We love to highlight and showcase the work of women filmmakers here at Bitch Flicks. If you’re in the London area, here are 17 narrative and documentary films directed by women that you should check out at the East End Film Festival.
“One of the UK’s largest film festivals,” the East End Film Festival runs from June 23rd through July 1st. Their mission “is to discover, support, and exhibit pioneering work by global and local independent filmmakers, and to introduce viewers to innovative and challenging cinematic experiences.” Here are all of the women-directed films screening at the festival.
Adult Life Skills
Director: Rachel Tunnard
June 24, 6:30pm | Hackney Picturehouse
“This witty, moving debut finds Anna (a career-best Jodie Whittaker) hiding out in her mum’s garden shed. Making hilarious home movies, her isolation is a coping mechanism in the face of grief. But her family, friends and the rebellious child next door won’t let her cut herself off forever. A hilarious, heartfelt ode to moving on from Rachel Tunnard, an important new voice in British film, this won the Nora Ephron Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival.”
Sonita
Director: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
June 25, 4:00pm | Genesis Cinema
“A story of conservative society, furious rhymes and mic drops, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s extraordinary film follows Sonita Alizadeh, a young female Afghan refugee living in Iran, who rejects an arranged marriage in order to pursue a life making rap music. Standing up to conservative traditions and challenging assumptions, her dream of emulating Rihanna goes down like a lead balloon with her mother. But this self-possessed would be pop star isn’t going to let that stop her.”
Love Is Thicker Than Water
Directors: Emily Harris and Ate de Jong
June 25, 6:30pm | Rich Mix
“Taking its cue from Romeo and Juliet, Love Is Thicker Than Water is a tale of lovers from different sides of the tracks. Vida comes from a well to do London family, whereas Arthur is a bike messenger from a working-class Welsh mining town. Utterly in love, their relationship is nevertheless tested when their wildly different families and social circles collide, leading them to question whether they are truly meant to be together. A sensitive, quirky tale of romance interspersed with lovely animated sequences, this collaboration between Emily Harris (Paragraph, EEFF 2015) and Ate de Jong (Drop Dead Fred), is a touching take on romantic love and whether it can trump familial bonds.”
Half Way
Director: Daisy-May Hudson
June 26, 1:00pm | Rich Mix
“Half Way chronicles the life of a normal family living in Epping forced into homelessness after being evicted from their house, going from one hostel to another as they wait for a new home from the council, during Britain’s exploding housing crisis. Filmed over a period of a year by the eldest daughter of the family, this immersive documentary is a powerful personal story and a moving insight into the struggles and the Kafkian experience of dealing with the merciless housing bureaucracy that thousands of families in Britain are fighting against today.”
Motherland
Director: Senem Tüzen
June 26, 3:45pm | Rio Cinema
“Nesrin flees her job, her home and her crumbling marriage, leaving Istanbul for the plains of Anatolia to finally realise her dream of becoming a writer. But when her conservative, unstable mother arrives in the village, her idyllic vision of her new existence begins to crumble. As the walls close in, and the parental relationship becomes increasingly unhinged, her mother gets closer to the religiously conservative neighbours, and it’s all going to come to a nasty head. A terrifically wrought, potent metaphor for the schisms of modern Turkey.”
The Lure
Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
June 26, 4:00pm | Hackney Picturehouse
“The year’s best (only?) horror mermaid musical, this utterly unique debut is an alluring fairy tale about two sisters who emerge from the sea, and head straight for a Warsaw nightclub. Embracing their new life as cabaret stars, their symbiosis is threatened when one of them falls for a dashing musician, and they may have to return to the sea, or suffer bloody consequences. A brilliantly entertaining, wacky maiden effort, with killer tunes. ”
Mariam
Director: Faiza Ambah
June 27 6:30pm | Genesis Cinema
“Saudi Arabian journalist Faiza Ambah’s debut film is a poignant insight into the issues facing a young Muslim woman growing up in a Western country. It’s 2004 in France and a new law has recently been passed banning religious symbols in schools, including the hijab. For Mariam, a young teenager who has recently begun wearing the veil after returning from pilgrimage in Mecca with her grandmother, this means an agonising and unfair choice between continuing her studies and retaining an important part of her religious identity. Pressure from her father to conform to French law and attention from a young boy who admires her determination complicates this situation further. Will she continue to resist external pressures and in so doing put her education at risk, or find a way to please authority whilst staying true to herself?”
My Feral Heart
Director: Jane Gull
June 28, 6:30pm | Genesis Cinema
“Luke, an independent young man with Down’s syndrome, is grieving the loss of his elderly mother when he is forced to move into a care home. Initially despondent about his new home, his spirits are soon raised when he finds a way to sneak out and explore the local countryside. And when he meets a girl in need of his help, his desire to connect and protect another person gives him a new lease of life. A moving story of the importance of embracing life and people, featuring a brilliant turn from newcomer Steven Brandon.”
National Bird
Director: Sonia Kennebeck
June 28, 6:30pm | Hackney Picturehouse
“The people damaged by helping to conduct America’s drone war speak out in National Bird, a disturbing new documentary executive produced by Wim Wenders and Errol Morris. Heather, Daniel and Lisa are former operatives in the U.S. Air Force’s predator programme. Having previously conducted America’s unmanned war before turning whistle-blower, all are suffering from various levels of trauma, government surveillance, and the outright threat of jail. Director Sonia Kennebeck’s film tracks their stories as they battle PTSD, legal trouble and, in one case, an eye opening trip to Afghanistan. What emerges is a disturbing portrait of a nation detached from what it means to protect its citizens, or other people’s. And in its drone footage sweeping over the landscapes of America, its warnings for the future are only too clear.”
Los Punks: We Are All We Have
Director: Angela Boatwright
June 29, 7:00pm | Genesis Cinema
“Take a trip into the backyards of South Central and East Los Angeles in Los Punks: an intimate documentary exploring a homegrown DIY community of bands, skaters and resolute togetherness. Angela Boatwright’s debut finds a scene four-decades old, but in rude health; uniting young people who often feel unwelcome in the ‘mainstream,’ providing a fruitful breeding ground for Latino punk and a conscious, active community, often in the face of poverty and violence.”
And Then I Was French
Director: Claire Leona Apps
June 29, 9:00pm | Genesis Cinema
“A thriller about a young woman’s journey of self-discovery, that takes a dangerous direction as she struggles to escape the agony of unrequited love. Cara is a massage student, tucked away in the heart of the English countryside. When charismatic American Jay joins her class, Cara is instantly smitten, despite her best friend’s reservations. Jay is under the influence of his egotistical brother Matt and is swallowed into a world of parties and beautiful people in East London; when he meets the gorgeous Parisian Natasha, he is convinced it is love. When news reaches Cara, it triggers a transformation to become beautiful and sophisticated, just like the French. But are her intentions towards Jay still pure?”
Strike a Pose
Directors: Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan
June 30, 6:30pm | Rio Cinema
“When seven young male dancers were plucked from the New York drag-ball scene to appear in Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ music video, they never could have envisaged what life had in store for them. Embarking on the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour, they would become global icons for the gay community, making vogueing a global phenomenon and forming a kind of surrogate family with the Queen of Pop, as seen in the movie In Bed with Madonna (1991). Revisiting their stories 25 years on, Strike a Pose is open, emotional retelling of the highs of fame and stardom, and the hardships of dealing with the fall once it’s all over.”
As I Open My Eyes
Director: Leyla Bouzid
June 30, 8:45pm | Rich Mix
“Tunisia in the months leading up to the Jasmine Revolution provides the backdrop to As I Open My Eyes, a tale of rebellious youth and rock n’ roll. Eighteen year old Farah is being pressured to become a doctor by her family. But what she really wants is to sing in her band, get drunk with her friends and experience the dramas of life in Tunis’ underground music scene. Described as the best fictional film yet made about the Arab Spring, Leyla Bouzid’s debut is a humane portrait of the counterculture in a conservative society, with incredible songs and serious heart.”
The Blue Wave
Directors: Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan
July 2, 1:30pm | Rio Cinema
“Zeynep Dadak and Merve Kayan impressive debut sees Deniz return from holiday to the provincial city of Balıkesir, immediately falling back into her old life, gossiping with her friends, caring for her rebellious younger sister, and crushing on high school heartthrob Kaya and guidance counselor Ferat. A perfectly realised view of the impulsive seachanges of hormonal teenage life, where both nothing and everything happens all at once, and million miles from the Turkey seen in most festival exports.”
Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model
Director: Rebecca Brand
July 2, 1:30pm | Hackney Picturehouse
“A self-described ‘pop-u-mentary’, Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model follows lauded performance artist Bryony Kimmings and her 10-year old niece Taylor as they collaborate on Kimmings’ latest show, an attempt to battle against the hypersexualised world of pop music. As they do so, Bryony and Taylor solidify their bond, travel the world, pique the attention of the press, and try to create an alternative popstar for the Tween generation. An inspiring story of togetherness and creativity.”
Undocument
Directors: Amin Bakhshian and Kyla Simone Bruce
July 2, 8:30pm | Rich Mix
“The story of a journey across three continents, this incredibly personal drama bears witness to the complex daily dilemmas faced by illegal immigrants. Following a variety of women attempting to give their children a better future away from the hardships of their homeland, this crowdfunded film was shot in Iran, Greece and London, with much of the film taking place in the East End. The human face of a politicised issue, about people, not numbers.”
Golden Dawn: A Personal Affair
Director: Angelique Kourounis
July 3, 5:30pm | Rich Mix
“‘My partner is a Jew, my son gay, my other son an anarchist and I am a left-wing feminist. The only question in case Golden Dawn comes to power is, which wagon are we going to ride.’ So begins a journalist’s trawl through the depths of Greece’s neo-Nazi party, their extraordinary rise and how so many Greeks have been won over by their cause. A delve into the mind of the Nazi next door.”