Editor (BBC Series & Serials, ABTV, Pearson Television) and as a Literary Associate/ Dramaturg for the Theatre Writing Partnership. Her short film Wings, directed by Esther Richardson, was produced as part of 2010/11 DV Shorts. Bygones, a stage play, was performed at the Curve theatre and Nottingham Playhouse studio. Further commissions include a feature-length screenplay Borderland (Besom Productions), a series treatment Hometown(ITV Drama) and a second short film Seed.

when: 30 October 2012, 7pm

where: Edins

London

LSFF Through the Looking Glass Cinematographers Forum

We’re bringing the UK Forum Tour home to London to host an intimate dinner at BAFTA for female cinematographers as part of LSFF.

Creating a space to allow you to think ambitiously and confidently about progressing in your creative career, Underwire invites a female mentor to share with the forum her experiences and advice. We want you to talk about your work, what problems you might be facing in progressing in your career and together we will set goals for the new year.

when: 7th January 2013

where: BAFTA

Supported by the National Lottery through the BFI and Creative England

Forum Partners