Women's Histories
Celebrating women in the archive from Jan-May 2019

Support available

Engagement Fund: £500 - £15,000
Film Menu with discounted booking rates

Dates and deadlines

Funding currently closed
Projects taking place: Jan '19 - May '19

Women's Histories is the first instalment of Changing Times: a nationwide funding programme dedicated to uncovering the many voices, hidden histories and forgotten stories that make up our collective past.

In its first year, Changing Times centred on Women's Histories within the UK's screen archive collections. From January to May 2019, exhibitors and archives from throughout the BFI Film Audience Network celebrated the inspiring advances made by generations of remarkable women who have transformed attitudes and changed our everyday lives.

Exhibitors' approaches to the theme were as varied as the material in the archive itself, and used screen heritage in a number of ways to engage with contemporary debates around women in society, culture and the film industry. These events highlighted the sometimes overlooked contributions of female filmmakers to British film history, unearthed little known stories of social transformation driven by women and explored the diverse histories of women in the UK across generations.

Screen 25 (London), for example, combined an archival celebration of the trailblazing animator Joy Batchelor with a panel discussion featuring professionals working in the industry today. Live Cinema UK collaborated with Glasgow Film Festival to reframe screen heritage footage in an experimental setting with the installation of a 360 viewing experience in a city centre shopping mall. And the Media Archive for Central England embarked on a co-curation project involving young people working in the archive and delivering screenings at Broadway (Nottingham) and Phoenix (Leicester).

For more information on Women's Histories and how organisations across the UK got involved, take a look at the programme downloads and web coverage. Funding for Changing Times in 2019 is now open and will support events responding to the theme of Shifting Ground. For more information, visit the Shifting Ground homepage.