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

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

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’

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'.

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

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 

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