The 1st term of my new job as a lecturer at the University of Westminster is over.
I was teaching a very interesting module: Reporting Diversity: Gender, Sexuality, Age, Disability on the MA in Diversity and the Media course.
​
It was a challenging experience, teaching a very diverse group of 25 students, many of them coming from China and South East Asia.

The students produced 5 documentary films addressing LGBTI, age and disability.   
I learnt a lot from my students and realised how I take diversity for granted and have always addressed it in my work as a filmmaker. ​

Stories from the heart brought me back to Russia, this time in Samara, South of Moscow, where the snow was beginning to thaw. I worked with a diverse group of filmmakers, eager to explore stories from the heart and about the heart. The workshop shook them out of their comfort zone and provided them with new food for thought. We are in post-production, 7 films will be completed very soon and available
for viewing.

Participants feed-back:

“Unusual, but very powerful and interesting format of the training. It was a pleasure to work with Rani and learn something new about interviewing. "

"The ease of communication on professional topics, the interesting presentation of theoretical material, unleashing creativity exercises and opportunity to learn something new about myself, the opportunity to meet interesting people from my city and from abroad.”

“The examples of documentary films shown by the trainer were very useful and inspiring, loved the exercises performed during the training.”

Well I never imagined that I would start the year in the Western Sahara. This was so unexpected and at the same time it was a dream that I have always had: to simply be in the desert. 

The story began when I met Danielle Smith, the director of Sandblast, a Human Rights charity promoting the voices and visions of the Saharawi people through the Arts www.sandblast-arts.org. Embedded in a protracted conflict since 1975, half of the Saharawi population are refugees living in harsh desert camps in SW Algeria, while the other half live in their own land, occupied by Morocco for the last 40 years. The Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony.

I discovered through Danielle that there is a huge diabetes crisis in the camps. This led us to develop a video project, to support Saharawi filmmakers produce short films about diabetes.
In February, I went to visit the camps to find out if the Ministry of Health and the Film school Abidin Kaid Saleh based in one of the camps would be receptive to our project and collaborate with us.
At the same time, there is an international marathon that takes place in the desert every year to raise funds and awareness for the Saharawi refugees. I had no time to train for it, so instead I walked 21 km and was able to absorb the special magic of the desert and the unique state of mind it provokes.
The response from the Health Ministry and the Film School was extremely positive. And more than that, we also received invaluable support from Jorge Ferrer, a professor specialized in diabetes, working for Imperial College, and from a fundraising consultant, Annette Gibbons-Warren, who both participated
in the marathon. It was a stroke of serendipity that we all met there at the same time and connected so easily.

Living in one of the camps with a small group of women who were running the marathon, was such an inspiring experience, despite all the difficulties of living in challenging conditions, we were warmly welcomed and well looked after by our lovely, vivacious Saharawi hostess Fatima. 
​We are now fundraising for this project, to make it happen in 2017.

In 2014-15, it was my pleasure to work for the first time with deep:black
www.deepblack.org.uk/content/what-we-do on a video project commissioned by the NHS in Harringey, Taking the lead, which gave a
voice to young people who had negative experiences at the hands of the mental health services. This was their chance to express through
drama & photography what they felt and how the services could improve.

Further to our collaboration, I was asked to contribute to Birds Crossing Borders, a deep:black project developed in response to the current public discourse about refugees, the rhetoric of fear and the narratives of chaos and crisis. “With Birds Crossing Borders we want to open up dialogue; a dialogue that is rooted in compassion and trust.” birdscrossingborders.wordpress.com

6 artists were commissioned to design a postcard of a bird and respond humanely and creatively to a disturbing humanitarian crisis. Messages of hope & solidarity were collected from the UK and brought to the refugees in the Jungle, Calais. Deep:black collaborated with Good Chance Theatre on Birds fly to Calais and in 2016 with the Museum of Migration on Call me by my name: stories from Calais & beyond. migrationmuseum.org 

I created a bird for the post card series and will be making a short film in 2016 that will capture what the whole project is about..

In May 2015, I went to Russia for the first time, to give a 5 day training workshop to 14 Russian filmmakers in Arkhangelsk, North of Russia, close to the White sea.

I was producing 7 short films, part of an international project Stories from the Heart for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Disease, about cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Russia, which has the highest mortality rate of CVD in the world.

The project allowed me to develop a new training format, in which I could merge all of my filmmaking experience as well as elements from the Shake Your Gift workshop. This has been very exciting and innovative work for me and I am continuing to explore and improve this new approach to filmmaking
training.

It was fascinating to be in this remote part of the world, giving me the opportunity to completely immerse myself in Russian culture, literature and history. I worked with a lovely team in the UK led by epidemiologist Prof David Leon and was helped by a wonderful team from the Northern State Medical University of Arkhangelsk.

The workshop was intense, stimulating and greatly appreciated despite the language barrier. The translators and the production coordinator did a great job, without them it would have been impossible to do this work. The door to Russia has now been opened!

Feed-back from participants:

“I liked the methods of teaching, since training was in informal creating environment. Freedom of thought, creativity, self-expression not an academic approach to training.”

“I liked teacher’s view on filmmaking and her sense of life, Her sincerity and positive attitude made me feel comfortable and easy.”

“I liked practical tasks and their fulfilling; 
The discussions on the topic of health, life and death were interesting because these topics are often taken for granted and there is no time to think over them.”