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Two women from different parts of the world share the stories of their lives

Two women from different parts of the world, united by a common passion, experience or expertise, share the stories of their lives.

The Conversation: Making Movies: Chika Anadu and Shonali Bose

Chika Anadu (Left); Shonali Bose (Right)

23/03/2015

Making Movies: Chika Anadu and Shonali Bose

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Making Movies: Chika Anadu and Shonali Bose

The blood, sweat and tears of being an independent film-maker, in India and Nigeria

Female film directors from Nigeria and India discuss the pain and exhilaration of finding funding, life on set, and 'giving birth' to their women-led movies.

Chika Anadu is a self-taught film-maker who wrote, produced and directed her first feature film, the acclaimed B for Boy, in 2013. After studying law in the UK she went back to her home country Nigeria to shoot her film - a contemporary drama which reflects the tension between modern and traditional values in middle-class family life in Lagos. Its central character is a female TV producer who is under pressure to have a baby boy. Chika says, "you tell the stories that you know... I'm Nigerian, I'm Igbo...but I feel that what affects me most is the fact that I'm a woman."  Chika also talks about her choice not to go to film school and how she dealt with major financial and technical problems on her set. 

Shonali Bose is an independent film-maker from India who sees her art as a form of social activism. She has most recently directed Margarita, With a Straw - a coming-of-age movie about a young woman with cerebral palsy. Shonali says finding funding is always a challenge, "the discrimination is such that if it is a woman-led film, it is very hard to find money and I think that is not just the case in India".  Her advice to aspiring directors is to get experience on film-sets and to work extremely hard.  She talks about combining motherhood with movie-making and sees her two feature films as her 'non-human' children!  

(Photo: Chika Anadu (left), Credit: Restless Talent ; Shonali Bose (right), Credit: Shonali Bose)

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