After a very promising first night, we were thrilled to see the hoards come pouring back for our second evening. With a good three hours worth of shorts, the evening turned into one long film soiree as audiences moved between the screen and the bar, discussing the work and meeting each other. We also got a bit star-struck meeting all the talent behind the films - yes, it does happen with short films too! It’s a glamorous world, darlings.
Anyway, enough from us. We’ve got another one of our winners from our Film Journalism competition to tell you all about her evening spent with UnderWire last night.
Kamakshi Tiwary
The Professional Film Festival Junkie is an individual who puts their normal life on hold in the name of cinema - that art form whose purest forms are showcased in these gatherings. Whilst I don’t consider myself as a part of such august company, I am well on my way to being a convert after an evening spent at Underwire Festival.
Day two of Underwire at Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey was an evening well spent in the interesting company of like-minded people who appreciate cinema. The festival lived up to its hype by creating a platform for talented female screenwriters, producers and editors during last night’s screening, and the organisers did a great job with personal touches like the tasty bar of fair-trade chocolate offered to audiences (always a crowd pleaser!).
The films screened were an eclectic blend of comedy (Blind Date), drama (Morning Echo) and Horror (Click). The combination of film and feminism were represented in the films, ranging from the humorous and quirky (Shoreditch Slayer), to dark and tragic (Of Mary), and films like Nocturn, which dealt with issues of female sexuality, or Radio Amina and Himalayan Sisters, which addressed the empowerment of women in the developing countries like Nigeria and Nepal.
All the films shown in the three categories of screenwriter, producer and editor are equally deserving of the reactions they received. Some like Blind Date and Shoreditch Slayer were accompanied with laughter whilst others like Into this Silent Land were followed by silent pauses, equally effective in conveying the impact of the films on the audience; some explored the various eccentricities of human nature (The Holiday), whilst another narrated the psychotic ramblings of a serial killer (Myra). The breaks following each screening were engaged in invigorating discussions about the moving images over refreshing drinks in the bar.
As a writer and observer, the thing that impressed me most is the sheer amount of talent showcased. Short films are hard work in my opinion. A feature film has the all the time to tell a story, whereas a short film has to grab your attention and do the same job in a fraction of the time. I was impressed by the finesse with which the films screened yesterday handled this task. The sheer ingenuity shown by some was equally brilliant. To take day to day experiences and situations that most of us deal with and turn them into engaging and in some cases poignant short films, deserves applause. Underwire Festival, in it’s second year, is indeed proving to be a true platform for raw talent amongst women film creatives. A relaxed evening spent watching the works of talented artists was definitely an evening well spent. And in future, if you happen to spot an earnest looking girl with coffee in one hand and sandwich and a program balanced precariously in the other, with glazed eyes at a film festival….well it could definitely be yours truly!