Gurinder Chadha- Inspiring Women series: Finding Your Voice
As patron of Women in Film &TV the great film director Gurinder Chadha last night had an audience of women filmmakers hanging on her every word. Not that she pushes herself as the great Goddess of cinema but rather that she has trodden a path similar to many of us women that follow in her wake. She wasn’t born with the silver screen at her feet, she didn’t know the right people, she didn’t have a cine-camera glued to her face from the age of five, and she didn’t go to film school. In fact she was Asian and a woman, neither of which placed her at an advantage in a primarily white male industry. What she did have was a big mouth and something to say. Door after door slammed in her face, brick walls were constructed across her path, insults hurled as rocks in her direction. But she came out fighting; with a twinkle in her eye and her tongue in her cheek. She lifted the British Asian community out of the realms of pity, shame, abuse and banged it down on the table with a grin and a platform that gave them a voice. She made her protagonists women, and with that suddenly on screen we were seeing women with colour and attitude. And humour.
Continue Reading Add a comment March 4, 2010
Tags: Bend it Like Beckham, Create Lab, film, Gurinder Chadha, Lou Hamilton, TV, Women, Women in Film & TV
March Picture Post
You can purchase Lou Hamilton’s book Creating Success in Daily Life from her website www.createlab.co.uk
Continue Reading Add a comment February 26, 2010
Tags: book, Create Lab, Creating Success in Daily Life, Lou Hamilton, Peace, photography
Moving Forward
There are so many inspiring women in business who are balancing their home, family and work lives and who are a shining light to other aspiring people. Yesterday I want to the We Mean Business conference run by Business Link. The aim was for women to come together, meet, support, encourage, befriend and connect with each other. There were several keynote speakers whose passion, determination and courage were infectious.
Continue Reading 2 comments February 24, 2010
Tags: Create Lab, Lou Hamilton, Motivational speakers, Penny Power, Shaa wasmund, Steph Cutler
Creating Success in Daily Life
How my book came about:
It all started with Death. A funny way round but it did. I was directing a TV series on people with terminal illness. We filmed for three years. It was an intimate and powerful experience and we were all profoundly affected. What we discovered was that when people finally comes to terms with the fact that their death is imminent, that is the moment they start really living. They start to really focus on their loved ones, they engage fully with the people around them, they soak up every experience, they are sensitive to every nuance in their relationships, they express their emotions openly and simply, and they live absolutely and completely in every moment.
Continue Reading Add a comment February 12, 2010
Tags: book, Channel 4, Create Lab, Creating Success in Daily Life, Creative, Death, film, Lou Hamilton, photography
Making a difference
I realised that to be successful in what we do, whatever job it is, we must communicate well, be receptive, listen and respond accordingly. It is not enough just to do what we do but we must make a difference to those around us when we do it.
Continue Reading Add a comment December 15, 2009
Beyond Limits
It is tempting to settle by the pool with fruit cocktail and a book; from time to time easing my frying limbs into the cool water. But for some reason on holiday I am drawn to the stuff that scares me. Today my challenge is zip-wiring through the rainforest. Now for some people the thought of that is exciting, for others it is terrifying. I fall into the latter category- I am scared of heights. So why would I want to put myself through it? I was kind of tricked into it really.
Continue Reading Add a comment December 6, 2009
Tags: challenge, fear, holiday, iimits, rainforest, St Lucia, zip-wiring
Finding Peace
The soldiers are returning from war. The things they have seen, the comrades they have lost, have been enamelled onto their brains like armour plating. They are not the men they were. Sometimes the symptoms of distress take years to surface under a brutal battening down of the mental hatches. One man in his 80’s recently made a phone call to the ex-services’ mental health charity Combat Stress. He was clearly distraught, overrun by nightmares, disturbances and panic attacks. Had something happened he was asked? His wife had died a few months ago he replied. It was enough to unleash 60 years of suppressed memories.
Continue Reading Add a comment November 30, 2009
Celebrating Life – Jamaican sunset
The thing I love about Jamaica is the smell. At night driving through the darkness across the island with the windows down the warm black air is thick with smells. Hovering and moist is the sweet smell of tobacco leaves mixing with pungent wood smoke, cannabis and cooking chicken. Small fires poke orange through the darkness and light up the corrugated iron huts that line the roads. Shadows of people shift around the huts buying beer or fruit or cigarettes. The sound of Reggae oozes from radios –slow, liquid sounds. I am here for a funeral.
Continue Reading Add a comment November 26, 2009
Imagining success
A few years ago I made a film about people with terminal illness. It was due to be a three part series for Channel 4 to be filmed over 6 months with people whose prognosis was about that length of time. It was a groundbreaking attempt to try and break down the taboo of death by exploring the science of the dying process, the care provided and people’s own personal stories. However things didn’t quite go according to plan. People didn’t die in 6 months.
Continue Reading Add a comment November 17, 2009
Scoring success
It is a cold drizzly afternoon at Falmouth Football Club and a tired looking stadium with a sprinkling of supporters stands on one side of the pitch, a corrugated hut on the other. A bleak row of bedraggled away fans hunch up against the wind.
Continue Reading Add a comment November 11, 2009
