Suba Sivakumaran is an emerging Sri Lankan director. Suba grew up in five different countries and currently resides in the USA. Her directorial debut I Too Have a Name (Enakkum Oru Per) will celebrate its UK PREMIERE at the London Feminist Film Festival on Sunday 2 December 2012 at 4.00 pm as part of the MEMORIES screening.

We have just heard that one of the film’s leads, Nimmi Harasgama, will be able to join Jill Daniels, director of The Border Crossing, for a panel discussion following the screening. Suba however will not be able to join us for the festival, so we spoke to her in the run up to the festival to discuss her film and its premiere at this year’s Berlinale.

I Too Have a Name is your first film as a writer and director. What
is your background and how did you get into the film industry?

Well, I didn’t have a structured path into film. My background was really in policy and political science, and I have worked mostly in those areas. I’d always wanted to work in film however, but it took some time, working on friends’ films and the like, to find my own way into doing my first film, which this is. In retrospect however, all of my varied interests have been extremely useful in writing, production, and post production so I can’t complain!

What was your motivation for wanting to tell the story of I Too Have a Name?

As a woman, I felt that the way women experienced loss and trauma was very different from men, particularly in a patriarchal society where they are not privileged in structures of power. I also felt that it was important to show this experience, for both men and women, and for people from the developed world and the developing world, to show that there was a way in which one could locate agency in the narrative of one’s own life. Too often, women are seen as victims or purely as objects of desire; I wanted to get away from that but in a way that was still relevant in a Sri Lankan context and not in a ‘Western’ way. That sounds very abstract, but it really was the underpinning force behind I Too Have A Name.

How did you go about financing and planning your directorial debut?

I wish there was more planning and better financing!! I had an amazing cast and crew who really believed in the project. Many people volunteered their time and effort both while shooting and during the post in New York as well. It all came together when it had to, but there was very little (besides the script) that was planned in advance!!

What did you take away from directing your first film?

I think the importance of working with the right people. If we hadn’t had such a wonderful cast and crew, I really do believe it would have been a different film. Also, of course, the importance of being responsive to the many obstacles that occur during shooting, and trying to ensure that the final film is as close as possible to what you dreamed up at a desk!

I Too Have a Name was selected and screened at the Berlin Film
Festival this year. What was that like and did you attend the
screening?

The Berlinale was our premiere and it was great to have the film selected there and screened. It was also meaningful because some of the crew attended along with me all the way from Sri Lanka, making it a shared experience. It was wonderful to see it for the first time on the big screen, with real, dedicated audiences at sold out screenings! Whatever the audience size, however, I find that really good film festivals are ones with really dedicated staff devoted to cinema and unique histories, and we are happy to screen at those wherever we can.

What are your plans for the near future?

I think the next plan is really to start writing at some point on the different ideas that are swimming around in my head. Writing is never a planned process or a linear one for me, so it’s hard to predict what will happen on that front. I also really enjoy helping out on friends’ films and I imagine I’ll continue doing that as much as possible as well.

What is your favourite feminist film?

Ooh, a difficult question. I think feminism looks different in different countries, but a film I consider a feminist evocation and one that I can say did influence me quite a bit in my thinking was Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern. As a subtle allegory on both patriarchy and censorship that showed how women were prevented from choosing their own way of life, I found it remarkable in its originality at the time and in its feminist consciousness of the developing world.

I Too Have a Name will celebrate its UK PREMIERE at the London Feminist Film Festival on Sunday 2 December at 4.00 pm as part of the MEMORIES screening.

We can now announce the awards which will be handed out at the 2012 London Feminist Film Festival! They will be: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, and the Feminist Favourite Audience Award. We have two juries tasked with choosing the winners of the Feature and Short awards, whilst the jury for the Audience Award will be you! Find out more, and meet our juries, here.

Lesbiana – A Parallel Revolution has been moved up from Screen 2 to Screen 1 at Hackney Picturehouse, meaning there are more tickets on sale now! Tickets had sold out so quickly and we were still getting people wanting to buy tickets, so we thought it would be great to move it up a screen and allow more people to see this amazing film. This means that seating will now be unallocated, so if you bought your ticket before the film got moved up a screen your seat number won’t be valid for Screen 1. But we hope you’ll understand and will be as excited as we are that the film has moved up a screen!

You can book your tickets through the Hackney Picturehouse website.

Nadia Benedicto is an up-and-coming director from Argentina. Her directorial debut As A Warrior will celebrate its EUROPEAN PREMIERE at the London Feminist Film Festival on Saturday 1 December 2012 at 1.00 pm as part of the HERSTORIES short films session.

We are pleased that Nadia will be joining us along with the directors of the other HERSTORIES films for the post-screening panel discussion. In the run-up to the festival we managed to catch up with Nadia for a short interview to discuss As a Warrior, her latest film The Last Stop (La Ultima Parada), and her future projects.

As a Warrior (Como una Guerrera) was your first film as a writer and director. What is your background and how did you get into the film industry?

At the age of 18 I finished high school and moved to Buenos Aires to study there. From 2004–2009 I studied Direction at Buenos Aires’ University of Cinematography. During my studies I shot some other short films, but all of them were part of the college programme. As a Warrior is my first short film outside college. I wrote, directed, and financed it.

What was your motivation for wanting to tell Laura’s story through As a Warrior?

It’s a little mysterious, I like believing in those things. Laura’s story became to me at first in many disconnected images. In 2009 I was studying script writing with a teacher outside University and I told her that I wanted to tell a story, that I had many images and situations but for me they were all disconnected. She told me to tell her all the situations I was thinking on and without my knowledge in that moment I told Laura’s story. That is for me the mysterious and magical part. I didn’t look for Laura’s story, she found me and she wanted me to talk about that. It’s strange because I don’t know in my life women who live in Laura’s conditions, but the truth is that I was born and raised in a family where the women were underestimated and all the decisions were taken by men. I think As a Warrior is my first step to recover that voice, my own personal one and the one of all the women who live without [being able to] enforce their rights.

How did you go about financing and planning your directorial debut?

It was a pleasure. The thing is I love doing this, I live cinematography as my passion. And going to University put me in contact with many people in the same situation. I worked with friends, they understood this was my first film and I was putting up all the money for doing it, so they worked for free and also I had the University support which is a very important fact because they lent me all the equipment, lights, and camera. So, for an art that’s very hard to produce if you do not have a company producer, these two facts were determining.

What did you take away from directing your first film?

I learned a lot. I am in a continuous learning process. Each of my works is a learning process itself and this is the most beautiful thing to take away from them.

You recently finished work on Short Histories 7 (Historias Breves 7). Can you tell us a bit more about the idea behind this?

Short Histories is a national contest organised by INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales) from Argentina. They called for new directors to send their scripts and then they choose 10 of all the projects they received.

In Argentina this is the most important short film contest, because the Institute finances the project and gives us the possibility of making a film ‘professionally’. It’s a very important step to get into the film industry. Many Argentine directors that I admire won this contest years ago, so it makes me really happy having this possibility.

Can you tell us a bit more about your contribution to Short Histories and how it relates to the other films?

Short Histories 7 is a series of nine short films that make a feature film. But they are all different stories. None has anything in common with the others except that they are all produced by INCAA and made by new directors. My short film is called The Last Stop (La Ultima Parada) and it has recently started its festival way. The film is about a man (José, 70) who recently retired but cannot accept the idea of being retired. He was a truck driver and continues travelling Buenos Aires’ routes, pretending he is still working and lying to the people who know him. In short, The Last Stop is the story of a man who can’t accept changes.

What are your plans for the near future?

I’m working in the post-production of my first feature film. I filmed it in September and now I’m editing it. That makes me really happy because it will be my debut in a feature film. Once I finished with my movie around March next year, that takes too many effort, I’m planning to make a web series and also, ’cause I love writing, I’m working right now on the scripts of another two films. I hope I reach a producer who wants to make them!

Which is your favourite feminist film?

The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza) by Lucrecia Martel.

I wouldn’t say this is a pure feminist film, but for me the image of women that Lucrecia Martel gives us with Vero’s character reflects a lot of these problems. It’s a woman without a voice, being lived by the men who surround her.

As a Warrior will celebrate its EUROPEAN PREMIERE at the London Feminist Film Festival on Saturday 1 December at 1.00 pm as part of the HERSTORIES short films session.

Here is our lovely leaflet / poster in case anyone of you want to put it on your website / print it and distribute it / pin it up somewhere! Thanks very much!

LFFF_leaflet_double sided_A6

Great news about the UK PREMIERE of Lesbiana – A Parallel Revolution this morning. The film will be moved up to Screen 1, which means many more tickets will be available early next week. We will let you know once they are available so you can make sure you get your tickets!

The London Feminist Film Festival 2012 trailer is now out!

We hope you like our trailer and that it will give you a taster of what’s to come at LFFF 2012!

Thanks very much to Saira and to G Innamorati for their work on the trailer, and to Björk for kindly allowing us to use her song ‘Declare Independence’ as the soundtrack.

London Feminist Film Festival 2012 Trailer from London Feminist Film Festival on Vimeo.