Best Girl Grip

The final ever episode! This week, my first ever guest, Georgia Goggin is back! As a producer, Georgia has been collaborating with writer/director Dionne Edwards for over a decade under their banner Teng Teng Films. Georgia was nominated for the Breakthrough Producer BIFA for her work on their critically acclaimed debut PRETTY RED DRESS. Their previous film, the celebrated 2016 short WE LOVE MOSES won multiple awards, screened at festivals worldwide, has been licensed by Canal+, Netflix, HBO and is now available on Disney+. Georgia's writing and directing credits include BEND, which was backed by BBC Drama and comes to Short of the Week in December 2023, and SORRY FI DISTURB YUH (written by Russeni Fisher) which was nominated for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry in Film. Georgia has a feature in development with The Electric Shadow Company and a TV series with The Development Partnership. Georgia is an alum of Sundance, EIFF and Rotterdam talent development programmes. She is also Development Executive at The Uncertain Kingdom. We talk about becoming a writer and director in her own right and a whole host of reflections on making a film during a pandemic, making a creative career and well, making a life… Plus! Georgia asks me some questions about how the podcast got started, how it's evolved and what it's taught me…   SHOW NOTES Find out where you can watch PRETTY RED DRESS Apply for The Uncertain Kingdom's Short Film Production Fund Listen to our first conversation!  

This is week my guest is Desiree Akhavan!  Desiree's first feature film was 2014's APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR, in which she also starred. It came off the back of a web series she made in 2010 called The Slope, with fellow NYU postgrad film student Ingrid Jungermann. After Appropriate Behaviour, Desiree had a guest spot on the TV show Girls, and also began adapting the book THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, alongside her co-writer and producer Cecilia Frugiuele. The film, which Desiree also directed, would star Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane and went on to win the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize in 2018.  Around the same time, Desiree also created, wrote and directed a brilliant 6-part TV show for Channel 4 called THE BISEXUAL, starring Maxine Peake, Brian Gleeson, Naomi Ackie and Desiree herself and all set in London.  Since 2018 Desiree has been working on a very personal project which we talk about, as well directing episodes of many brilliant TV shows, including RAMY, HACKS and TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS.  We talk about a lot, and if you've ever read an interview with Desiree you know she's very good at cutting through the bullshit and this is no exception. We dig into how the past five years have seen her working at a different pace and why that is, we talk about the moments after success and the expectations that were placed on her career, we talk about what it actually means or requires to direct an episode of TV, finding a soulmate in her creative partner Cecilia and why learning and having fun is at the centre of everything she does…

This week's guest is Moss Barclay, an Executive Producer for TV at See-Saw Films, whose shows include SLOW HORSES  and THE ESSEX SERPENT on Apple TV+, HEARTSTOPPER on Netflix and THE NORTH WATER on BBC iPlayer. Moss started her career working for filmmaker Paul Greengrass before co-founding new-writing theatre festival, HighTide. She was also an intern at Working Title and went on to hold positions at Big Talk Pictures and Sixteen Films before spending 10 years at Pulse Films, where she led the company's expansion into scripted film and TV, developing GANGS OF LONDON for Sky AMC.  We talk about how Paul Greengrass introduced her to the film industry, her love of stories and reading and how that led her towards development, demystifying what it means to be a Head of Development, her time at Pulse Films and how she helped to redefine what Pulse did or could do, and her shift towards television, and what authored TV looks like, as well as her work at See-Saw Films. 

This week's guest is Leo Anna Thomas, (they/them) who has twenty years' experience in the Art Department and six as Standby Art Director on projects such as SMALL AXE, TRIGONOMETRY, HIS DARK MATERIALS and BLACK MIRROR.  They are also the first wellbeing facilitator for the Film and TV industry. Having experienced bullying firsthand they stepped away from the industry in 2009 to look after their mental health. They returned in 2013 and as part of that return they began to develop the role of the wellbeing facilitator alongside 6ft from the Spotlight, where they became a full-time facilitator as of 2020.  We speak about their induction into the world of film through the medium of VHS, a full circle 28 Days Later moment, the role of the standby art director and why it's not just standing by to become an art director, and their work on the film Pride, and then we segue into the work Leo has being doing more recently in the world of wellbeing and mental health, and how they've pioneered a new role in the industry that seeks to prioritise care, calm and compassion to ensure that film & TV productions can be more mentally healthy places to work.  If anything you hear in this conversation chimes with you I urge you to check out the show notes, which contain lots of links to further resources and websites about wellbeing facilitation.   TW: Please note, that today's conversation includes mention of suicide and bullying, so listener discretion is advised.   SHOW NOTES: Film & TV Charity Looking Glass Survey Film & TV Charity Whole Picture Toolkit 6ft From The Spotlight Listen to Leo's podcast Mental Health in Film Become a Mental Health First Aider Find out where to watch the film Pride Find out where to watch the film Pretty Red Dress Watch the trailer for Saltburn 

This week's guest is Farhana Bhula, the Head of Creative at Film4, where she  has overseen production on a mix of projects from debut to established filmmakers.  Those projects include How to Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker, Layla by Amrou Al-Kadhi and All Of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh starring Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.   She joined Film4 in 2022 from the BFI where she was a Senior Development and Production Executive and worked on Scrapper by Charlotte Regan, Pretty Red Dress by Dionne Edwards, Reggie Yates' Pirates, Aml Ameen's Boxing Day, debbie tucker green's ear for eye, Ben Sharrock's Limbo and Aleem Khan's After Love.   Prior to the BFI, she was head of development at Wildgaze Films (Brooklyn, An Education) and a development executive at Endor Productions. She has also produced shorts and a micro-budget feature. We talk about how she discovered development was a thing and why she felt suited to it, her roles at Wildgaze Films and the BFI Film Fund, the differences between working for a public funding body and a public service broadcaster, what she thinks makes a good debut feature and how she creates a good working relationship with filmmakers, the impetus behind the recent Future Takes scheme and the book she thinks is a must-read if you work in development…   SHOW NOTES Buy Farhana's book recommendation ‘A Swim in a Pond in the Rain' Watch the trailer for ‘How To Have Sex' Discover the nine projects Film4 and BFI are funding through the Future Takes programme Read an interview with Farhana and the development team at Film4  Find out where to watch Scrapper Find out where to watch Pretty Red Dress  

This week's guest is Vicki Brown, the Senior Executive of Sales & Distribution at the BFI.  Before the BFI she was at Together Films where she was Head of Acquisitions, Sales and Distribution, a company that is one of the leaders in social impact entertainment. She was responsible for setting up the international sales department and oversaw the acquisition of In Camera the first feature from director Naqqash Khalid.  Prior to her arrival at Together Films, Vicki was the Director of International Sales at Altitude. At Altitude, she represented such diverse and critically acclaimed titles such as Rocks (by Sarah Gavron), Ali & Ava (by Clio Barnard), The Princess (by Ed Perkins), Calm With Horses (by Nick Rowland) and Diego Maradona (by Asif Kapadia).  Vicki has also previously worked at Focus Features International where she handled sales on numerous titles including Cloud Atlas and Moonrise Kingdom.  In addition, she seeks to champion under-represented voices in the film industry. Vicki is the co-founder (alongside former podcast guest Chi Thai) of MilkTea Films, an organisation which looks to shine a spotlight on East and Southeast Asian talent through screenings and events with a goal to building inclusion, communities and audiences. MilkTea was announced as a Film London Lodestar in 2023 and in 2022 and 2023, was nominated for a Big Screen Award. All of which to say, Vicki is incredibly hardworking and a wonderful person to have in this industry, and therefore on this podcast. We talk about how she unearthed sales as the aspect of the film industry that she could be good at, what sales agents actually do, how she copes with the intensity of festivals and markets, working at Altitude when they were just starting out, how she knows when it's time for a change, founding MilkTea and why that brings her joy, and what better East and Southeast Asian representation in cinema could look like.    SHOW NOTES Listen to Vicki's podcast 'Roll Credits'. Find out more about MilkTea Films and their upcoming events.  Listen to my episode of Best Girl Grip with Chi Thai. Find out where to watch Celine Song's film Past Lives.  

This week's guest is Tricia Tuttle, the Head of Directing Fiction at NFTS and former Director of BFI Festivals, where she led on both LFF and Flare.  She announced her departure from the role in October 2022, after 10 years at the BFI as Festivals Director and Deputy Head of Festivals. Prior to that, she held the post of film and skills programme manager at BAFTA and events producer at London's The Script Factory.  We talk about her early and passionate love of cinema, moving to London from North Carolina, discovering an interest in exhibition and audiences, her time as Director of Festivals at the BFI, instating a creative vision as well as galvanising a team to deliver LFF and Flare year after year, as well as how she designs and delivers a curriculum at NFTS that equips a next generation of directors and offers a broad range of models for creativity and success and how she seeks out new challenges in her career. Tricia is the kind of guest I created Best Girl Grip to speak to - she's someone I've admired and been inspired by from afar for many years, especially when I started working at the BFI and attending both LFF and Flare with almost crazed commitment. In fact I started going regularly in 2016 so many of my best memories of the festival happened while Tricia was overseeing it, all of which to say this was a special one for me and I hope you enjoy listening.   SHOW NOTES LFF Screen Talk with Jane Campion LFF Screen Talk with Celine Sciamma Find out more about the BFI Flare x BAFTA mentorship programme and apply now for the next edition! Find out more about the Direction Fiction MA at NFTS Watch the trailer for Anatomy of a Fall, which comes out in cinemas next month Listen to previous episodes of Best Girl Grip with guests that Tricia mentions including Sandra Hebron and Cathy Brady

This week's guest is Uzma Hasan, a producer known for bringing subversive stories to global audiences.  Her first feature as producer was THE INFIDEL, starring Omid Djalili, David Baddiel and Archie Panjabi.  Her latest feature film CREATURE - directed by Academy-Award winner Asif Kapadia - is a ground-breaking, genre-busting collaboration with Lawrence Olivier Award winning choreographer Akram Khan and sees the English National Ballet perform a story inspired by the play Woyzeck.  Uzma is currently Interim CEO of Ffilm Cymru Wales, the development agency for film in Wales, having stepped down from its board to take up the role. Additionally, Uzma is Chair of the Bush Theatre, home for new writing and talent. She was previously a non-executive director on the board of Channel 4 and a trustee of Bird's Eye View, a non-profit that campaigns for gender equality in film. We talk about the world event that prompted her pivot into the film industry, her first job working with director Mira Nair, producing CREATURE during lockdown and how it inspired a different way of working, what good leadership means to her, redefining success and many, many more juicy topics - it was a really engaging and thoughtful conversation from my perspective, that I really enjoyed having so I hope you enjoy listening. 

This week's guest is Laura Zempel, an award-winning editor for film & TV based in Los Angeles.  I invited to Laura to the podcast after binge-watching the series Beef on Netflix earlier this year and being really impressed with everything about that show, but particularly the editing and how it balances the modulating tone and storylines so deftly.  Laura was nominated for an Emmy for her work on that show, and not for the first time, she previously won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series in Euphoria.  She also worked on Josephine Decker's film The Sky is Everywhere and the Duplass brothers' show Room 104.  Most recently she edited two episodes of the new Apple TV+ series Lessons in Chemistry, starring Brie Larson. The first three episodes are available to watch as of today.  We talk about how she developed an interest in editing, her experience of internships and assisting, including etiquette and how to read a room, being obsessive with music and making playlists for her projects, editing an actors' performance, staying emotionally engaged with the work, Avid being her first language and trusting the process.   SHOW NOTES American Cinema Editors internship programme  Read this great interview with Laura over on The Edit Girls website Watch Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+ Watch The Sky is Everywhere on Apple TV+ Watch BEEF on Netflix Find out where to watch Euphoria Watch Laura's film recommendation ‘Fresh' by Mimi Cave. Listen to my Best Girl Grip interviews with editors Louise Ford and Maya Maffioli. 

This week's guest is Clare Baines, the BFI's first Disability Equality Lead.  Clare is a blind creative. Unable to recognise her own experience reflected in culture, she uses storytelling to create community and belonging for disabled people. Through comedy and joy, she challenges society's perception of disability, queerness, and all the joyful intersections in between.  She is the BFI's first Disability Equality Lead where she leads community-led action to tackle ableism within the industry, authentic on-screen representation, and advocates for Disabled talent and audiences.  Elsewhere she has recently written and directed her first short film, a rom-com called ‘Blind Date' - funded by Roundhouse - that confronts the subject of ableism within dating through the eyes of a young visually-impaired woman.  We talk about Clare's experience of becoming blind at the age of 15, her degree in biomedical engineering and working in tech before joining the BFI. In the context of her role there we talk about where you begin with creating equality and changing certain practices in the industry, finding kinship and community in the industry and how people who aren't D/deaf, disabled or neurodiverse can be better allies to those who do identify as such.  Clare was a joyous guest to have on the podcast, she emanates hope and energy and passion and she's someone that makes me glad to be a part of this industry, so I hope you enjoy listening.   SHOW NOTES UK Cinema Association CEA Card Screenskills mentorships Scope, a disability charity in the UK and the research piece Clare mentions Watch the short film ‘My Eyes Are Up Here' on BFI Player BFI's preferred terms for inclusive language  Brazen Productions' resources  A list of companies who can provide audio description for films Watch the trailer for Ella Glendining's documentary 'Is Anybody Out There?' Listen to my episode of Best Girl Grip with the BFI's Industry Inclusion Exec Melanie Hoyes

This week my guest is Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe, a woman who wears many hats - among which are writer, producer, script editor and the current Head of Scripted Development at DARE Pictures.  After working as a bouncer to fund her Screenwriting certificate from the Met Film School, Cassandra's way into the industry was through the Mama Youth Project in 2016.  Cassandra was previously senior development executive at Daniel Kaluuya's production outfit 59%, overseeing the company's slate and generating new IP across international and regional markets. Prior to this she worked in scripted development. Her credits include “Ted Lasso” season 2 (WarnerBros/Apple+), “Riches” (Greenacre Films for ITV), “Secret Invasion” (Marvel Studios) and “The Chemistry of Death” (Cuba Pictures Ltd, for Paramount+). Cassandra also co-founded the collective 'Black Women in Scripted' in 2020, and which currently boasts over 300 members - a mix of established and award-winning writers, producers, and execs, as well as new industry talent.  We talk about the difference between pride and self-worth, how to set your rates as a freelancer, how to adapt to working at different companies, how securing an agent changed her career, how she treads the line between writer and script editor, how she gives notes and what it means to be a warm CEO, finding community in the industry and prioritising your mental health above all else.   SHOW NOTES: Mama Youth Project  Black Women in Scripted  Sister Pictures Vanity Fair article about the toxic atmosphere on the set of “Lost”  Find out where to watch Cassandra's film recommendation I AM NOT A WITCH  For more conversations with women who work in development, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Katie Sinclair and Dionne Farrell.  

This week I'm pleased to welcome to Best Girl Grip talent agent Emma Obank.  Emma joined Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, an industry-leading literary agency representing many of the world's best-known creatives, in 2014 as an Agent's Assistant.  At the age of 26, Emma started building her own list of screenwriters, directors and literary properties; today she represents some of the UK's most exciting and promising new voices.  Alongside her agenting work, Emma launched Casarotto's unrepresented writer and director surgeries, which act as a platform for unrepresented talent to gain direct access to agents and creatives and freely ask questions about the industry; guests at the surgeries have included Bisha K. Ali, Jack Thorne, Jessica Hobbs and Kayleigh Llewellyn.  Emma is a frequent guest speaker at the NFTS and has been on the panel for writing competitions such as BAFTA Rocliffe and Funny Women. Emma was a mentee on the 2023 Women in Film & TV mentorship scheme. We talk about how she became aware of, and interested in, talent agenting, how she worked her way up the agenting ladder, how she acts as a buffer for rejection and maintains client relationships, how she decides to take on new clients and her recommendations for approaching agents.   SHOW NOTES Follow Emma on Twitter, where she gives lots of great advice and shares useful resources for writers and creatives looking to break into the industry.  A great thread that Emma put together of film industry accounts to follow on Twitter for updates and opportunities. And the thread I reference about ‘how to cold approach an agent'. Check out the BBC Writersroom Opportunities page.  Find out where to watch Emma's film recommendation ‘Millie Lies Low', directed by Michelle Savill. For more conversations with talent agents, listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with Roxana Adle and Kat Buckle.   

This week my guest is award-winning, freelance foley editor and mixer Sophia Hardman.  Sophia studied Sound Technology at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and started out her career at Twickenham Studios as an intern 9 years ago.  Since then Sophia has worked on a wide range of projects, from high-end TV dramas to Oscar-nominated feature films. Her credits include THE OUTFIT, HOUSE OF GUCCI, THE LAST DUEL, BELFAST, NO TIME TO DIE, ENOLA HOMES, THE TOURIST, STATE OF THE UNION and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.  We talk about the strange and unique language of foley, the differences between a foley artist and a foley editor, what it means to create impactful, unexpected sound effects, why she made the move to freelancing after working in-house at post house, how she chooses projects to work on and how she stays across technical / technological trends.    SHOW NOTES Find out where you can watch THE OUTFIT Find out where you can watch THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Find out where you can watch NO TIME TO DIE Watch ENOLA HOLMES on Netflix Watch the trailer for THE INVENTOR Find BECTU's rate cards here.  Check out Midge Costin's documentary MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND Watch the trailer for Sophia's film recommendation EARTH MAMA directed by Savannah Leaf.  For more conversations with women who worked in sound, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Lucy Bright, Ines Adriana and Anna Bertmark. 

This week's guest is producer Helen Gladders. I became aware of Helen's work through the 2016 short film RHONNA & DONNA, directed by Daina O. Pusic, and then I kept seeing her name popping up everywhere and knew she was a producer to watch.  More things you might want to know about Helen:   She is a graduate of the National Film and Television School having done their MA in Producing for Film & Television. She set up her own company Gingerbread Pictures in October 2016 and was nominated for the “Best Producer” award at Underwire for her short THE WYRD written and directed by Chloë Wicks, in 2017. She is an alumni of the BFI NETWORK'S Producer weekender, Edinburgh Film Festival talent lab, and NETWORK@LFF. Her recent short films include NIGHT BUS directed by former podcast guests Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth and the Film4 & BFI Network backed RUN written & directed by former podcast guest Ruth Greenberg and starring Niamh Algar.  At the time of recording, she was in post-production on her first feature TUESDAY, written and directed by Daina O. Pusic, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew and backed by A24, BBC Films, BFI, and Cinereach. And excitingly, the film has since had two festival appearances confirmed. It will premiere at this year's Telluride festival in the US, followed shortly after by the BFI London Film Festival, where it will screen in the First Feature Competition.  Elsewhere, Helen is busy working on several projects including debut features from filmmakers Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth, Astrid Thorvaldsen, Morayo Akande and Zoe Alker. We talk about how Helen discovered a knack for producing, her experience studying at NFTS, establishing a vision and a voice for her production company, the short film funding landscape, what it means to package a project, the differences between producing shorts and features, and how Titanic kickstarted both of our fascinations with the film industry…   SHOW NOTES: Watch Helen's shorts RHONNA & DONNA, RUN and NIGHT BUS. Listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with filmmakers Ruth Greenberg and Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth.   Read Deadline's review for the feature TUESDAY, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Buy tickets for TUESDAY at the BFI London Film Festival.  Find out where you can watch Helen's film recommendation: JUMBO.  For more conversations with producers, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Jeanie Igoe, Chi Thai, Sarah Brocklehurst, Emily Morgan and Elhum Shakerifar.     

This week my guest is the wonderful Eve Gabereau. Eve is someone whose work and ingenuity I became aware of quite early on in my own career and she is someone I have wanted on the podcast for a good while. Eve is the Founder and Managing Director of Modern Films, a London-based, female-led, social issues-driven production, distribution and event cinema company. It was founded in 2017 and since gone onto to release buzzy titles such as BORDER, MURINA, HAPPY AS LAZZARO, WHITE RIOT, WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY and Oscar-winner DRIVE MY CAR.  Two of their upcoming releases were part of this year's LFF programme - Emily Atef's MORE THAN EVER and Kristoffer Borgli's SICK OF MYSELF, which both speak well to the kind of provocative, spellbinding and whip-smart cinema that Modern Films have made their trademark.  Prior to that Eve was the MD of Soda Pictures for 15 years, where she released such indie hits as TONI ERDMANN, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, PATERSON and MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE. She also executive produced Rungano Nyoni's directorial debut I AM NOT A WITCH. She is a regular feature on panels and training schemes throughout the industry, and was also featured in Geoffrey Macnab's 2021 book ‘The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries and Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema', so it's fair to say I approached this interview with high expectations for the wisdom and insight it might contain and Eve definitely didn't disappoint and it's truly a privilege to count her among Best Girl Grip's guests. 

This week my guest is producer Jeanie Igoe.  Jeanie's big break came when she landed a role at A24, where her credits as a production executive include Barry Jenkins' MOONLIGHT, Trey Edwards Shults', IT COMES AT NIGHT, Bo Burnham's EIGHTH GRADE and Robert Eggers' THE LIGHTHOUSE. She also served as a producer on their TV series RAMY, and a co-producer on David Lowery's THE GREEN KNIGHT. She then launched herself as an independent producer, with her first project MISS JUNETEENTH, the directorial debut from Channing Godfrey Peoples going on to premiere at Sundance and receive a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. Most recently, Jeanie co-produced CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS alongside Catherine Magee and the team at Element Pictures, including former podcast guest Emma Norton and Development Producer Chelsea Morgan Hoffman who developed Sally Rooney's novel into the series script, alongside the writers.  We talk about moving to New York, getting a job at A24 in its fledging years as a company and then being witness to their exponential growth, making the decision to start producing independently, moving back to Ireland, maintaining a work-life balance, how Jeanie creates an atmosphere of collaboration and care on set and adapts her role to the needs of the project and the filmmaker. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I did having it.

This week I'm thrilled to be chatting with film critic, broadcaster, podcaster and now author Hanna Flint, about her path into the film and media industry, as well as how her new book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER was born. Having started out in various journalism and media roles for the likes of MailOnline, Metro and OK! Magazine, Hanna has since become a prolific film critic and features writer, with bylines at a wealth of outlets, including Variety, Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, Time Out, The Guardian, Esquire, Dazed, British GQ and Stylist, and has also appeared as a critic and commentator on the likes of BBC Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Radio 5 Live and TALKRadio.  She is also a host for MTV Movies and the co-host of the Fade to Black podcast alongside Amon Warmann and former Best Girl Grip guest Clarisse Loughrey.  Her book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER, is out now and weaves together personal memoir with cultural criticism as she reflects on how cinema has been formative to her own identity and the world we live in. The book is sprawling, funny and down-to-earth and manages to traverse topics such basketball, sexuality, sexual assault, colourism, her changing relationship to her Tunisian heritage, eating disorders, social media, family, first crushes and much much more.  Our conversation likewise covers lots of ground as we probe the pros and cons of doing an MA in journalism, how Hanna hustled her way into her career with hard work and persistence, how she established herself as a critic, how the idea for her book developed, the madness of writing it in just under three months and her relationship to it now as it makes its way into the world. 

My guest this week is the incredibly talented and prolific sound designer and mixer Ines Adriana. Ines studied for an MA in sound design at NFTS and has been credited on over 40 projects since 2020, including some incredible short films like Ruth Greenberg's RUN, Molly Manning Walker's, GOOD THANKS, YOU?, Theo James Krekis' PRAM SNATCHER, Nia Childs' HOME, as well as documentaries such as THE CATHEDRAL and SELF-PORTRAIT. Ines' work has screened at Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, BFI London Film Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is a Film London Lodestar 2022, a Berlinale Talent alumni and a member of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA crew.  We talk about how she discovered a passion for sound, finding the confidence and the skills to call herself a sound designer, her ‘fever dream' experience studying at NFTS, how her career picked up momentum and how sound design can facilitate and augment story. I always enjoy the craft-centred episodes because I'm such a rookie in that space and it's such a fun opportunity to learn about a completely different area of filmmaking, so I appreciate Ines' time and I hope you get something from our conversation.

This week, my guest is music supervisor Lucy Bright.  Lucy started out at Mute Records working with artists such as Nick Cave and Depeche Mode, before moving to Warner Classics for six years and then leaving to manage composer Michael Nyman. She joined the film and TV department of publisher Music Sales (now Wise Music) in 2008 and worked there for a decade. In 2020 she launched her own music publishing company, Bright Notion Music, signing the composers like Anne Nikitin, Jed Kurzel and Tamar-kali Brown. Lucy has supervised some of the most critically-acclaimed British films and TV shows in recent years including The Unloved, The Arbor, Slow West, Southcliffe, McMafia, This is England ‘90, Daphne, The Virtues, The Nest, Life After Life and BAFTA-winning short The Swimmer. Most recently, she has worked on two forthcoming films: Charlotte Wells' directorial debut AFTERSUN, which is showing at this year's London Film Festival and then coming to UK cinemas via MUBI on 18th November, and I can testify it has a truly phenomenal soundtrack and Todd Field's TÁR, set within the world of classical music in which Cate Blanchett plays the first female conductor of a German orchestra.It recently premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival and is one of my most hotly anticipated films of the year. We spoke about how Lucy got her start in the music industry and then gradually discovered the role of music supervision, getting her first credit as a music supervisor on Samantha Morton's TV film THE UNLOVED, how she collaborates with directors and other HoDs to build a soundtrack, why certain songs cost more than others, how needle drops happen and what song she is particularly proud of clearing for use in a film…

Olive Nwosu is a Nigerian filmmaker, a BAFTA Pigott 2020 Scholar, an Alex Sichel Fellow at Columbia University School of the Arts, and one of four ‘African Promises' directors selected by the Institut Français. She has directed two award-winning short films: TROUBLEMAKER and EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE), both set in Nigeria and which have screened in numerous film festivals, including Sundance, the BFI London Film Festival, TIFF and the Aspen Shortsfest. The latter was also nominated for Best British Short Film at the BIFAs in 2021.  Earlier this year, Olive took part in an online edition of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and she is currently developing her first feature film with Film4.  We talk about initially studying engineering and how she discovered, and decided to pursue, filmmaking, some of the difficulties Olive has experienced in sustaining a practice and what that practice looks like. We also talking quite in-depth about Olive's short film EGÚNGÚN (MASQUERADE) and how that film came to be, what she wanted to explore, how she crafted its visual language and finding the right collaborators.  I saw that film and Olive speak on a panel at Sundance London and was immediately beguiled both by her cinematic voice and by how she spoke about the film on stage and I knew straight away I would love to have her on the podcast and the conversation we had didn't disappoint. I think Olive is a really special filmmaker and I was incredibly privileged to share this space and this moment in time with her.

My guest this week is Carmen Thompson a film programmer, curator and creative producer based in Scotland, who predominantly works with Black film and cinema from the African continent and the diaspora, especially at their intersections with non-fiction storytelling.  She currently works as cultural curator and programmer for award-winning exhibitors We Are Parable and as producer for international sales & distribution company Aya Films, where in recent years she has worked on the UK releases of acclaimed Kenyan film Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, 2018), Jamaican drama Sprinter (Storm Saulter, 2018) and Sundance award-winning This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, 2019). Aya Films also work across media education and in 2021 developed the app ‘Curate-It': an interactive course designed to help democratise film programming and increase access to curatorial learning, supported by Screen Scotland. Carmen has over 8 years' experience in film exhibition and distribution and has worked for a range of organisations including Sheffield Doc/Fest, Africa in Motion (AiM) Film Festival, Everyman Cinemas, New Black Film Collective and Film Hub Scotland. She also serves on the board of Document Human Rights Film Festival, Glasgow Film and the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). We talk about her fairly circuitous route to programming and the responsibilities or considerations that come with that role, how she approaches contextualising or reframing African cinema, finding audiences who have been historically underserved when it comes to programming, leaving behind a PhD, wading into the world of freelance work and the interrogation at the heart of her programming.  As always these interviews are recorded over Zoom so quality can vary. But I hope you enjoy our conversation.    SHOW NOTES Testimonies, We Are Parable The Ripple Effect Fund, Doc Society Watch 'The Black Cop' by Cherish Oteka Screen Scotland Watch 'We' by Alice Diop, currently showing on MUBI ICO's Guide to Programming

I spoke to Adelaide Waldrop a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy for Stage and Screen (ISS), where she trained with Lizzy Talbot and Yarit Dor (she began training in this work in 2017 with various practitioners in the UK and US). She also serves as the Secretary of the Intimacy Coordinators's Branch of BECTU and teaches Intimacy for Performance at LAMDA. Speaking of which, Adelaide graduated from LAMDA's MA in Directing programme in 2017. She has directed productions in the UK and America and is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of devised theatre company Maude. Her credits as an intimacy co-ordinator include the upcoming Netflix erotic thriller DAMAGE and upcoming ITV queer period drama THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON. Past credits include Jack Rooke's TV series BIG BOYS, Charlotte Wells' directorial debut AFTERSUN, BBC drama THEN BARBARA MET ALAN written by Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr. She is currently working on the HBO/Channel 4 series GET MILLIE BLACK by Marlon James. We talk about drama school, how directing a production of Spring Awakening at 19 provided a first taste of co-ordinating intimacy, how establishing the necessity of having an intimacy co-ordinator on certain sets was at times difficult, choreographing non-sexual intimacy such as the father-daughter relationship between Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in upcoming MUBI release and Cannes darling AFTERSUN, the kind of persona Adelaide embodies in order to do her job well, how she holds space for actors to admit discomfort and pushing the industry forward to be more representative and inclusive in its depictions of sex. The fact that there are still actors who denounce the need for safe-guarding and choreography when it comes to sex scenes or any scene of an intimate nature, I think underscores the need for these kinds of conversations and I am beyond thankful to Adelaide for having this one with me.

My guest this week is Reetu Kabra, a London-based publicist with over 15 years' experience working in house for renowned media and entertainment companies including the BBC and BBC Studios, UKTV, Discovery Networks and Penguin Random House.  During her time at BBC Worldwide she handled global publicity for the internationally acclaimed Doctor Who and Sherlock as well as other major BBC dramas including War & Peace, Luther and Wolf Hall.  In 2017, she managed the Cannes Film Festival publicity campaign for Jane Campion's Top of the Lake: China Girl.   Shortly thereafter Reetu founded her own company: RKPR, where she manages personal publicity for a number of actors and writers, as well as consulting for clients including Amazon Prime, Netflix and Apple TV+ among others. She recently worked as a unit publicist for The Essex Serpent starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston (AppleTV+/See-Saw Films) and the adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (Netflix).  We discuss many things, including how Reetu wound up working in the entertainment industry, where you begin with creating a publicity campaign and defining your audience, what exactly unit publicity is, what goes into creating behind-the-scenes featurettes such as this one for The Essex Serpent and what sets RKPR apart. Reetu was an incredibly intelligent and incisive guest and for me, this conversation served as a reminder that there really is a strategy behind publicity and how shows or even people get promoted, it's not just about putting a trailer up on YouTube and hoping for the best. There is real creativity and specificity and ambition when it comes to finding an audience for a film or TV series. 

My guest this week is Aoife McArdle, a filmmaker from Northern Ireland who you may know from her recent stint as a co-director and producer on Apple TV's Emmy-nominated series Severance.  Severance depicts a world in which people can choose to surgically divide their work and personal lives, so neither selves have any idea who they are outside of those realms. It stars Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro and Christopher Walken and it recently secured 14 Emmy Award nominations, including the first Outstanding Drama Series for Apple TV. It's truly an exceptional show, so inventive and cohesive and the storytelling is just chef's kiss. The final episode, which I won't spoil, is on another level. And so I was thrilled to speak to Aoife on the basis of that alone, but then I discovered her extensive background in directing music videos for artists like Bloc Party, Jon Hopkins, James Vincent McMorrow, Anna Calvi and U2. Her direction is consistently gorgeous and her eye for visuals outstanding. In 2017 Aoife directed her first feature Kissing Candice, about a 17-year-old girl who desperately wants to escape her small seaside town and finds solace in her imagination. More recently she directed a short film starring Cillian Murphy called All This Unreal Time, an immersive sort-of performance piece written by Max Porter - a preternaturally gifted writer - that explores themes of repentance, masculinity and environmentalism. Description of any sort won't do it justice, so I urge you to click the link in the show notes and give it a watch. We talk about how Aoife discovered filmmaking was a career and how she began to pave her way into it, her creative process when directing music videos, the learning curve that was her directorial debut, adapting to the environments you're shooting in and working with what's available, and of course, her experience on Severance, working with a very talented ensemble cast and in tandem with Ben Stiller and what she's working on now…

I've got a Friday treat for you in the form of this bonus minisode with documentary filmmaker and producer Sara Dosa, whose latest project FIRE OF LOVE is in UK cinemas today. Find showtimes near you! This explosive and intimate and eccentric documentary tells the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft, French volcanologists who were also a married couple. For two decades they roamed the planet, chasing eruptions and documenting their discoveries and in doing so, left behind a legacy that enhanced our knowledge of the natural world. Sara and the filmmaking team have crafted a lyrical and curious celebration of the intrepid scientists' spirit of adventure, drawing from the Kraffts' spectacular archive and imbuing their story with a freshness and ferocity that sizzles on the screen.  Sara has also directed an Emmy-nominated episode of the Netflix music docuseries REMASTERED about Johnny Cash's 1970 concert for Richard Nixon; and premiered her third feature as a director THE SEER & THE UNSEEN at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival. As a documentary producer, she recently produced the Peabody and Emmy nominated SURVIVORS about Ebola in Sierra Leone (2018 IDFA / POV); co-produced AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (2017 Sundance / Paramount) and THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY (2019 Sundance / Netflix); and, produced Peabody award-winning AUDRIE & DAISY (2016 Sundance / Netflix Originals).  We talk about how she got her start in filmmaking, alongside studying anthropology and how her interest in human behaviour continues to inform her practice, as well as what led to her to directing FIRE OF LOVE, how she came to involve Miranda July and why Agnes Varda was a key inspiration. 

My guest this week is Make-up and Hair Designer Claire Anne Williams. Claire left a career as a legal secretary to train at the Delamar Academy before being accepted onto a ScreenSkills traineeship where she worked on big-budget productions such as Solo: A Star Wars Story and Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil. After working on shorts, commercials and music promos, Claire received her first head of department credit working on Neil Maskell's Klokkenluider and recently worked as Make-Up and Hair Crowd Supervisor on The Kitchen, co-written and produced by Daniel Kaluuya. In 2021 Claire was recognised as a ScreenDaily Star of Tomorrow and she is represented by Lucy Price at Loop Talent.  We talk about quitting a satisfying career to pursue her dreams, the hardships of being a trainee later in life, the benefits of having an agent, how she creates a sanctuary for actors, as well as going into the craft of creating things like sweat and wounds and keeping spray tan consistent across weeks of shooting.  Claire was a really fun interviewee and it was great to expand my own understanding of how myriad make-up designing can be. It's not just about eyeliner and lipstick.  This episode 114 of Best Girl Grip.

I am thrilled to say that my guest this week is Jessica Kiang.  Jessica is an International Critic for Variety, covering all the major European and Asian festivals. She also writes for Sight & Sound, BBC Culture, The New York Times and The Playlist, where she also spent five years as Features Editor. She also regularly features on the Film Comment podcast, which if you like film and discussion and why would you be here otherwise, I highly recommend. Jessica mentions some of the pieces of writing of which she is proudest in the interview, including her New York Times review of Christopher Nolan's Tenet and her essay for the Criterion release of David Cronenberg's Crash, which I urge to you to check out but there are very few and perhaps none of her reviews where I haven't marvelled at her perceptiveness and agility. There is a line towards the end of her Sight & Sound review of The Worst Person in the World where I actually stopped and clapped when I read it. Which is all to say this was rather a joyous occasion, to be able to sit down with Jessica and probe her writing process and how she configures her reviews and what she keeps in mind she writing them.  We talk about how she transitioned from a career in advertising to writing about film full-time, her tips for aspiring film critics, managing relationships with editors and other writers the she looks to for inspiration. I was really honoured to have Jessica as a guest and I don't think our conversation disappoints. This episode 113 of Best Girl Grip.

This week my guest is Sheena Patel, an assistant director for Film and TV. Her credits as a 1st AD include Casualty and Dominic Savage's upcoming series I Am Ruth. She has also 3rd Assistant Directed on feature films such as Boxing Day and Pirates, as well as series like I Hate Suzie and Apple Tree House, and she is represented by Sara Putt Associates. Sheena is also an author and a co-founding member of the poetry collective 4 Brown Girls Who Write and part of the reason I invited her on for this season is that she has just published her debut novel, I'm A Fan, of which many people are. It's getting rave reviews and Sheena was listed in The Observer's 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2022. I'm A Fan is published by Rough Trade Books and uses the voice of a single speaker to explore an unfaithful relationship and the power struggle within that, as well as how this connects with the wider world and our cultural obsession with status. Desiree Akhavan has called it hilarious, heartbreaking and sickening and you can get a copy via the Rough Trade website.  When I was preparing to talk to Sheena I figured that the conversation would be divided into two parts, but of course when someone's passions co-exist in the way they do with Sheena, some overlap is to be expected and we sort of oscillate between the two and find some surprising comparisons between being an assistant director and being a writer or performer.  We talk about perseverance and how Sheena came to the television industry relatively late, how she establishes a sense of authority, collaboration and harmony on the floor and bluffing your way through imposter syndrome, as well as how and when she wrote her novel, what the process of finishing it and releasing it has been like and why she just wrote wherever her brain went. It was a really fun and also chill chat. I think Sheena really embodies that sense of harmony and calm that maybe she presents when she's AD'ing and yeah I came away from it thinking what a lovely way to have spent an hour of my Saturday morning. I think we're lucky to have someone like Sheena in our film and TV industry and likewise, lucky to have her as a powerful and critical voice in and of our culture, so I feel very privileged to have had her on the podcast. This is episode 112 of Best Girl Grip.   

To kick off season six, I'm sharing a live edition that I recorded recently at Sundance London - an offshoot of the Sundance Film Festival that takes place every January in Utah - with the legend that is Tabitha Jackson, the outgoing Director of the Sundance Film Festival. Tabitha was announced as the new Festival Director in January 2020,  meaning that her first two festivals had to deal with the ramifications of Covid-19, as well as a reckoning around racial justice.  Her appointment came off the back of seven years as the Director of the Institute's Documentary Film Program. Tabitha has over 20 years experience in the documentary and non-fiction field, having served as Commissioning Editor of Arts at Channel 4, as well as the Editor of More4 where she ran the day-to-day operations for the UK's sixth largest digital channel including running the two key areas of original programming True Stories and More 4 Arts.  Of her commitment to the continuation of Sundance's values, Tabitha has said “By fiercely holding space for independent perspectives and media created outside the mainstream market, we as a community can spark new narratives, protect bold critiques of power, and deepen our understanding of what is possible. It has never been more essential.”  Our conversation kicked off the 4-day industry programme and it was a really special moment, not just to share a stage with someone who I have greatly admired for a while now and who brings such grace and courage and clarity to her work, but to do something like this in association with Sundance London. Sundance is a festival I have LOVED for well over a decade. I have long combed their programme and made lists of all things I want to watch when they get a UK release and so it was a real privilege to get an insight into the ambitions and considerations behind that festival and that organisation via Tabitha. As ever, I hope you get something from this chat.  This is episode 111 of Best Girl Grip.

I lied and said that last week was the last episode for a while and then I got a very exciting email about interviewing this week's guest and here we are. That is guest is New York based cinematographer Ashley Connor, someone whose work I have been a big fan of for quite some time. She has lensed some of my favourite independent films, including Tramps, First Match and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, and is a regular collaborator with Josephine Decker, having shot Butter on the Latch, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and Madeline's Madeline.  Ashley has also shot music videos for Angel Olsen, Beach House and MGMT, plus worked on TV shows like Broad City, Ramy and High Maintenance, so I think it's safe to say that Ashley is probably the coolest DP working today, and certainly someone whose work I am just always in awe of. She came on the podcast to talk about her career thus far, but also shooting a new movie called True Things, directed by Harry Wootliff, who was on the podcast many, many episodes ago talking about her directorial debut Only You. True Things is her second feature and stars Ruth Wilson as a dissatisfied woman who gets into a passionate and slightly toxic relationship with Tom Burke and must sort of find her way back to herself. I think it's a fearless and visceral and feverish piece of cinema about female sexuality and desire, and I think Harry is fast becoming one of our most exciting filmmakers in the UK and I think Ashley's cinematography - which has always been very muscular and balletic and dynamic - is a perfect match for depicting this tempestuous relationship. We also talk about how Ashley got her start in indie films, as well as the work she did to support herself, how she has developed this movement and emotion-based cinematography practice, shooting sex scenes and finding a new language for the depiction of women's pleasure, working with and responding to actors, and why cinematography is often like being another actor in the room, working with Lena Dunham on her latest film, Sharp Stick, as well as power structures on film sets and how Ashley prioritises radical vulnerability to change that dynamic. It was a really special conversation. I think Ashley is a very talented artist and filmmaker and proved also to be a very genuine and compassionate person and just someone I think we're very lucky to have making movies and putting women's feelings and desires at the forefront of cinema.  True Things is out in UK cinemas now. If you go to www.truethings.film you can find showings near you and I highly recommend that you do. This is episode 110 of Best Girl Grip. 

I am very excited to introduce this week's guest, as she is both a friend of the podcast and a someone I consider to be a friend full stop.  And that person is Katie Sinclair.  Katie is an independent producer and development executive, currently working at Blueprint Pictures, whose credits include Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, In Bruges, The Last Letter From Your Lover, The Riot Club and Emma, where she sources and develops projects for the production company's slate. She has worked in production and development for BBC Film, BBC Studios, Disney and Lionsgate. As producer, Katie recently completed The Last Days (wri/dir. Dipo Baruwa-Etti) which was filmed during the pandemic and was funded by BFI NETWORK and BBC Drama commissioning, while her previous short film Signs (wri/dir Yero Timi-Biu) won the Youth Jury Prize at the Academy Award-qualifying Encounters Film Festival. She produces under the banner Tannahill Productions and is committed to developing and championing new talent.  We talk about how she pursued a career in development, what she learnt from working at BBC Film, our shared love of the Anna Paquin film Fly Away Home, why relationships are the key to pretty much everything, how she has built her confidence in her taste and opinion, the difference between working in development for a production company as opposed to a public funder, the art of giving feedback and why the key is asking questions rather than supplying solutions and her producing ethic and storytelling sensibilities and why it comes down to empathy and care.  Enjoy!

My guest this week is Renee Zhan, a Chinese-American director and animator from Houston, Texas now based in London. She graduated from Harvard University in 2016 with a BA in visual and environmental studies and the National Film and Television School in 2020 with a degree in Directing Animation. Her short films, which include 2016's Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw), 2018's Reneepotosis, 2020's O Black Hole and 2021's Soft Animals have screened and won awards internationally including Locarno TIFF, and the Jury Prize for Best Animated Short at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.  We talk about her path into the world of animation, how she started making films and why she gravitated towards the more tactile techniques displayed in her work. We also discuss why animation can sometimes be lonely and how she has evolved her process along the way.  It was a treat to chat to Renee, I think her filmmaking style is really special and beguiling and so I urge to seek out her short films if you haven't already seen them. I've popped some links to that which is available online in the show notes.  This is episode 108 of Best Girl Grip.   Show Notes Make sure to check out Renee's commercial work with Blinkink. Watch Reneepoptosis here. 

This week my guest is Chi Thai, an independent filmmaker & producer who works across features, documentary, animation & immersive. She has produced over 13 short films, been a Cannes Lion finalist three times, had her work screened at BAFTA & Academy accredited festivals, and exec produced the documentary short Little Miss Sumo, written & directed by Matt Kay, which you can currently watch on Netflix. Chi is also an alumnus of the Guiding Lights scheme and NETWORK@LFF and a ScreenDaily Star of Tomorrow. Her production company Last Conker is also a recipient of the BFI Vision Award and she is currently producing BIFA nominated writer-director Paris Zarcilla's debut feature Raging Grace.  We talk about how Chi ‘blagged' her way into film school (her words not mine), how she has gained confidence as a producer, the ethos and mission behind her production company Last Conker and how the climate crisis and her ambition to work with storytellers from the East & South East Asian diaspora, spearheads her producing and advocacy work.   We also discuss not getting the BFI Vision Award the first time she applied, what the money has allowed her to do when she was awarded it and why she chose to invest the money in a variety of initiatives and how she's working towards dismantling the structures that marginalise underrepresented groups in the film industry.  I hope you enjoy our chat. Chi is someone who has a lot of experience and very clear sense I think of what needs to change in the film industry and how she can help effect that, so it was definitely a galvanising conversation and I was really delighted to be able to speak with her. 

This week's interview is with Lizzie Gillet, the Director of the Feature Documentary Department at Passion Pictures, whose credits include the Oscar-winning SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN, Bart Layton's THE IMPOSTER, James Marsh' PROJECT NIM and more recently THE RESCUE.  Lizzie recently produced THE TERRITORY, a feature documentary co-produced with an Indigenous community in Brazil about their fight to protect their ancestral land in the Amazon rainforest, which the World Cinema Documentary Award at this year's Sundance. Lizzie also produced LADY BOSS, a feature documentary directed by Laura Fairrie about trailblazing life of novelist Jackie Collins.  We talk about her first foray into producing feature docs by making the climate change documentary THE AGE OF STUPID and how that led to the 10:10 global campaign to cut carbon emissions, how crowdfunding played a big part in financing that film before crowdfunding was a thing and whether she felt any pressure to replicate the success of that. We also discuss how she arrived at Passion Pictures, what she's responsible for and what it means to direct a department, supporting the filmmakers she works with and what she's learnt along the way.  Lizzie was brilliant interviewee and someone I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with, so I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation. 

My guest is Aisha Bywaters, a BIFA-nominated casting director whose credits include independent films such as Body of Water, County Lines, The Last Tree, Dirty God and Mari, as well as the TV series Enterprice and We Are Lady Parts. Most recently, Aisha cast the upcoming TV series adaptation of Dolly Alderton's memoir Everything I Know About Love, the process for which we talked about a little bit.  We also discussed Aisha background in theatre, learning the film industry ropes at Shaheen Baig casting, branching out on her own and learning how to put herself out there and also what is she's looking for in audition and trusting her gut instinct when it comes to casting decisions.  I always enjoy chatting about casting because it's such an integral yet still strangely invisible part of making a film and although there has been much more recognition for the work that casting directors do over the past couple of years, I still think there are so many nuances and elements of the role that we (myself included) don't necessarily grasp. So it was a real privilege to spend some time with Aisha and hear about her perspective on what she does and how she does it.

My guest this week is Ruth Greenberg, an award-winning screenwriter and director whose directorial debut RUN, a short film starring Niamh Algar from CENSOR, is currently showing on Short of the Week. The film was backed by Film4 and BFI NETWORK and was long listed for a BIFA in 2021.  As a screenwriter, Ruth's prehistoric horror, THE ORIGIN, is in post-production with Escape Plan Productions - the company who made SAINT MAUD and she's also working on a medieval horror with director Nora Fingscheidt (SYSTEM CRASHER, THE UNFORGIVABLE) and producer Philippa Tsang at DCM. Ruth and I had a great chat about completing a PhD in screenwriting, getting an agent and what that relationship is like, how she prepared to direct RUN and collaborated with director of photography and former podcast guest Molly Manning Walker to achieve the subjectivity and kineticism required of the story, what a writing day might look like for her, how she likes to situates herself in the setting or place of a story and how she deals with rejection.  I think there are some really vital thoughts that Ruth expresses on writing genre and writing in general, and not being hemmed in by how you ought to write.  **TW: discussions of assault** There are few housekeeping notes before we get to the interview. The first of those is that there is mild discussion of violence against women in the context of Ruth's short film Run and we mention the death of Sarah Everard, so if for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable listening to that, feel free to skip the episode or rejoin us around the 20-min mark. The other thing to say in relation to that film is that it's on Short of the Week and to coincide with that launch, Ruth its raising money via JustGiving for Woman's Trust who provide mental health and support services to women affected by domestic abuse. I've linked to that page in the show notes, so if you'd like to donate, you can do so there. And I would obviously also recommend watching Ruth's very powerful short film. This was recorded via zoom and there are occasional background noises, but otherwise I hope you enjoy this conversation. This episode 104 of Best Girl Grip.

My guest this week is Elhum Shakerifar, a BAFTA nominated producer and winner of the 2017 Women in Film & TV's BBC Factual Award and one of Screen International's 2018 #Brit50 Producers on the Rise. Elhum's multi-award-winning credits include The Reluctant Revolutionary (Sean McAllister, 2012), The Runner (Saeed Farouky, 2013), multi-award-winning A Syrian Love Story (Sean McAllister, 2015), Even When I Fall (Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon, 2017), BIFA winner for Best Documentary, Almost Heaven (Carol Salter, 2017), ISLAND (Steven Eastwood, 2017), Of Love & Law (Hikaru Toda, 2017) and Ayouni (Yasmin Fedda 2020). Her work has been broadcast internationally and screened at festivals including Berlinale, IDFA, Rotterdam and CPH:DOX. Elhum was also a recipient of the 2016 BFI Vision Award. I was both excited and nervous to speak to Elhum because she has produced a body of work that is interrogative and curious and empathic and I wanted to come to the conversation with that same energy, knowing that we would likely cover some complex topics. And we did, we spoke about the vulnerabilities and ethical considerations inherent to making documentary, how she prioritises relationships and intentionality as opposed to access, what a greater level of respect for documentary filmmaking would look like, why and how she distributes her own films through her company Hakawati and also how she persists, to keep telling stories that are meaningful and difficult and heartfelt.  It was a really gratifying conversation and one that I'm really glad to have had, so I hope you enjoy it just as much. 

This week's guests are Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth!  Hen and Jess are screenwriters, directors and twin sisters. Having penned their first script at 15, they went onto write OLIVIA AND JIM which came third on the Brit List in 2011. In 2012, at the age of 24 they were featured on ScreenDaily's prestigious Stars of Tomorrow list and began writing on TV shows such as FRESH MEAT, DIXI and KILLING EVE.. In 2018 their BFI-backed debut feature as screenwriters - TELL IT TO THE BEES, starring Holliday Grainger and Anna Paquin - premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and they currently have two other adaptations in the works, alongside a TV series for Amazon. Meanwhile Hen and Jess have branched out into directing and their short film NIGHT BUS, a supernatural horror starring Susan Wokoma is now available to watch on Short of the Week. They are also working with Helen Gladders (who produced NIGHT BUS) on developing their directorial debut. I had a blast chatting with Hen and Jess who are both very smart and funny and have lots of wise things to share about their experiences as screenwriters since arriving in the industry almost a decade ago. I think the thing that struck me most about our conversation was not only how willing they were to talk about some of the difficulties or disappointments inherent to being a writer, but also how they could frame that in a way that is helpful to other aspiring writers and filmmakers and so I think this conversation is fully of really good nuggets about breaking stories and figuring out characters and moving between or on from projects, as well as what it's like to write in service of another person's vision as opposed to being in service of your own imagination.   I highly recommend that you check out NIGHT BUS and also watch this space for many more exciting projects penned and or helmed by Hen and Jess.

My guest this week is Sandra Hebron, the Head of Screen Arts at the National Film and Television School where she leads the course for the MA in Film Studies, Programming and Curation. Previously Sandra was Head of Festivals and the Artistic Director of the BFI London Film Festival and Director of Cinemas at Manchester's Cornerhouse. She is also a qualified Psychotherapist with a counselling business.  We spoke about how she got her start in film exhibition, her time as artistic director of the LFF and what direction she hoped to push it in. In doing so, we touch on ideas of cultural renewal and not staying in positions of power for too long. We talk about curatorial ethics, mentorship and also how her psychotherapy training plays into how she works in the world of film. I got a lot out of speaking with Sandra. I cut it out of the final edit, but there was a moment where I had to check it was ok to run over our allotted time and confessed to having a really good time and I think that was a combination of Sandra's honesty, the perspective and consideration she gave to the questions and the interrogation too and it was just a very invigorating interview, so I hope you have as good a time with it as I did. This is episode 101 of Best Girl Grip. 

My guest this week is Rose Garnett, the Director of BBC Film. Since joining the BBC in 2017, Rose has commissioned and Executive Produced a wide range of titles including… Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR and THE SOUVENIR: PART II Eliza Hittman's NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS Sean Durkin's THE NEST Steve McQueen's SMALL AXE Jane Campion's THE POWER OF THE DOG Debbie Tucker Green's EAR FOR EYE ...among many others and is passionate about backing new and emerging filmmakers. Rose was also an EP on BBC Three's smash hit adaptation of Sally Rooney's NORMAL PEOPLE, produced by Element Pictures. After graduating from Cambridge University, Rose worked in theatre before freelancing as a script editor and producer. Then she joined Film4 where she would become Head of Creative. Whilst there, Rose developed and executive produced an array of recent successful UK films, including Yorgos Lanthimos's THE FAVOURITE, Martin McDonagh's THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI, Steve McQueen's WIDOWS, Lenny Abrahamson's ROOM, Lynne Ramsay's YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE and Andrea Arnold's AMERICAN HONEY. It was an immense pleasure to talk to Rose about a surfeit of topics, from how theatre prepared her for a career in film, what she learned working at Film4, what it means to be a director of a public funder and the considerations that come into play in making that organisation accountable, accessible, inclusive and supportive to what success look like and how she and the BBC Film team back filmmakers. Unsurprisingly, Rose had a lot of wisdom that she was generous enough to share and I know that this is an interview I will be returning to time and time again.  Please note that this was recorded remotely over Zoom and there are some occasional audio glitches.  This is episode 100 of Best Girl Grip. 

It's been a weird week, with Omicron taking hold and trying to feel festive but also feeling quite apprehensive. So I hope you're surviving, which has definitely been the overarching theme for 2021. And as always I hope this podcast brings a little bit of light into your week. It's an appropriate segue to introduce my guest - filmmaker Sophie Littman - whose short film Sudden Light was selected for competition at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival 2020 and was nominated for a BIFA that same year. Her latest short film Know the Grass screened at the BFI London Film Festival in October and was long listed for Best British Short at this year's BIFAs. It's also playing in competition at the upcoming London Short Film Festival and you can buy tickets for that right now at shortfilms.org.uk.  Sophie has a background in Fine Art and graduated from the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, which is where she got her start making experimental video work.  We chat about what that label ‘experimental' means to her, how she honed her voice as a filmmaker and we go deep on creative process, as Sophie enlightens me on this idea of horizontal versus vertical work which I thought was brilliant. We also talk about getting an agent and being named a ScreenDaily Star of Tomorrow earlier this year.  A quick housekeeping note - this was recorded over Zoom and occasionally it sounds like it - but I hope you enjoy our conversation regardless. This is episode 99 of Best Girl Grip. 

My guest this week is Akua Gyamfi who has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry, with a career spanning fashion, film, television, theatre, print and online media. Starting out behind the scenes, Akua carved out a reputable career as a hair stylist on London's Portobello Road. Her hairdressing reputation lead to her first foray into the entertainment world with a hair CV which includes work for magazines Vogue, Disorder, BOLZ, and i-D. Since 2010 she has been a part of the Paul Hanlon hair team during both London and Paris fashion weeks for Matthew Williamson, Topshop Unique, Jonathan Saunders, Giles and more. She also worked on set for various music videos and British gangster film Rollin' With the Nines. After leaving a full-time career in hairstyling, Akua studied journalism at London College of Communications (formerly London College of Printing) and her career as a freelance journalist took off. Akua worked at renowned underground music digital TV station Channel AKA (formerly known as Channel U). Then moved to the BBC where she worked at their Performing Arts Fund, BBC Writersroom and then BBC R&D. In 2010 Akua worked with director Mark 1 to co-write, and produce anti-knife and gun crime short film, After Effects. During this time, Gyamfi gained valuable insight into the machinations of script writing and turned those skills into becoming a script consultant for new screenwriters & playwrights. In 2012, Akua launched multi-award winning platform The British Blacklist, a media outlet for BAME entertainment professionals.  The British Blacklist is a media brand respected throughout the industry for its dedication to news of British black professionals in screen, stage, sound, and literature and its database documenting and championing their achievements in a way that hasn't been done before. Akua is also a sought-after commentator regularly speaking on news outlets. She is on the board of The New Black Film Collective and is a regular collaborator with We Are Parable. Akua is also a regular chair for screenings and panel discussions hosted by BAFTA and the BFI. So there was a lot to talk about! We also cover what success means to Akua, if there's anything she would do differently, what it actually means to be a founder and what keeps her creatively energised. I really appreciated Akua's transparency and straight-forwardness, and I think there are definitely some wisdoms to be gleaned. So here is that interview…

My guest this week is a wonderful woman and friend: Nia Childs.  Nia is a freelance creative producer and curator working in both the fiction and documentary space. She's produced, curated and programmed projects for Doc Society, BAFTA, Sheffield Doc/Fest, the London Short Film Festival and The Roundhouse. More recently, she has begun to write and direct her own films, with her debut short The Other End premiering at the BFI London Film Festival earlier this year. We spoke about a myriad of things, including managing your finances as a freelancer, making a short film in lockdown, crowdfunding and finding a producer. We also touch on storytelling about crime, climate and class and why people should watch more short films. As well how Nia overcame anxiety around bad on-set experiences to create a fun and safe atmosphere on her own set. I want to thank Nia for her candour about her finances and some of her fears about her transition to filmmaking. I genuinely think it's going to be a crucial listen for any fellow freelance creatives.

Siobhán Harper-Ryan is a Hair & Make-Up Designer who started out as an apprentice in fashion design & millinery in London's Camden Lock, before exploring the world of theatre in the 90s where she found a place within London's Off West-End and the Fringe. In 1999 Siobhán changed course and trained in make-up artistry and has since enjoyed a varied & colourful career, working on a range of TV and film projects. Recently she worked on Sky Atlantic's series I Hate Suzie, as well as Joanna Hogg's films The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II. The latter for which she just earned a BIFA nomination. She also worked on Joanna's next film The Eternal Daughter, and Peter Strickland's upcoming film Flux Gourmet.  This is my first time chatting to a make-up designer on Best Girl Grip, so as well as chatting about Siobhán's route into make-up artistry, we also go back to basics, discussing how she decides what make-up to use, what goes into creating onscreen looks, particularly for subtle period dramas like The Souvenir and how she establishes a rapport with the actors. We also talk about neurodivergence in the film industry, building confidence and taking time for yourself on the hubbub of a film set.  I hope you enjoy listening to our chat. Make sure to catch The Souvenir Part II when it's released in cinemas on 21st January next year. This is episode 96 of Best Girl Grip.

This week's interview was a real treat to record. Sam Joly, my guest, radiates joy and positivity, but what I got from this chat is the sense that that's a choice and one that sometimes takes work and so I hope you come away from it with a smile, but also a sense of how you can celebrate your personal achievements and maybe make that choice too. Sam is Head of Marketing and Publicity at the film and television production house See-Saw Films. These are the folks that made The King's Speech, Lion, Widows, Macbeth, Ammonite, Slow West, Top of the Lake, State of the Union and more recently Jane Campion's ferocious gothic Western The Power of the Dog and Andrew Haigh's riveting TV series The North Water.  Sam started her career in documentary television before joining See-Saw in 2011 where she worked her way up from assistant.  We spoke about many things to do with marketing such as poster design, creating trailers, what good publicity actually looks like and how involved directors are, as well as several more broad topics such as mental health on film sets, how you can better value and advocate for yourself, and that time Sam produced a Steve McQueen-directed music video for Kanye West… This is episode 95 of Best Girl Grip.   Show notes Watch Sam's film recommendation Little Woods or Crossing The Line by Nia DaCosta on Amazon Prime.

I'm here today with a bonus minisode with two-time Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus to celebrate the release of her latest documentary Becoming Cousteau. If you listened to last Tuesday's interview with Anna Godas, CEO of Dogwoof, you'll have heard me mention the film. Well it's out in UK cinemas today and all puns intended, I think you'll have a whale of a time.  For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet's vulnerability. In Becoming Cousteau, from National Geographic Documentary Films, Liz takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century's most unique and renowned environmental voice.  It's a documentary that reinstates or reframes Cousteau as a revolutionary, as well as a father and filmmaker, and I'm quoting the New York Times here “succeeds in restoring some of Cousteau's luster, and also his relevance. It's a swift-moving, detailed biography, recounting a life that was long, eventful and stippled with tragedy and regret.”  It's awe-inspiring, heartbreaking, energetic and emotional filmmaking, and at 93 minutes long, should definitely be high up on your watchlist this weekend.  Liz Garbus is one of America's most celebrated documentary filmmakers. She has received three Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, two Academy Award nominations, and a Grammy Award nomination for her body of work, which includes The Farm: Angola, USA; What Happened, Miss Simone?; Bobby Fischer Against the World; Nothing Left Unsaid; There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane; The Fourth Estate; among others. In 2020 she turned her hand to narrative filmmaking and directed Lost Girls which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently available to watch on Netflix.  We talk about why she was compelled to make this film about Cousteau, how she imbued the documentary with his own adventurous spirit, how she crafted his story through over 550 hours of archive material and the different muscles you have to flex working on fiction as opposed to non-fiction. It's a brief but buoyant conversation, and I was thrilled to have the chance to speak with Liz about her wonderful film.   Discover which venues near you are showing the film. 

My guest this week is Anna Godas, the CEO of documentary distribution company Dogwoof, who have released films such as The Alpinist, The Act of Killing, Blackfish, Cameraperson, Citizenfour, Free Solo, Honeyland, Minding the Gap, OJ:Made in America, RBG and many many more. Quite simply, if Dogwoof are putting a doc into cinemas, you're probably in for a treat. Their latest film is Becoming Cousteau, directed by Liz Garbus which is released this Friday and provides an inside look at the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and the experiences that made him the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth. Anna has steered the company from a small UK indie film distributor to a leading global brand in the field of documentary and was directly responsible for the creation of Dogwoof's international sales arm, as well as the creation of Dogwoof's fund T-Dog Productions. Anna is now focusing on growing Dogwoof's production and development side, focusing on feature docs, doc series, remake rights, podcast and shorter content. Her mission is to create a fully integrated true stories mini-studio.  We talk about the origin story of Dogwoof, as well as how her role as evolved over the years and since becoming a mother. We discuss how she strives to create an open, transparent and healthy working culture, how the documentary landscape is changing and why, and why you can't really plan for the future.  It was a joy to speak to Anna and hope you enjoy this insight into one of the most prolific distributors out there.  This is episode 94 of Best Girl Grip.

Hello! Welcome to Season Five of Best Girl Grip.    This week my guest is Jemma Desai. I first encountered Jemma at an event hosted by The Quarter Club, which was co-founded by former podcast guest Jo Duncombe, where Jemma was reading a letter she had written to her daughter Leena which evolved into a TinyLetter for a while. And then I kept encountering Jemma's name and work in various iterations and I was always struck by how thoughtful and rigorous and I guess, unconventional it was. And then in 2020 I read Jemma's research paper 'This Work Isn't For Us', which considers how arts institutions and cultural policy - particularly initiatives towards inclusion - have treated, or mistreated the Black and Brown people they seek to include. And I've never read anything like it. It's a significant piece of work in so many ways and I knew then that I wanted to speak to Jemma about it, and so I'm really glad that she agreed to come on the podcast and talk about all manner of things, including that.    In terms of a professional work biography, Jemma is is a writer, researcher and curator based in London, currently completing a PhD on practices of freedom in the arts. Most recently she was Head of Programming at the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival and she has also held positions at the BFI London Film Festival, British Council and Independent Cinema Office. She is also the founder of a curatorial initiative called I Am Dora and is a fellow of the Clore Leadership programme.    We talk about a myriad of things including her role as programmer and her ambivalence around that label, community, colonialism, the need to redefine or abolish the idea of linear progression, what leadership means to her, and why she hopes it will be dismantled, the issues at the heart of campaigns like #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite, how to structurally enable care, out of office emails, embracing possibility and joy and much much more.    I see this podcast episode as being, hopefully, a bit of an antidote to feeling like you don't belong in the film industry, or feeling like your career doesn't make sense or isn't one thing. I think it's a really expansive and generous conversation and as you'll hear in the intro it was actually our second recording, so I'm really grateful to Jemma for sitting down me with me on two occasions and having what I see as being a bit of an eye-opening or mind-expanding discussion.   SHOW NOTES Jemma's Work Follow Jemma on Twitter Jemma's linktree  Notes on Programming Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2021 An interview with Matt Turner for Sentient Art Film which goes into more depth on Jemma's programming collective 'I Am Dora' and also tells a slightly more expanded 'career story'.  'This Work Isn't For Us' The video piece Jemma created as a reflection on making and disseminating 'This Work Isn't For Us'.  A Letter to Leena about care Things Jemma talks about in the podcast Activist collective Resist + Renew Jordan Lorde's 'Shared Resources' Ryan Coogler on rejecting his invasion to join the Academy  The White Pube Healing Justice London The bare minimum collective's manifesto Jemma's book & film recommendations 'Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power' - Lola Olufemi Picture books written by Toni Morrison and her son Slade that Jemma is reading with her own daughter 'Me, Not You: the trouble with mainstream feminism' - Alison Phipps Merata: How Mum Decolonised The Screen, a documentary about trailblazing Maori filmmaker Merata Miti currently on Netflix   

This week I am back with the third instalment of my bonus trilogy and my guest is the incredibly talented, incredibly charming Cathy Brady! Cathy is a two-time IFTA-winning director, having won Best Short in 2011 for her first film Small Change and again in 2013 for Morning. In 2011, Cathy directed the BIFA nominated short Rough Skin, starring Vicky McClure, and in 2013, Cathy was named one of Screen Daily's ‘Stars of Tomorrow'. In 2014, Cathy directed on the BAFTA-nominated drama-thriller series Glue. More recently, Cathy directed Stefanie Preissner's TV comedy series Can't Cope/Won't Cope.  Wildfire, her debut feature film which we're here to talk about, alongside how her career led to this moment, is released in UK cinemas tomorrow (on Friday 3 September).  Cathy's film tells the story of inseparable sisters - Lauren and Kelly - raised in a small town on the Irish border, but whose lives are shattered by the mysterious death of their mother. Lauren is left to pick up the pieces after Kelly abruptly disappears, but when she returns home after being reported missing for a whole year, their intense sisterhood is reunited.  I saw the film at LFF last year and it was haunting and poignant and spectral and definitely had this spiky, fiery quality to it. It's also lensed by Crystel Fournier who has worked on lots of Celine Sciamma's movies, including Girlhood and Tomboy.  Anyway, this chat was lovely and I could spend many hours talking to Cathy. We cover her time at the NFTS, how she hustled to get directing work upon graduation, the experience of making Wildfire and then the difficulty of releasing it during a pandemic and whilst grieving the death of one it's lead actresses Nika McGuigan.  I definitely urge you to support this film in cinemas, but in the meantime, enjoy our conversation. This is episode 92 of Best Girl Grip.

Today I'm sharing another in-between season bonus episode that I recorded live as part of the BFI's Woman With a Movie Camera Summit in July. My guest was Molly Manning Walker, a cinematographer, writer and director.  Molly trained as a cinematographer and graduated from NFTS in 2019, after which her graduation film November 1st was long-listed for a BAFTA. As a DP, she works across a variety of formats including documentary, fiction and advertising, and she has just finished shooting her first TV series, Superhoe, written by Nicole Lecky and directed by Dawn Shadforth and she is in prep for Scrapper directed by Charlotte Regan.  Molly's debut writing and directing project was the short film Good Thanks, You? which premiered at the Semaine De La Critique program at the Cannes Film Festival. Her follow up short film, conceived and created during the pandemic, The Forgotten C, was BIFA Nominated. Meanwhile, her debut feature film How To Have Sex is currently in development with Film4 and Molly was recently awarded the Next Step Prize at Cannes.  I thought it was a quite a no-bullshit conversation - Molly is quite young, and to mind, very successful and on a very exciting trajectory, but she made it very clear that has only been achieved through a very strong work ethic. Listening back to it for the edit I think it's full of quite practical advice and we talk about how limitations can be creatively useful, what support looks like on-set and how counselling and intimacy co-ordination were crucial to the making of Molly's short film Good Thanks, You? As well as discussing Molly's transition from shooting to directing, why she makes a habit of only using one light and what she considers to be the biggest learning curve of her career so far.  I hope you enjoy listening to it!  

I'm back! Not with a brand new season - just yet - but with a triple-bill of bonus episodes that I recorded a couple of months ago either for live events or to tie-in with a film release. The first in this series is with the immensely talented, and very down-to-earth writer-director Prano Bailey-Bond. Prano grew up in Wales on a diet of Twin Peaks before becoming an editor and then award-winning music video director. Her narrative short films have screened at festivals worldwide and earned her critical acclaim, including being named a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow' in 2018.  Her debut feature film, Censor, had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival opening the festival's Midnight section and will be released in UK cinemas this Friday.  Censor is set in Britain in 1985 and follows a film censor called Enid, played by BAFTA-nominated actress Niamh Algar, as she discovers an eerie horror that speaks directly to her sister's mysterious disappearance. She then resolves to unravel the puzzle behind the film and its enigmatic director – a quest that will blur the lines between fiction and reality in terrifying ways. Which sounds suitably nerve-shredding… I actually saw the film last week and its disturbing and hallucinogenic and suitably nasty, and that's all I'm going to say because it's probably best you go in with minimal info.  Prano and I discuss many things: how she discovered directing was her calling, the conditions she prefers in order to write, how she prepares for a shoot, how she communicates with and directs actors, how she established a common visual language with DP Annika Summerson and what it's been like releasing a horror film amidst a ‘women-directing-genre-films' boom.  It was a really lovely conversation, I'm a big fan of Prano's and the film's so I highly recommend you book a ticket immediately after listening to the podcast.