I think it's easy to hold on to this romantic hope that communities such as Niaqornat won't change, because we're in this world where progress is unstoppable, and they're a link to some idealised past.
— Sarah Gavron
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.
I was taught nothing about the suffragettes in school. The version I eventually got was mainly about the peaceful campaigning of the constitutional suffragists. Their work was vital, but there was this other, not widely known story of the women who risked everything, who were prepared to break every taboo.
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.
I'm so aware how often women's bodies are objectified on film.
I suppose I do have an interest in stories that show complexity.
I suppose 'This Little Life' and 'Brick Lane' both have things in common in that they have a female protagonist very much at the centre of the story, and they're subjectively told.
So many women don't have voices in their governments.
In Bangladesh, if you put a kiss in a film, it's political.
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.
'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 late Victorian Era brought in part-time education. Not everybody went to school, but they were supposed to have a decent level of schooling; they went part-time after 12.
I made lots of short films, about nine or ten short films. And then I made a television film called 'This Little Life.'
My grandmother - my mother's mother - was a German Jewish refugee, an only child who came here from Berlin in 1936 at the age of 17.
Niaqornat particularly seemed to offer a heightened version of a story being played out across the world about traditional communities' struggle for survival and their attempts to renegotiate their identity in the face of modern life.
The suffragettes realized the power of getting arrested and going to prison and harassing politicians and making a nuisance of themselves. It got them a lot of attention. What they never did was set out to endanger human life except for sacrificing themselves.
I'd made this film called 'This Little Life,' and it went round the fests and won awards and did well.
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.
With 'Suffragette,' I was emboldened that there were so many women around me. We had a female writer, producers, production and costume designers.
In a way, perhaps, there's an advantage of being on the edge of something and looking in as the observer, because as the filmmaker, you're the storyteller, and you're pulling out this universal story.
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.
It was only when I saw films in my early 20s by Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Sally Potter and Kathryn Bigelow, I started to think, 'Oh, it's possible.' I dared to suggest that I wanted to train to be a film director.
Just going to Bangladesh was an experience... if you go into small villages in the U.K., they're backward and culturally devoid. But if you go into small villages in Bangladesh, they have classical music concerts.
Surround yourself with people who support you. Find champions.
Having the vote is just symbolic. There are still many issues on which women don't have any right and, in many countries, where women are given very very few rights.
I would love to see more diversity on all sides, and not just in terms of women; we need people from different walks of life making films.
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.
Women in Film and Television is such an important body.
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!
The suffragettes endured 50 years of broken government promises and not being heard. The press never reported on their activities.
It's my mission in life to put people on the screen who don't get normally represented.
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.
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'm very interested in cinema that explores emotional journeys and where you can use everything at your disposal cinematically to locate you inside someone's head and their emotional landscape.
Remember to use your vote. Remember to speak out and feel empowered.
It was important to focus on working-class women because we so rarely focus, particularly in period films, on the working people. The suffragettes brought together women of all classes, which was one of the striking things about the movement.
Film is a machine: you never stop.
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'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.
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.
As a teenager, I was really interested in drama and art. I did painting and drawing. I did some acting and loved theater.
