In Her View film season announced for HOME Manchester 15-30 January 2020 In Her View film season announced for HOME Manchester 15-30 January 2020
HOME announces In Her View – a January film season celebrating women documentary filmmakers, Wed 15 – Thu 30 Jan 2020 Season continues HOME’s... In Her View film season announced for HOME Manchester 15-30 January 2020

HOME announces In Her View – a January film season celebrating women documentary filmmakers, Wed 15 – Thu 30 Jan 2020

Season continues HOME’s ongoing commitment to championing women in film, following 2019’s year-long ‘Celebrating Women in Global Cinema’ programme

In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers will explore and celebrate female documentarians, historically overlooked in the male-dominated documentary film world. Curated by Dr Kirsty Fairclough of The University of Salford,  In Her View will champion these female filmmakers, with films from Mexico, India, US and UK.

From American documentarian Shirley Clarke’s 1967 Portrait of Jason, a classic piece of cinema verité that has earned an important place in the history of queer cinema, to more recent works including Sarita Khurana’s and Smriti Mundhra’s A Suitable Girl (2017), which follows three young Indian women struggling to cope with the intense pressure to get married, and Laura Herrero’s The Swirl (2016) set in the most flooded region in Mexico, the season takes viewers on a female-focussed journey through the past 50 years of documentary cinema.

The season also includes work from high-profile female documentarians, including Barbara Kopple’s 1990 Oscar-winning American Dream, which follows a mid-1980s workers’ strike at a Hormel meatpacking plant in Minnesota; Lucy Walker’s Oscar-nominated Waste Land about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz who photographs those who scavenge in the world’s largest landfill site in Rio de Janeiro; and From the Sea to the Land Beyond from award-winning British filmmaker Penny Woolcock, created from 100 years of archive footage of Britain’s unique coastline and accompanied by a score from the band British Sea Power. The screenings will be accompanied by a special ‘One Hour Intro’ event with season co-curator Dr Kirsty Fairclough who will examine how and why the dominant narrative of documentary film rarely includes the many women working within it.

Throughout 2019, the theme of women in film has permeated HOME’s film programme with the year-long Celebrating Women in Global Cinema season including over 160 specially-curated one-off events/screenings and over 100 female / female-identifying creatives attending as special guests. This on-going commitment to diverse and inclusive film and event programming will continue beyond 2019 with the In Her View season initiating the legacy of Celebrating Women in Global Cinema.

Co-curated by HOME’s Head of Film Rachel Hayward alongside Andy Willis, Senior Visiting Curator: Film and Professor of Film Studies at University of Salford, further Celebrating Women in Global Cinema events still to come this December include:

  • Betty Comden and the Hollywood Musical (Sun 22 – Mon 30 Dec) – a season dedicated to the twice Oscar-nominated writer Betty Comden, as part of our major Christmas season, BFI Musicals! The Greatest Show on Screen. Comden classics screening include: Singin’ in the Rain; On The Town; The Barkleys of Broadway; It’s Always Fair Weather; The Band Wagon; and, Bells Are Ringing
  • Girls on Film (Tue 3 Dec) – the final event in our series of live recordings of the female-fronted ‘Girls On Film’ podcast which champions the female perspective in film criticism. Presenter and film journalist Anna Smith will be joined by special guests for a night of thought-provoking debate about film and feminism
  • UK premiere of The lady Improper (Wed 4 Dec), followed by an on-stage Q&A with renowned Hong Kong indie filmmaker, Jessey Tsang Tsui-Shan – the event is part of Chinese Film Forum UK presents: Women in East Asian Cinema (Wed 4 – Fri 6 Dec), a three-day series of screenings, presentations and events with industry guests
  • New releases from women directors opening at HOME in December include: Nora Fingscheidt’s controversial psychological drama System Crasher (Fri 6 Dec); award-winning documentarian Lauren Greenfield’s profile of former Philippines First lady Imelda Marcos, The Kingmaker (Fri 13 Dec);  Greta Gerwig’s much-anticipated adaptation of Little Women (Fri 27 Dec), starring Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson; Meryl Streep and Laura Dern; and potent drama, Ordinary Love (Fri 20 Dec), co-directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville.

In Her View season curator Dr Kirsty Fairclough commented:

“In celebrating some of the brilliant women documentary filmmakers from around the world, In Her View will challenge the dominant narrative of documentary film, one that has historically overlooked the many women working in this field. Women have been working in documentary filmmaking since the very earliest days of the form, making important films that deserve to be included in the wider history of cinema – I’m excited to kick off 2020 and the legacy of HOME’s Celebrating Women in Global Cinema programme by championing some of these astounding directors.”

HOME’s Head of Film and co-curator of Celebrating Women in Global Cinema, Rachel Hayward added:

“With Celebrating Women in Global Cinema we amplified HOME’s ongoing commitment to inclusivity and diversity by championing women in film in our cinemas for an entire year. This commitment to celebrating women in film from across the world will of course continue beyond 2019 and the programming team remains determined to encourage and support the female creatives of the future – with In Her View being the first of many female-focussed seasons and events planned for 2020 and beyond.”

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Jon Dingle Editor

A film journalist, writer and a filmmaker in business for over 20 years. I am passionate about movies, television series, music and online games.