Digital Womens Network

Meet DWN members - share advice and experiences

Tina Gharavi

Film director/producer/writer, company director, and lecturer.

 Website:  www.bridgeandtunnelproductions.com

What motivates and inspires you?
Perhaps the reason I get up in the morning is believing that I have something to say and also wanting to help get other people’s voices, and stories, out there, too.

How did you get where you are now?
I initially trained as a painter, but when I was 18 I worked on a Hollywood feature film as a runner - an amazing and exciting experience. 

Later on, I realised that the stories I wanted to tell were moving and had sound. 

After graduation I worked in New York as a graphic designer – a great job, just not in something I wanted to do. 

So I decided before I got trapped into an industry which wasn’t core to my ambitions to cut loose and create a revolution.  I was on my way to Italy to teach English as an interim plan but ended up in Ashington teaching Media.  Later, I started my production company as a way of making a short film and, well, 10 years later, here I am.

What’s your current project/work?
Various projects, including a film about the visit of Muhammad Ali to the North East in 1977 and his marriage at the local mosque in South Shields.

I’m also working on an experimental feature film about a young brother and sister who arrive in the region after leaving Iran.  It’s a modern asylum story about two young people growing up in difficult circumstances and looking for a happy world. 

I also work with people from asylum and refugee backgrounds in the UK and we are developing an interactive web narrative project, looking at the journey of migrants to the UK.

This tool will be used by students at schools as part of the citizenship curriculum.

Where has your work been showcased?
I’ve been lucky to have films screened on TV - Channel Four, Sundance Channel, EBS Korea etc - and at several international film festivals including Sundance, IDFA, Edinburgh, Cork, Mannheim-Heidelberg, Film Des Femme, Feminale, Thessolaniki and Festival Dei Popoli.

Which organisations have been particularly helpful to you?
There haven’t been as many organisations as there have been individuals. I’ve had a lot of help from supporters like Claire Malcolm at New Writing North and also various people at the Arts Council. 

It’s really important for local arts organisations and film makers who have a degree of success to help those coming through the ranks, which is why my own production company keeps a real open door policy on who we will talk with and advise. 

Even with our limited resources, we’ll help if we can.  I remember I got turned away a lot when I was first starting out.

What advice would you give to women starting out in the digital environment?
Be ready to work really hard for it, have confidence and don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t your place or your face doesn’t fit.  Make your own pathway and don’t wait for anyone to send you an invitation to the party.

What barriers have you come up against in your work?
There is still a long way to getting equal access to opportunities.  If only I had a Y chromosome instead of two XXs.

Best piece of work-related advice you’ve been given?
‘Believe in yourself, you’ve got it!’ – my high school art teacher.