Babe City FC was born out of a group of women and non-binary friends in the film industry who used to get together twice a year for what we called a “Babe Banquet.” It was a chance to share stories and grievances about the film industry over dinner. When Molly mentioned she wanted to start this football club, bringing the name over from our group made total sense.
EVERYONE dreads filming in rain. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than getting soaked head to toe, water dripping from your hood, your whole body cold and damp no matter if your wearing quality waterproofs. Your team’s moral hanging by a thread/ moods might slowly drop. It becomes a real test of your teamwork and leadership. It’s easy to turn against each other when battling the difficult weather conditions, instead, take a breather and help each other out. You are all in the same boat.
With the festival season well underway, Cinegirl is heading to the British Film Institute’s 2021 London Film Festival later this month. Staff writer Lauren Devine rounds up her most anticipated titles and filmmakers to watch ahead of what LFF hopes will be a triumphant return to an in-person film festival, featuring an expansive slate of 159 feature films including 21 world premieres. The festival will be presented in London this year with additional festival screening venues across the country and a select number of titles available for festival-goers unable to attend in person to stream remotely.
A traveller, explorer, lover of nature and curious minded cinematographer, Carissa Henderson graduated in Film and TV Production from NYU’s Tisch School, with a focus on documentary. Throughout her career, she worked on really awesome and prodigious projects, focusing on very different themes, which she always investigated with care and purpose. Among others, she shot hundreds of documentary short films around the world for Vice on HBO’s nightly news, an Emmy award-winning show, the New York Times ‘Who Gets to Be an Influencer?’, exposing the racism that hides within the social media/influencers culture and the Emmy nominated Netflix original series Connected, where Latif Nasser, a science journalist, investigates the ways in which we are connected between ourselves and the universe we live in. Carissa’s work will never stop to surprise you.
Most of us have taken a nutritional supplement and hoped that it will do what it says on the bottle. However, should we be taking supplements on a regular basis? Well, that depends. If you look at any supplement bottle you will likely read ‘Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied diet’. True. There is little advantage in filling up on supplements but continuing to eat a highly processed diet, because supplements do exactly what they say: they supplement a nutritional need.
“I had such an energizing conversation with Destinie, whose Set Design work I came across via twitter last year during lockdown and instantly connected with the vivid detail in colour palette she uses so well, so when I later discovered that she was a fellow Director and also did Stills Photography, I had to sit down in conversation (by sit down I mean over the phone in a uber…don’t ask) to find out more about Destinie as an evident multi-faceted storyteller.”
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already binged the latest season of fan favourite Sex Education. A rare feat for a Netflix original series, season three debuted at #1 on the trending chart, surpassing cult status and firmly cementing itself in the mainstream. Left on a painful cliff-hanger, Isaac’s (George Robinson) cruel deletion of that voicemail, it’s no wonder that audiences were particularly excited to catch up with the beloved Moordale teens. But did the third instalment manage to quench our thirst, or was there a lot left to be desired?
It’s a Saturday night and I’m snuggled under a blanket on the sofa, my eyes glued to the TV. What time is it? Who knows. Am I surrounded by crumbs? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Hell no. It’s autumn, and that means it’s getting colder and I will no longer be leaving the house. It’s officially time to binge all the best new TV and – from everything I’ve seen so far – I am moved (not to be confused with I have moved, which isn’t something I’ve done in about two weeks).
Sat in the back garden of a cosy Bethnal Green cafe, I share a patch of late afternoon sun with Celine Buckens, a Belgian-born English actor whose credits include Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, the Netflix teen series Free Rein, and the martial arts drama Warrior. Next month she stars in the new BBC One drama Showtrial, which explores media sensationalism and questions privilege surrounding a high-profile murder case.
❝The capacity of the internet to shame studios and filmmakers has shaped the way films get made❞ Helen O'Hara, Women VS Hollywood. When I read Women VS Hollywood, this quote instantly caught my attention, and I wrote it down as I knew I would want to use it at some point– and that day has come.
Primetime’s Graduate Showcase 2021 is back, with some incredible talent on the rise. Now is the time to champion new voices: here they are. Share their work, sign them, hire them.
The 65th edition of the BFI London Film Festival got off to an exhilarating start with this year’s opening night gala, the world premiere of Jeymes Samuel’s star-studded new-age Western THE HARDER THEY FALL at Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall.
LAUREN DEVINE caught up with Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira, whose second feature film Medusa premiered in this year’s Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Anita Rocha da Silveira (@anitarochadasilveira) wrote and directed three short films before embarking on her first feature film, Kill me Please, which screened at the Venice International Film Festival and SXSW, among others. Medusa, her sophomore feature, premiered to critical acclaim in the Director’s Fortnight program at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.
My first year attending the Cannes International Film Festival was a wild ride to say the least. What was supposed to be a three-day cinematic vacation turned into 25 films in 10 days with barely enough time to eat and sleep between screenings. Brushes with fame included cutting up Spike Lee at a crosswalk, holding open a door for Jodie Foster and narrowly avoiding dropping a chair squarely on Orlando Bloom’s head. I wouldn’t change it.
One of two African films which competed for this year’s Palme d’Or, award-winning Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s latest feature Lingui explores the bond between a stoic and hardworking mother, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), and her pregnant teenage daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio) in this deeply affecting drama.
The festival’s esteemed Marché du Film—one of the world’s most hotly anticipated international film markets—has launched a new program focusing on the environment and diversity.
Following 2016’s Live From Dhaka which won top prizes at the Singapore International Film Festival and screened at Rotterdam and Locarno, Bangladeshi director Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s second feature film Rehana combines deliberately unsteady camera work and a series of relentless street and bodily sounds to affront the senses and immerse us in the titular character’s morally ambiguous contemporary Bangladesh.
Based on the true story of co-director Vesela Kazakova’s family, who also plays Yoana, Women Do Cry is very much a family affair. The film follows a hopelessly fractured yet ferociously devoted on-screen extended family portrayed by an explosive female ensemble cast—many of whom are related in real life—dealing with the trials and tribulations wrought by damaging patriarchal attitudes that persist towards women in contemporary Bulgaria. Borat 2 star Maria Bakalova plays principal character Sonja, and a heated interaction with her tempestuous sister Lora (Raltisa Stoyanova) at the start of the film plunges the audience into the impossibly fraught closeness found only between sisters. Insults fly and clothing is hurled over the balcony of their tiny high-rise apartment, and hair pulling, door slamming, and exasperated yelling characterise their interactions throughout the film. Their relationship pivots from derisive insults to unwavering loyalty as the sisters deal with Sonja’s HIV+ diagnosis after she learns too late that her partner has a wife, a child and is HIV-positive.
Néhémie Bastien ought to be marked as a talent to watch following her illuminating performance as the strong-willed and spirited Freda in Gessica Généus’ Creole-language debut. Set against a backdrop of the political turmoil and social upheaval which prevailed in the Haiti of 2018—which continues to this day, exacerbated by the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021—Freda explores the cultural oppression and colonial legacies which continue to dominate Haitian society. In a country where women are encouraged to strive for beauty, that they might become the coveted prize of a wealthy man, and education is deemed a fruitless pursuit for young women like Freda, Bastien’s eponymous character explores the reality that paving the way for progress can only be achieved in defiance of these cultural expectations.
Spanning the decades following World War II, director Sebastian Meise’s German-Austrian co-production follows gay German man Hans’ (Franz Rogowski) numerous extended stints in prison, repeatedly incarcerated under Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which criminalised homosexuality and sanctioned the persecution of homosexuals until 1994. Georg Friedrich plays Hans’ surly and unpredictable Austrian cellmate Viktor, who remains incarcerated throughout Hans’ recurring stints in prison for repeat offences.
