Seen & Heard Film Festival was established in 2009, its inaugural venue being Blank_Space Gallery on Crown Street in Surry Hills. Following my Honours year, I decided to take action in raising awareness in gender politics in filmmaking and give exposure to filmmakers that had not yet had the opportunity to screen the films to Sydney based audiences, as well as older films that hadn’t been seen by younger audiences.
Grave Goods by Leslie Tai
Running for ten days, the festival included daytime and evening screenings. Filmmakers in attendance were Sarah Tracton (White Sound, a film about Deafness by a Deaf filmmaker), experimental narrative film and documentary maker Margot Nash (Call Me Mum, Teno and For Love or Money) and Jessica Tyrrell (The Braille Box).
The following year the festival migrated to Marrickville’s The Red Rattler Theatre, where it has been showing on an annual basis since, its format changing from sequential nights to three week lengths with screenings taking place on Thursday evenings. In that time, films across a variety of genres and themes from Australia (Indigenous and non-Indigenous filmmakers), the UK, the USA, Brazil, Canada, France, Iran, Poland, Sweden and more have been screened alongside filmmaker talks and live performances. In 2014 we had guest David Stratton launch the festival with a Q&A on women’s participation globally in film’s history.
Black & White & Sex by Melissa Beauford
In addition to these annual screenings, Seen & Heard has also had “pop-up” style screenings at Sydney Fringe Festival (2013) and Critical Animals – This is Not Art (2014).
In 2014, Seen & Heard premiered in Melbourne for the first time, established and produced by a separate team, in its rollout I have acted in consultancy.
Media
2014
ABC Arts: Seen & Heard – women making waves in Australian cinema
Published by ABC Arts, Monday, 10 November
Radio Interview: Canvas on FBI
Original Air Date: 2014-03-02
Culture Guide :: Celebrating Women in Cinema as we head towards International Women’s Day
Published by FBI Radio, March 2014
2013
Seen & Heard Festival: The Best Of
Published by ArtsHub, 4 October 2013
The Film Festival Making Women Seen & Heard
Published by The Vine, March 2013
Seen & Heard in 2013
Published by Concrete Playground, March 2013
Seen & Heard Film Festival, 2013
Published by Time Out, March 2013
2012
SEEN & HEARD: FILMS BY WOMEN
Published by F Collective, March 2012
2010
It’s Not All About the “F” Word
Published by Das500, September 2010