As a teenager, I was really interested in drama and art. I did painting and drawing. I did some acting and loved theater. – Sarah Gavron
It has to be ‘The Piano’ by Jane Campion. It inspired me to pursue my dream to direct. It is not just my favorite woman-directed film – it is my favorite film. – Sarah Gavron
It was important to focus on working-class women because we so rarely focus, particularly in period films, on the working people. The suffragettes brought together women of all classes, which was one of the striking things about the movement. – Sarah Gavron
Having the vote is just symbolic. There are still many issues on which women don’t have any right and, in many countries, where women are given very very few rights. – Sarah Gavron
Just going to Bangladesh was an experience… if you go into small villages in the U.K., they’re backward and culturally devoid. But if you go into small villages in Bangladesh, they have classical music concerts. – Sarah Gavron
I had a mother who got involved in grassroot politics when I was growing up. I watched her have agency and become political in a very male-dominated world. – Sarah Gavron
I made lots of short films, about nine or ten short films. And then I made a television film called ‘This Little Life.’ – Sarah Gavron
I suppose ‘This Little Life’ and ‘Brick Lane’ both have things in common in that they have a female protagonist very much at the centre of the story, and they’re subjectively told. – Sarah Gavron
I would love to see more diversity on all sides, and not just in terms of women; we need people from different walks of life making films. – Sarah Gavron
My grandmother – my mother’s mother – was a German Jewish refugee, an only child who came here from Berlin in 1936 at the age of 17. – Sarah Gavron
It was only when I saw films in my early 20s by Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Sally Potter and Kathryn Bigelow, I started to think, ‘Oh, it’s possible.’ I dared to suggest that I wanted to train to be a film director. – Sarah Gavron
In a way, perhaps, there’s an advantage of being on the edge of something and looking in as the observer, because as the filmmaker, you’re the storyteller, and you’re pulling out this universal story. – Sarah Gavron
‘Suffragette’ is an intense drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement as they fight for the right to vote. – Sarah Gavron
I think the main thing for young women is to have confidence and not be afraid to challenge continuing inequalities, because that’s the only way you’ll get change. – Sarah Gavron
I’m very interested in cinema that explores emotional journeys and where you can use everything at your disposal cinematically to locate you inside someone’s head and their emotional landscape. – Sarah Gavron
It’s interesting when you read the debates in parliaments between MPs about whether they should give women a vote. It’s a lot of fear; it is fear of change. It’s fear if women get to vote, family structures will break down. Women will stop having children. Women won’t vote for war. – Sarah Gavron
I started to have these ideas for films. They were like running images in my head. But I didn’t think I could be a director. I just literally didn’t think it was a possibility. Then I started to suddenly see films of women. – Sarah Gavron
The late Victorian Era brought in part-time education. Not everybody went to school, but they were supposed to have a decent level of schooling; they went part-time after 12. – Sarah Gavron
The suffragettes were women of action. Their motto was ‘Deeds not Words,’ and the film reflects that with a number of big set pieces, from the smashing of windows in central London to a riot at the Houses of Parliament. – Sarah Gavron
