International Women’s Day:
The International Women’s Day series celebrates past and future female-identifying filmmakers from the Modern Films slate by profiling them and asking; who inspires them, what is their advice to young filmmakers and what is their creative process and bible.
Who is your most inspirational female filmmaker and why?
Chantal Akerman has inspired me since the day I ‘met’ her through an interview, back in 2010. Alive, honest, raw and broken-she felt like a moving mirror to me and my dreams as a student. (Let alone the magical fact that we share the same birthday, 66 for ever!)
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Do not listen to anyone’s advice :)
What is your creative bible?
The sky! (With a touch of Velvet Underground’s ‘Ride into the Sun’ or Roxy Music’s ‘Flesh and Blood’.)
Jacqueline Lentzou is the writer and director of Moon, 66 Questions. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female filmmaker and why?
Julia Ducournau. Because Titane.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Learn to edit, then shoot, then direct, in that order (this I did not do).
What is your creative bible?
My creative bible is my friend Jim Demuth.
Posy Dixon is the director of BAFTA-nominated Keyboard Fantasies. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female filmmaker? And why?
Impossible to choose.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Trust.
What is your creative bible?
Pauline Oliveros' philosophy of 'Deep listening', a practice of radical attentiveness.
Lisa Rovner is the writer and director of Sisters With Transistors. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female director? And why?
Julia Ducournau, I've been rewatching her films recently and she has such a singular, unapologetic voice. I love how deeply, skin-crawlingly unsettled you feel as a viewer at points, but how darkly funny, moving and unbelievably beautiful her films are too. That sequence party shot in Raw, oof.
Also (sorry cheating having a second) big shout out to Molly Dineen! Her thoughtful, intimate character-driven films were the first to make me fall in love with docs as a teen.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Try not to let a lack of experience or personal inhibitions hold you back in unfamiliar territory - no need to be your own worst enemy.
What is your creative bible (e.g. a specific book, a quote, a song you continuously reference back to)?
Watch watch watch, read read read, listen listen listen (repeat repeat repeat).
Liv Proctor is the producer of BAFTA-nominated Keyboard Fantasies. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female director? And why?
Lynne Ramsey, Andrea Arnold, Sally Potter, Agnes Varda, Mary Harron, Alma Har’el so many to list. All these women are fierce unapologetic bold storytellers that dare to create films that are subversive inventive and deeply emotional. The raise the bar on filmmaking and prove that female filmmakers are filmmakers and genius at that - so stop giving us a harder time than white men to make films!
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Get your hands dirty . Reflect deeply on what you want to say and why and how. Bring excellence, freedom , love to the creation and trust yourself . This is your baby make it your own. Give in to your wild impulses- allow yourself to taste freedom through your filmmaking. Go to the deepest places within yourself and transmute the pain into joy. The artistic practice is a spiritual portal if you believe it to be , come in with clear intentions and don’t give up. Be kind compassionate and bring excellence. You will be changed, so will the immaculate souls that you have magnetized to build the cathedral with you and from there the world. So dig deep, your heart knows the way- listen and honor your truth!
What is your creative bible?
My greatest inspiration is silence. When I take the time and have the courage to close my eyes and really sit with myself in silence. That’s where I’m able to really receive and discern what’s real to me and what matters, Silence is powerful and connects me back to my truth.
Dina Amer is the writer and director of You Resemble Me. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female director? And why?
I have many. But lately I am excited for Greta Gerwig's Barbie, it is such a charged world and I am very curious how she will depict both nostalgia and the conflict.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Don't waste your time on anything that you would not do faced with death.
What is your creative bible?
Childhood dreams and fears, and current dreams and fears.
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović is the writer and director of the Caméra d'Or winning film, Murina. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female director? And why?
Agnes Varda, CLEO 5 to 7 was life changing for me, I watched it after I had seen Godard etc and it was the kind of cinema I felt closest to but from a female perspective.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
Just keep on at it and don't look around at what others are doing, they might just be a flash in the pan, you want longevity!
What is your creative bible?
This photo by Daido Moriyama (attached).
Watching these films over and over again: Cleo from 5-7, L'Avventura, The Passenger, Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cria Cuervos, Battle of Algiers, Annie Hall, Happy Together.
Zeina Durra is the writer and director of Luxor. Watch the film here.
Who is your most inspirational female director? And why?
My inspirational female directors are a few: Cate Shortland, Susanne Bier, Andrea Arnold, Agnes Varda, Mira Nair. Because they tell stories, characters, subject angle and their gaze is deeper and detailed. The most delicate and important themes are explored sensitively and fairly, an eye opener.
Do you have any advice for a young filmmaker?
If you have an urgent story to tell don’t repress or be repressed - tell your story unapologetically. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, embarrassing yourself or failing. Find another angle, another approach, equip yourself with knowledge. Fear and doubt is inevitable but be your own best friend, lift yourself up, brush off, keep going with one aim - ‘I am going to make it, there is no other way’. You will find the right door and you will know how to open it.
What is your creative bible?
My Creative bible is a pair of noise cancelling headphones and a low lighted room - that makes me focused to do anything I want.
Nadira Murray is the producer of Winners. Winners is out in UK cinemas this March 17.