This is the sixth in a series of ongoing events that forms part of Birds’ Eye View’s Reclaim The Frame Influencers project; a mission to bring ever-greater audiences to films by women to build a more balanced film future.
Directed by Sara Colangelo
Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Michael Chernus and Gael García Bernal
US
2019
97 min
Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Lisa Spinelli, a kindergarten teacher and poet fed up with her career, her oblivious husband and teenage kids who largely ignore her. When she discovers that a five-year-old in her class may be a poetic prodigy, Lisa becomes fascinated and tries to protect him from neglectful parents. She soon finds herself risking her career and family to nurture his talent.
There will be a post screening discussion hosted by Mia Bays who runs Birds’ Eye View, in conversation with film critic Larushka Ivan Zadeh, filmmaker and poet Be Manzini and Psychologist Dr Simone Bijvoet-van den Berg.
Please join us after the panel discussion for a 60-min POETRY WORKSHOP where we will generate poems from images, quotes and themes from the film. Participants will be given several writing prompts, there will be an opportunity to share some of the work and the group will be given some general advice for editing and performing work, so they have the tools to continue with their writing practice.
Be Manzini will lead the workshop – she is a Southern African raised in London, and her writing practice spans poetry, theatre and journalism. She has worked with the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Hoxton Hall, Tamasha and Immediate Theatre to name a few, her writing appears in numerous printed anthologies and online publications.
A workshop facilitator that specializes in creative writing and processes for empowerment; fittingly her former work has included being a Continuous Professional Development Co-ordinator for the Arts Council. Her first film ‘This Is Not A Thank You’ was a poetry short nominated for an international award by ‘Shot from the Lip’, a poetry film competition by the South Bank Centre and has been screened as part of the BFI Love Festival, by Apples and Snakes and Picturehouse cinemas and in various festivals here and abroad. She is also the Director of Caramel Film Club which is a platform that supports and screens the work of Black actors and directors, with whom Birds’ Eye View frequently collaborate.
