It's my mission in life to put people on the screen who don't get normally represented.
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.
In Bangladesh, if you put a kiss in a film, it's political.
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.
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.
Women in Film and Television is such an important body.
Film is a machine: you never stop.
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 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'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 suppose I do have an interest in stories that show complexity.
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.
The suffragettes endured 50 years of broken government promises and not being heard. The press never reported on their activities.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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!
I made lots of short films, about nine or ten short films. And then I made a television film called 'This Little Life.'