In recent months I've been collaborating with Toby Martinez de las Rivas and Neda Milenova Mirova on a series of films. A pleasure to be able to attend Toby's talk to the Whichcote Society in Emmanuel College. And the first public screening of one film of the series - Gethsemane. 

I've been making preparations today for the event next month with Poetry Film Live. Chatting with Rosie Garland and Helen Dewbery was lovely and we've recorded Rosie performing one of the special poems from the 'Book of the Film' of Because Goddess is Never Enough. It was brilliant - not least because that's the first time I've seen Rosie perform that particular poem. I will have to make it into a film one day. You'll have to join us on Thursday 8th June at 7.30pm to find out which poem, and to watch the reading.

Launching a collaboration with Roma Tearne - an artist's book edition in Venice, in association with Kanz Architetti - alongside an exhibition of paintings by Roma on 12 & 13 May 2023.
Written by Roma Tearne with typographic design and artist's book edition created by me. See more about the book at Peculiarity Press.

Beyond proud that the first of a new mini-series of films has gone up on the Faber & Faber YouTube channel to tie-in with Toby Martinez de las Rivas' new book of poetry 'Floodmeadow' that is published today.

Made in collaboration with Toby and sound artist Neda Milenova Mirova. And created from an original glass plate photograph by Eric Guy Archive at the Museum of English Rural Life. 

More from this series to come. Three films are complete with two more in progress.

Very happy to have been invited by curator Julia Zinnbauer to join in (virtually) with this crowd in Düsseldorf. Julia reported on the event: "The epic Gearreels Screening took place as part of the ART ARTIST Exhibition in Düsseldorf (https://artartist.co/). It was a great pleasure to show your work in the context of this beautiful and really overwhelming exhibition and I would like to thank you for your trust and for all your exciting submissions!
     It was important for me that as many people as possible had the opportunity to watch your films, therefore I was glad to have two spaces and two projectors (thanks to the Riad!) In this way I could project two reels simultaneously. By the way: the name of our event - Gearreels – relates to the fact that the exhibition took place in the buildings of a former gearwheel factory.
     Chris, Dora, Daniel and Carsten came all the way from Berlin to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, which made everything even more exciting and beautiful. Thank you so much for coming to Düsseldorf!
     An additional surprise was the beautiful performance by Natalie Afriat and Soof Nikritin that took place in one of our screening spaces – an incredible mixture of dance, music and projection (https://www.instagram.com/p/CqnCd4zoAeA/?hl=de). At that time Natalie and Soof took part in the ongoing artists exchange betrween Düsseldorf and Ein Hod/Haifa, Düsseldorf's twin city in Israel."

Julia selected Because Goddess is Never Enough - to show in the screening room at the Factory instagram.com/p/Cq8KRjgI_lg/​

Very honoured to have had the opportunity to talk about the making of my film 'Because Goddess is Never Enough' last week at the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival Conference. ​

I was inspired by Tilly Losch and her creative life because she is pushed and pulled by all these men, she suffers miscarriages, and a mental breakdown, but she keeps on going, doing her own thing at a time when the barriers to doing that as a woman were extremely difficult, and she continues a creative life after dance by turning to painting.

As the film stands, as a feminist viewpoint on the credibility of creative women in the 1920s to 40s, the extent to which we have progressed in the last 100 years and the distance we still have to go to have equality, I think it is largely successful. The film was a personal response to the material, through an oblique telling of a story of a now largely side-lined woman. But there was so much in the source material that I did not really know how to navigate…

Throughout my research I was aware that I was interested in, but avoided deeply interrogating underlying social and cultural aspects of my subject. I think a visual / media anthropologist could have given me the insight I was missing. My presentation was a discussion around the questions raised by the material I researched.
Some examples: 

• How to approach the Hollywood films that Tilly appeared in, in which she is invariably the ‘exotic’ dancer? She is portrayed as ethnically other than her own appearance. Did Tilly have any agency in this? What might her attitudes have been? 
• I needed greater understanding of women’s position and status in the arts and performing arts in the 1920s to 1940s. How did celebrity culture, social class, life in high society impact Tilly and her creative work?
• Tilly seems to attempt to transform herself and her status through marriage. Is she driving this? Or is she pushed into it? Or was it inevitable?

So pleased and delighted to announce that Because Goddess is Never Enough recently won Best Videoart at the recent VII Bienal Internacional Dona I Cinema festival in Valencia Spain.

A particular pleasure at this festival which champions the work of women in film - because my aim with my film was to look at how far creative women have come in the 90 years since my inspiration, Tilly Losch, was in her heyday, and yet how far we still need to go to have equal opportunity and credibility. Events like this festival are invaluable to give exposure and experience to talented women with some amazing films to share.
​Thank you!!!

Looking forward to joining Lucy English and Helen Dewbery for the first of their new online series of events ‘Poetry Film in Conversation’. The events kick off on Thursday 9 February at 19.30 (GMT) with Animation, Motion Graphics and Text on Screen.

I'm going to be talking about text and typography :)

Diek Grobler, Suzie Hanna and I will each give a presentation (Suzie’s will be pre-recorded) followed by a panel discussion chaired by Lucy, and finishing up with an audience Q&A.

Tickets available through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-film-in-conversation-animation-motion-graphics-and-text-on-screen-tickets-516766210647

Very happy to say that Because Goddess is Never Enough will be part of the upcoming Dona i Cinema biennial festival in Valencia in Spain, showing on the first day of the screening programme on 30th January. The festival seeks "to give visibility to artistic productions by women, given their absence in all areas of the film industry, from artistic creation to distribution".

Sunderland Shorts is a great festival to be part of - I was very pleased that Because Goddess is Never Enough was part of the experimental screening. Very well supported and organised, this quick review  gives a flavour of the festival. 
Thank you Sunderland!