Meet Tina Gharavi (NETFLIX QUEEN CLEOPATRA) - Film director Screenwriter and occasional Professor.
(from an article by Shoutout LA)
We are delighted to welcome our good friend, BAFTA nominated director of Netflix Queen Cleopatra (exec produced by Jada Pinkett Smith) - the one and only Tina Gharavi.
Tina is a unique director and has a unique approach to directing, storytelling and life.
Her Zoom interview was one of the most popular on S2F
Here is an extract from an interview with Shoutout LA (full link in comments)
Tina was HEADLINE SPEAKER at the Secret of Shorts 2 features event in November 23.
Here is an excerpt from an interview she had with SHOUTOUT LA
Hi Tina, how do you think about risk?🎢 I started my film production outfit, Bridge + Tunnel, originally because no other production company was interested in producing my work. It was the bravest and most foolish thing I have done… I didn’t realise how much there is to running a company and I am often saying if I knew what I know now… I doubt I would have started it (Excel, I mean, come-on!) …
🧮 Luckily, now I have a great team who help with finance… (shout out to Kathryn Warwick!). Having a production company means you have autonomy and the chance to organise groups of people. It means autonomy, a fleet of feet… and a masthead for a mad caper! But find a good accountant/bookkeeper!!
🏋🏻♂️ I suppose the thing is to take risks, you have to trust the process. I found solutions before and now I know I can use those skills again… I have a new venture brewing and I know it is full of potential as it makes me feel butterflies in my stomach… that risk is what I live for.
Alright, so let’s move on to what keeps you busy professionally.
👩🏽🎤 🧑🏽🎨I am a director, writer…. a dime a dozen in this town. The only difference is, I see this as being a modern philosopher… or artist. I write because I am. I tell stories because I exist… and because the pain of living is too much if we do not have good myths and fairy tales reflected back to us. I am very very lucky that I succeeded at what I dreamt of as a young five-year-old —I distinctly remember being in the courtyard of my grandmother’s central Tehran townhouse and watching an animated Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale– I think the ugly duckling– thinking “how did this move me so much… how did it make me feel so differently”… I felt empathy, connection…. films did that. The stories were so powerful. Like spells… I was hooked.
👩🏻💻 Right now I think we live in a time of poverty of stories. Our stories are not good enough and it is making us ill… We need better stories to save lives… to imagine other possibilities. It’s urgent.
The stories I tell are often those of people who are outsiders, rebels or misfits… or those in extraordinary circumstances.
⭐️Recently, I came to realise how much easier it is now that I have a few years behind me to be able to see the shape of stories. The craft comes. So now the challenge is to be brave enough to tell those honest origin stories we so desperately need…. But of course, the challenge is sometimes to find the outlets for those stories to come alive. We have lived so long afraid of truth…
⭐️We are so very afraid of those who tell us stories that the balance of us can be different than we would rather condemn them than listen. Perhaps I am sounding a bit too biblical. But that is what happens when you finish the interview at this hour!
🎟 When I go to the cinema (or watch the small screen), I want to feel invincible. That is what I strive for. A chance to make the audience feel invincible when they leave the cinema too. We are in the business of transformation.
How are you planning to transform?
For more about leading film-makers, join us at the SECRETS OF SHORTS 2 FEATURES Seminars and networking.
All new dates are on the EVENT page :)
Happy shooting.
Comments