Pai Takavarasha catches up with Africa United film director, Debs Paterson. They discuss the buzz after Africa United, women in film and what the future holds for this talented director.
What’s it been like since the buzz of your feature film Africa United?
Its been cool, I mean its about a year ago so I’ve been working on new ideas for a little while. It’s still really lovely because I get messages like couple times a week of people on Twitter or Facebook or whatever going… I just watched the movie its lovely… It’s an ace film because it lives its life and it keeps going, it’s dead nice.
I was reading a magazine yesterday and Jane Goldman was in there and they had a quote that said only 13.6% of women are in scriptwriting and film what do you think of that?
I think it’s even lower, I saw the directors guild or somebody released some stats in Hollywood stats that was like 5% or something – it’s totally silly.
Do you think women are just as good as men in making films?
I don’t think it’s to do with ability I think its to do with confidence and I think it’s do with you having to be a bit bigheaded. It’s easier for somebody to tell you can’t do something and you’re like oh yeah your probably right… But I think girls are a bit more inclined to believe other people when they say they’re not good enough so I think that’s what we’ve gotta stop and just start getting it done.
So, where did this idea come from– is it true that you have generations of family from Rwanda ?
Yeah I’m like forth generation Rwandan (laughs) so I’m eligible for a Rwandan passport. So I’ve spent quite a lot of time there over there–I love it like a really good friend. So like good friend, I really care about the way they are represented. I care a lot about the country, the way it gets represented overseas is not at all accurate to like what its like, so we wanted to make a non poverty, fun comedy film– kind of thing people in Rwanda would want to watch. I’ve made a couple of shorts there before with Rwandan filmmakers– they were really inspiring stories.
What excites you about film? Do you think it’s still an important, or is the Channel 4 news fine for people to get information and be inspired to change the world?
It’s still on the forums, it’s one of the few forums where you go away for a couple of hours, and sit in a dark room and you say okay, take me somewhere– as long as it’s not bad and as long as you don’t insult me–I’ll go wherever you want me to go… I love that about film. Like the kind of journeys and surprises you, you get to live lives that you wouldn’t otherwise – I think its one of the few forums left where that happens. I love it.
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