Seen and Heard Film Festival 2014

Overview

The film industry has a gender problem. While women make up more than half of the world's moviegoers, just 16 per cent of last year's 250 most successful films had female directors. In Hollywood specifically, that number is halved. It's dire statistics like these that inspired the Seen and Heard Film Festival, an event designed to showcase the best that female filmmakers have to offer.

After original launching in Sydney back in 2009, this year marks the festival's inaugural Melbourne season. Hosted at ACMI, the four-day event features three short film streams, including one dedicated to school-aged filmmakers and another to short form horror. There's also a selection of full-length movies on offer, including Desiree Akhavan's biting relationship comedy Appropriate Behaviour, the critically acclaimed immigration drama Under the Starry Sky, and Regarding Susan Sontag — an eponymous doco about the seminal feminist theorist. We can almost guarantee all films pass the Bechdel test.