Sundance support for Casablanca Calling

The Sundance Institute has announced that Casablanca Calling, our film project with Directo Rosa Rogers, has been awarded one of 23 grants in its latest round of funding. The film follows Morocco's first female Muslim leaders as they set out to change their country.


Redbird Shortlisted for CDN Award

We were shortlisted for one of the first Cultural Diversity Network awards, with Maverick Television, for Excellence in Offscreen Recruitment.


Women in the Madrassa: Sunday 31st August 2009 on the BBC World Service

In Morocco, a quiet social revolution is underway: women are being employed as Muslim leaders for the first time. Attached to mosques and neighbourhoods across the country, these women – called Morchidat - have a mission: to open up the teachings of Islam to women and to change the attitudes which can breed extremism. In Women in the Madrassa, journalist Zaiba Malik takes us to the heart of this ground-breaking initiative through the work of the Morchidat and the impact they are making on women, families and communities in Morocco.

Zaiba Malik was born in Bradford in the UK and has powerful memories of visiting the mosque as a child, where women were always separated from the men and the Imam was a remote figure. From the moment she arrives in Rabat, Zaiba is confronted by the dynamic ways the Morchidat are empowering women through the teachings of Islam. She explores their work as teachers, counsellors, mediators and spiritual guides. She observes the real, practical support they are giving to women, children and families, in mosques, schools, orphanages, hospitals and prisons. She meets the students who want to become the next Morchidat, talks to prominent academics about the thinking behind the initiative, and considers the impact of this social, religious and cultural transformation, both for Morocco and for the wider Muslim world.



The Time of Their Lives - coming to a screen near you

The Time of Their Lives, our new feature documentary about 3 extraordinary women with a combined age of nearly 300, was shown on BBC 4 on 20th July 2009 at 7.30pm, as part of the Grey Expectations Season. The film, an observational documentary for Storyville with support from the UK Film Council, is directed by Jocelyn Cammack and produced by Hilary Durman. The Time of Their Lives had its UK premiere at Sheffield Documentary Festival and has now been screened at Bird's Eye View Festival in London, Cinema du Reel in Paris, SXSW in Texas, Bird's Eye View in Belfast, the Belgrade Women's Film Festival, Silverdocs and the Stranger than Fiction film festival in Dublin.

Visit our production microsite: www.timeoftheirlives.com for much more information, pictures and clips from the programme.


HARAH DVD

RedBird Productions has made a DVD for the affordable housing partnership HARAH. The DVD contains a main film in which we follow two parish council chairpersons on their journey around various affordable housing developments. Then there are lots of extra elements that will enable rural housing enablers and others to share different aspects of affordable housing in their presentations.


Football Arts Academy

We worked with Ruth Jones Ltd, the Football Foundation and Arts Award on a creative pilot project which brought sport and arts together. We have produced a DVD to capture the work of four football clubs who developed creative projects, enabling young people to gain the Arts Award qualification. There is a dedicated website for the project, along with all the documentaries and an overview film att www.footballartsacademy.org.uk