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On Tuesday 16 April 2019 the Mockingbird Cinema in Birmingham hosted a special Reclaim The Frame evening. Reclaim The Frame is a BFI Audience Fund backed project that aims to grow audiences for films told from the female point of view.
The event at Mockingbird involved a showing of highly acclaimed new British film Wild Rose, alongside a panel discussion hosted by Oscar®-winning producer Mia Bays, director of Bird's Eye View, a charity that promotes women in film. Also on the panel were Mazzy Snape and Sophie Huck, representatives of magazine Slag Mag, which supports LGBT+, non-binary and women of colour, and criminologist Melindy Brown.
Below, reporter Eli discusses his experience of both Wild Rose and the terrific panel.
Wild Rose, is a thoughtful story of Rose-Lynn Harlan trying to live her dream of becoming a country star in Nashville, but her criminal past and responsibility as a mother of 2 young children in a deprived area of Glasgow prevents her from always doing it the right way.
Fantastic performances from Jessie Buckley and Julie Walters really seal the deal in this film that is full of heart, humour, music and tough decisions. Personally I didn't always find it easy to stay supportive of Rose-Lynn as the decisions she made often divided my opinions. At some points she was naïve and reckless, prioritising her own love and social life over her kids and aspirations; other times she was the polar opposite and gave it all up to be with her kids. It took till the very end for her to find the balance, which in turn left the audience satisfied that this nomadic mind had finally found her home - the place where all her loves intersected - in Glasgow.
The film is written by Nicole Taylor, a BAFTA-winning writer already lauded for her realistic storytelling in programmes such as Three Girls and The C-Word. Nicole grew up in Glasgow and had a personal love of the country music scene, so it's no wonder that the script is as honest as they come while still having the ‘movie-gloss,' as Sophie Huck said. And as Melindy was able to confirm with her specialist knowledge of key film subjects (Melindy is currently studying for her PHD, looking at the affects of drug-related crimes on the rates of reimprisonment in women), the story was full of realism and truth; Buckley showing them with incredible understanding.
Over the next 18 months, Reclaim the Frame will be showing 12 films by female directors and/or writers across 5 UK cities, with each showing being followed by a panel talk with special guests. The work that Birds Eye View and its Reclaim The Frame project is doing is really opening more and more doors for women into the creative industry and increasing their audience substantially.
