The 2013 Birds Eye View Festival celebrating Arab women filmmakers, takes place from today, April 3rd to next Wednesday, April 10th.

Playing next Tuesday, April 9th at the ICA, BEV’s annual dip into fashion on film also has an Arab flavour. Fashion Loves Film: Arab Fashion Past and Present looks at new trends, changes and controversies surrounding the rapidly expanding and innovating fashion scene across the Arab world and Gulf states in particular.

The centrepiece of Fashion Loves Film is the Cannes Award-winning documentary DoBuy: The Fabric of Faith (top right), alongside cutting-edge short films and a panel discussion with fashion experts and filmmakers, including for example a look at the ‘hotpants and niqabs’ viral sensation Niqabitch (lower right) that was born as a reaction to the French ban on the burka.

Followed by an exclusive panel discussion with Kathryn Ferguson (filmmaker and Fashion Loves Film curator), Reina Lewis (Professor of Cultural Studies, University of the Arts London), Emily Harris (director, DoBuy) and Fatima Al Qadiri (artist and musician, How Can I Resist U).

Fashion Loves Film: Arab fashion past & present takes place on April 9th at the ICA, at 6.30pm. Info and tickets here