Birds Eye View Festival, 8-17 March 2011

• I updated this post on 8 February with the revised times and dates for the Sound and Silents screenings.

To say that Silent London has a whole lotta love for the Birds Eye View Film Festival would be an understatement. This event, which has grown in size and scope since it was launched in 2005, excels in several areas, but silent film programming has been a particular strength. This year is no exception, with an exciting range of films in its Bloody Women horror strand being screened with live, specially commissioned scores at the BFI Southbank and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The festival, which is set up to celebrate and support international female film-makers, begins on the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day – and its Opening Night Gala is a marvellous way to mark the occasion. Over to Birds Eye View:

BEV’s specially commissioned live scores to classic silents include Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920, scr. Clara Beranger) with contemporary folk act Blue Roses; Sparrows (1926, w. Mary Pickford), scored by Aristazabal Hawkes of BRIT and Mercury Award nominee Guillemots, ahead of the band’s third album release; The Wind (1928, scr. Frances Marion, w. Lillian Gish), with music by composer-pianist Lola Perrin; and a special Sound & Silents event at the Southbank Centre featuring Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, dir. Maya Derren) with award-winning multi-instrumentalist Seaming To; Hansel and Gretel (1955, dir. Lotte Reiniger) with experimental pop sensation Micachu; Suspense (1913, dir. Lois Weber) with Tara Busch; and The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928, dir. Germaine Dulac) with Grammy and Novello Award-winner Imogen Heap.

The Sound & Silents programme is as follows:

The Wind, scored by Lola Perrin, 9 March, 6.10pm, BFI
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, scored by Blue Roses, 11 March, 6.10pm, BFI
Bloody Women Sound & Silents, featuring Hansel & Gretel scored by Micachu and The Seashell and The Clergyman, scored by Imogen Heap, performed by the Holst Singers, 11 March, 8pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
Sparrows, scored by Aristazabel Hawkes of Guillemots, 15 March, 6.20pm, BFI

Tickets for the BFI screenings are on sale to BFI members now, and to everyone else very soon. Click here for details. To book tickets for the Bloody Women Sound & Silents event, click here. For information on the rest of the festival, read the Birds Eye View website. Or just sit back and enjoy this taster of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: