Women in Film and Television is such an important body.
As a teenager, I was really interested in drama and art. I did painting and drawing. I did some acting and loved theater.
I started to have these ideas for films. They were like running images in my head. But I didn't think I could be a director. I just literally didn't think it was a possibility. Then I started to suddenly see films of women.
I had a mother who got involved in grassroot politics when I was growing up. I watched her have agency and become political in a very male-dominated world.
It's interesting when you read the debates in parliaments between MPs about whether they should give women a vote. It's a lot of fear; it is fear of change. It's fear if women get to vote, family structures will break down. Women will stop having children. Women won't vote for war.
'Suffragette' is an intense drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement as they fight for the right to vote.
The suffragettes were women of action. Their motto was 'Deeds not Words,' and the film reflects that with a number of big set pieces, from the smashing of windows in central London to a riot at the Houses of Parliament.
It has to be 'The Piano' by Jane Campion. It inspired me to pursue my dream to direct. It is not just my favorite woman-directed film - it is my favorite film.
Film is a machine: you never stop.
In Bangladesh, if you put a kiss in a film, it's political.
I think the main thing for young women is to have confidence and not be afraid to challenge continuing inequalities, because that's the only way you'll get change.
I suppose I do have an interest in stories that show complexity.
I've endlessly found myself in rooms of men and had the experience of feeling I wasn't being heard. It's a confidence thing.
I think it's great to be talked about as a woman film-maker. It's part of who I am; it affects me daily. I want it to be part of the conversation. I'm for any scheme or initiative that gives women a way in.
It's well proven that if you have equality in society, society flourishes, and if you have inequality, it doesn't. So it's good for everybody.
We need to have more conversations about representation as well as the imbalance in terms of needing more women behind the camera and in front of the camera, and the diversity factor.
It's my mission in life to put people on the screen who don't get normally represented.
The suffragettes endured 50 years of broken government promises and not being heard. The press never reported on their activities.
I remember my grandfather believed women were second-class citizens and told my mother that it was a shame she had brains because she was a girl and shouldn't carry on her education.
The suffragettes were quite strategic about documenting their events, and there were some good photos. And we developed a roll of film that had never been developed before!
