It has been just over a year since I last went to the cinema. Stranded in Glasgow on a Monday afternoon after Storm Dennis cancelled my flight home, I clambered up the endless escalators at the Cineworld on Renfrew Street and watched JoJo Rabbit with an elderly man, a mother with a young daughter and five surprisingly non-rowdy teenage boys for company.
Since then, there have been set shutdowns, cinema closures, re-scheduled releases, endless delays and redundancies, but throughout the pandemic, it has been the film industry that has provided many people with comfort, a cure for boredom and a refuge from uncertainty.
From the naivety of the Tiger King binge-watch in the early days of lockdown, the obligatory play of every Marvel film in chronological order and the joy of experiencing Tenet with the aid of subtitles and the pause button, movies and shows have been firmly at the centre of our lives at home.
And while escapism has definitely been on the agenda, the last year also witnessed a rise in engagement for social change films and documentaries, with laptop and smart TV users alike looking to use their newfound time to connect to real stories which speak to our past, our present and question what’s to come in the future.
I spoke to filmmakers SARAH GAVRON, ADURA ONASHILE and TAMARA YAZBEK, broadcaster and critic ANNA SMITH, documentary distributor OLI HARBOTTLE and founder of Modern Films EVE GABEREAU about their work, the importance of social change, the impact of 2020 and their hopes for the future of film.
““I think the ideal film for many right now is an upbeat and positive vision of a better future”.”
Film Critic, Broadcaster and Girls on Film podcast host ANNA SMITH has also noticed a shift in the interests of audiences during the pandemic.
“I think some people have had time to think more about how we should live. Even frantically busy, homeschooling parents might be concerned about what the future will look like for their children. And in some ways, there's been an enhanced sense of community all over the world, connecting through film feels more important than ever”.
“While some people have sought escapism from cinema, others have had the time and headspace to seek out films about activism and positive change. And many of us have sought out both! I think the ideal film for many right now is an upbeat and positive vision of a better future”.
One such film from 2020 was WONDER WOMAN 1984, with Anna asking whether it was the first #MeToo superhero movie, describing a particular scene as an ‘expose of sexual harassment’ and a rare case of portraying ‘everyday sexism from the woman’s point of view’.
While some, like Anna, praised the DC sequel, it was also named an ‘empty spectacle’, a ‘dishonest let-down’ and a movie unworthy of its myth by various leading film commentators.
This disparity led me to wonder whether female-led and female-directed films, alongside those which present specific female challenges, are subjected to harsher scrutiny than those made by and featuring men.
Nomadland dir. Chloe Zhao
“It’s one of the reasons we launched the Girls On Film podcast in 2018. There can be a lot of unconscious bias at work. And while the majority of critics are still male - and white - it's inevitable that stories that demographic can relate to get more attention, however, Time's Up and the BLM resurgence has made editors more aware”.
“WW84 is also about peace and kindness and compassion, and some of my favourite films in recent years have been too, such as LEAVE NO TRACE and the upcoming NOMADLAND. Both directed by women - probably no coincidence. Though, of course, anyone can explore this topic, it's a good antidote to male-dominated war movies”.
With Chloe Zhao’s NOMADLAND winning the two main awards at this year’s Golden Globes and an Academy Award favourite, it looks like the world will be seeing more of Anna’s favourite kinds of films in the future.
Filmmaker TAMARA YAZBEK recently completed her short documentary, REFUGIO, a portrait of a woman who has survived the challenges and oppression of her gender in northern Mexico as she revisits her past homes and describes the moments that shaped her.
““If I do manage to grow in the industry and keep telling stories, I can help create a better space for women in filmmaking in Mexico. I can say first hand a change is necessary in the way women are treated within the industry”.”
Meeting her subject while doing interviews for another documentary, Tamara was struck by Refugio’s unapologetic and candid nature.
“Her way of talking about her sexuality and the stories that she has endured really caught my eye. She was not ashamed of her stories, even after having been called a whore for a very long time”.
“I found it interesting how she told very violent stories, she would make everyone in the room laugh. Through these conversations, I noticed she represented something that many women in Mexico do: normalise violence and tolerate being criticised for exploring their sexuality”.
With REFUGIO being Tamara’s first documentary, she had to learn to navigate the challenges that come from filming a real person rather than a fictionalised one.
“For me, the most important thing about telling a personal story of someone else is being very respectful of how they would like to represent themselves. I think that is the most difficult part, finding a real midpoint between what you, as a filmmaker, want to represent and what the subject wants to show to the camera”.
Refugio dir. Tamara Yazbek
“In the documentary, I put in many shots where she didn’t know the camera was rolling but thought that I was taking a photograph. It seemed to be the only way to show her true self. However, I also played with the way she wanted to be represented because it is important to respect how they want to be seen and it says a lot about a person”.
Tamara has been pleasantly surprised by the success of her short after it was accepted by Morelia International Film Festival and featured on national TV.
“I never made the film thinking it could go to film festivals or even make me connect with very similar minds. It’s very interesting that women of many ages connect to the stories in the film, I never thought it would affect or make people rethink, although that is what you want to achieve. It has been all beautiful surprises”.
Having worked on numerous festivals, including Ambulante in Mexico (“I remember THE ACT OF KILLING, SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN, JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI and BLACKFISH all came out in that year”) and the London Feminist Film Festival, Tamara acknowledges the impact that these experiences have had on her filmmaking.
““I think I have always been an activist, without even noticing. I grew up with a strong feminist mother and my whole family wants to make a change, they question everything. I didn’t realise until a teacher told me, ‘you question everything!’””
“I think that was the first time I was exposed to so many documentaries, it captured my interest as a different way to tell stories through film. It not only opened my mind about documentary filmmaking, but the way documentaries could be made, it was a whole new language”.
“Working in the London Feminist Film Festival, I was exposed to many different things and this pushed me into questioning what I believed was feminism. I found I had a lot of questions about how we as women work within feminism and how difficult it is to just have one type. We have to keep growing and developing the ideas within activism to be able to work with it and not expect it to stay the same at every turn”.
But advocating for cultural progress has been a consistent part of her life.
“I think I have always been an activist, without even noticing. I grew up with a strong feminist mother and my whole family wants to make a change, they question everything. I didn’t realise until a teacher told me, ‘you question everything!’”
For Tamara, making a film on any community issue will always be interesting, but she sees herself working towards making a change for women in Mexico.
“It’s where I have lived most of my life, it is a subject I can freely talk about having lived it and been exposed to so much. The more I work towards this subject the more I notice the lack of power and respect women in Mexico have from men. I believe there is also a very important gap in women's recognition of some of their own sexist actions”.
“If I do manage to grow in the industry and keep telling stories, I can help create a better space for women in filmmaking in Mexico. I can say first hand a change is necessary in the way women are treated within the industry”.
ADURA ONASHILE is a writer, director and artist working across theatre and film.
Inspired by adverts placed in Scottish newspapers between the 17th and 18th centuries for the recapture of enslaved Africans who had escaped, her latest project with the National Theatre of Scotland, GHOSTS, is an immerse alternative reality experience that utilises audio and visual technology to construct a physical and emotional journey across Glasgow.
“It is an attempt to make real over 500 years of protest. Our protagonist is an amalgamation of people who fled enslavement and although we will never know what happened to most of them afterwards, this is an attempt to recognise that what they started all those centuries ago still resonates now. That we recognise that their fleeing was an attempt to upend a system that ultimately stole their livelihood and was not in vain, as we are bearing witness now.”.
““I think the trope of victim and hero doesn’t feel useful to me in understanding the complex nature of the world we live in or even our feelings within it. Nothing feels absolute to me, it’s the overlap we have to understand to begin to change things. I’m still quite heavy-handed if I feel strongly about something, but I’m always wanting to question and complicate my viewpoint”. ”
After downloading the app and connecting your headphones, you are invited to walk from the middle of Merchant City to the River Clyde.
“Each location allows us an insight into his plight, his concerns and hopes and his call to arms to us in the present, at the same time the city is transformed through our phones as the ground opens beneath us, or we see through to a burning plantation or we are plunged into revolutions or the resilience and rebellion of current justice movements”.
The project was initially scheduled for early last year but was put on hold due to the pandemic. Now opening in April, in the wake of the global Black Lives Matter movements and a year of uncertainty, Adura is unsure as to whether 2020 will impact how her work is received.
“I have centred Black people in this work and this is a history that is familiar to many of us. However, I hope that it is in some way a cathartic experience for us”.
GHOSTS follows Adura’s previous project EXPENSIVE SHIT, a short developed from her renowned play of the same name which was awarded second runner-up at last years’ 16 Days 16 Films.
Focusing on Tolu, a Nigerian toilet attendant in a Glasgow nightclub, the film effectively portrays male entitlement, the effects of drink spiking and the no-win moral choices faced by undocumented citizens in just 15 minutes and refuses to be binary in its storytelling.
“I think the trope of victim and hero doesn’t feel useful to me in understanding the complex nature of the world we live in or even our feelings within it. Nothing feels absolute to me, it’s the overlap we have to understand to begin to change things. I’m still quite heavy-handed if I feel strongly about something, but I’m always wanting to question and complicate my viewpoint”.
Expensive Shit dir. Adura Onashile
In 2021 and beyond, Adura hopes to see an increasing focus on Black women and continue to work alongside those who test her understanding of society.
“I want to see more complex, thinking Black women in main roles, both on and off-screen, particularly characters that can’t be drawn in black and white but fill the grey areas”.
“I want to continue to collaborate with brilliant artists who challenge my view of the world. My very few ideas always stem from subjects I am interested in, subjects that make me uncomfortable that I am trying to figure out my own feelings and attitudes to”.
““In a world where traditional media is constantly under scrutiny and where investigative journalism is on a worrying decline, documentaries addressing truth to power have never been more vital.””
Head of Distribution and Acquisitions at documentary film company Dogwoof OLI HARBOTTLE says the passionate team and varied collection are two of the most energising aspects of his work.
“Our slate is incredibly diverse, so the only criteria are strong stories we think will resonate with audiences on some level… As an independent, we make decisions based on a variety of factors - there are obviously commercial decisions but also opportunities to support films which are more about critical reputation or talent development”.
As a fan of acclaimed musician David Byrne and admirer of the success of his 1984 film STOP MAKING SENSE, Oli’s highlight from last year was picking up AMERICAN UTOPIA.
“AMERICAN UTOPIA is somewhat of an anomaly as a concert film, although our slate is full of anomalies, but, for me, its release was the perfect tonic after the horrific year of 2020, a joyous film which also has a very strong message about contemporary politics”.
On the subject of contemporary politics, Oli acknowledges the great importance that documentaries have in modern society.
“In a world where traditional media is constantly under scrutiny and where investigative journalism is on a worrying decline, documentaries addressing truth to power have never been more vital. I am hopeful that audiences realise this when they see examples of such”.
The Collective dir. Alexander Nanau
American Utopia dir. Spike Lee
One example he cites is recent Oscar nominee COLLECTIVE, which follows a group of Romanian journalists as they uncover public healthcare fraud, corruption and maladministration: “whilst on the surface, it’s a story specific to Romania, it is actually a real insight into the wider world with widespread corruption at the highest levels”.
There has been an immense growth in production over the last decade, with streaming services allowing documentaries to become mainstream and no longer resigned to late-night slots on the History Channel or BBC4. But Oli acknowledges that documentaries are still misunderstood.
“There remain challenges in shaking off some of the preconceptions around the very concept of what a documentary is and having people think of them in the same way as films - that is the way we approach all our releases, marketing them as films first and foremost”.
“There is no reason why documentaries advocating social change should not be made in an engaging way, the two are not mutually exclusive and those documentaries which have achieved the most meaningful social impact are actually those where the filmmaker thinks broadly in terms of the audience when approaching their subject-matter. BLACKFISH is the best example here, one of the most successful social impact documentaries to have been released over the last decade”.
Acclaimed director SARAH GAVRON’s latest feature, ROCKS, follows new BAFTA Rising Star nominee Bukky Bakray as the title character who attempts to avoid being taken into care alongside her younger brother with the help of her friends.
Rocks dir. Sarah Gavron
Authentic and honest, it has been said by critics that it is easy to forget you are watching a drama rather than a documentary and this sense of realism has always been an important part of Sarah’s filmmaking, from BRICK LANE to SUFFRAGETTE.
“I think you want them to feel truthful, you want the communities the film’s about to feel a sense of ownership and that they have been reflected in a way that does justice to them, honours them and celebrates them”.
Filmed in 2018 and premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival a year later, ROCKS was released on Netflix last September, with its powerful themes of friendship, inclusivity and community intensified as a result of the pandemic.
““Often on a film set you have this lack of coherence, the people behind the camera and the people in front of the camera aren’t connected. But we were trying to make it feel more of a collective piece and make everybody feel like they could contribute, that they were part of this world”.”
“I think it maybe took on a different significance partly because it's about young people and communities. We’re aware that young people are suffering during the pandemic in terms of isolation and will be going forward as the economy breaks down, it is going to affect them more in the future”.
“Also, those particular communities were being hit hard and disproportionately by COVID, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement really did make a difference, suddenly we were super aware of how little representation there is on our screens and how important it is for a sense of collective understanding and empathy”.
ROCKS was always designed to be collaborative and organic in its approach, beginning with open casting calls and workshops with primarily non-actors before a script was written, encouraging them to talk openly about their lives, experiences, friendships and identities which informed the final story.
With Helene Louvart as the cinematographer, Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson as writers and Ameenah Ayub Allen and Faye Ward as producers, it is clear that it was important to Sarah that the film’s central idea of female cooperation and friendship was also present behind the camera.
“Often on a film set you have this lack of coherence, the people behind the camera and the people in front of the camera aren't connected. But we were trying to make it feel more of a collective piece and make everybody feel like they could contribute, that they were part of this world”.
Featuring young first-time actors, it was also important that they felt respected on set and were given the opportunity to learn about the industry.
“We wanted to make the young people on camera feel comfortable, surrounded by people from communities that they knew with a younger and mainly female crew and that they could look behind the camera and think maybe one day I could be a producer, director, writer or production designer, there was a bit of aspiration built-in, with mentoring going both ways”.
“There’s a lot of room for being respectful of the people you're telling stories about, maintaining awareness and also providing accessibility. This industry is famously difficult to get into and doesn’t have much after-care. Some of the team have brilliantly set up this organisation called Bridge, which is there to look after the young people who were in the film if they want to go forward in the industry in any capacity, they’re there to support them”.
Sarah hopes that representation in film continues to grow.
Rocks dir. Sarah Gavron
“I hope that a whole generation of screenwriters and filmmakers emerge who feel that they can tell stories from all different diverse parts of life in Britain. We've seen that the stories we tell are quite limited on screen in terms of the socio-economic and ethnic diversity”.
“We could've told so many different stories about the group of girls we met and I hope many more are shown, that we don’t just feel that because we’ve had that one film we don’t need any more. It would be really exciting to see lots of stories and it would be a much richer industry for having more of a spread”.
Founder of Modern Films, EVE GABEREAU, has always wanted to establish a company that works to bring innovative stories to global audiences, support both rising and established talent and platform the social issues of our time.
“I set it up with the idea of championing strong voices in cinema and a diversity in storytelling through film”.
“I also wanted to focus on event-driven cinema to build strategic partnerships as part of our release campaigns, marketing messaging and audience outreach”.
This model has been both a challenge to Modern Films’ success but also a great strength.
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché dir. Paul Sng and Celeste Bell
“A challenge insofar as many of our films are not mainstream and require great awareness to be noticed in the film landscape and a strength in that when we find the right match to film, talent, partner and event they can make a great impact and garner much attention”.
For their most recent release, POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHE, Modern Films produced events with Everyman Cinemas, The Saatchi Gallery and the Roundhouse Young Creatives Network and have collaborated with organisations such as UN Women, the Tate Modern, the NSPCC, the Labour Party and the British Fashion Council on previous projects.
When the pandemic hit, Modern Films decided not to wait it out.
“We decided to carry on releasing films throughout 2020 and under lockdown so that we had a steady flow of new films coming out and so that we didn’t end up with films feeling dated and not being prioritised for screenings when cinemas reopen”.
While some of their titles did get screen time during the brief intervals when the popcorn machines and projectors were turned back on, they were not able to be seen widely across the country and did not run for long. But Eve acknowledges the positives that have come from the current situation.
“ “It is coincidental that the #MeToo movement started around the same time we launched, but it helped to highlight feelings and experiences I had had in the industry and I wanted to show that women could start and run a competitive film company and make an impact with it”.”
“We were, however, able to find audiences for these films through our virtual cinema network that offers cinemas the chance to show films through a virtual screening room and an online box office system”.
“I think this shift is positive for the industry in that it allows for great viewing options for audiences and is more democratising in terms of access and price. It could also be seen as a support for distribution, in that it allows films to play longer within a cinema brand, given that they are not constrained by space, capacity and scheduling”.
Modern Films is a female-led company, something which was important for Eve to establish from the beginning.
“It is coincidental that the #MeToo movement started around the same time we launched, but it helped to highlight feelings and experiences I had had in the industry and I wanted to show that women could start and run a competitive film company and make an impact with it”.
Three years in, Eve is thinking about the next growth phase for the company.
“I have a great team and we have weekly brainstorming sessions to keep our creative energies going, especially as we are all working in isolation from home. I try to empower everyone to have a voice and to be heard as part of the company’s activity, internally and externally, wherever and wherever possible”.
White Riot dir. Rubika Shah
In terms of how Modern Films choose the movies they represent, the clue is in the name.
“I think everyone is attuned to socially conscious cinema, at least in the independent sector. I suppose what I look for is something that feels ‘modern’, which by definition should be contemporary and break in some way from tradition”.
“But I look for good stories, well-crafted films and talented filmmakers. That sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time and experience to find these, as well as a network of producers, sales agents and festivals to keep on top of what’s in development, what’s ready to premiere and enough funds to bid against competitors”.
“We are looking to expand world views, give rise to underrepresented voices and, if possible, lead to more active citizenship through cinema”.