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Leslee Udwin

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Leslee Udwin
Norah O'Donnell, Leslee Udwin and Barkha Dutt
Born
Savyon, Israel[1]
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, Human Rights Activist
SpouseKim Romer (born 1959)
Children2
AwardsBAFTA, Peabody, Amnesty International Media Award, Royal Television Society Award

Leslee Udwin (b. 1957)[2] is a British filmmaker,[3] actress, director, producer and human rights activist.

Early life

She was born in Savyon, Israel, to a European Jewish family with roots in England, Germany and Lithuania. At the age of about nine she went with her family to South Africa where they spent the next ten years. Her parents were religious Jews, but at the age of about thirteen, she rebelled against Judaism, particularly the morning prayer called Shacharit, in which men say, "I thank God that he did not make me a woman".[1][4]

Career

While her father wanted her to be a lawyer, Udwin supported herself working in theatre and teaching while at university; in her first year she was raped, a fact she told nobody about at the time.[1] She began her career as an actress at the Space Theatre in Cape Town, one of the only two integrated (‘multi-cultural’) theatres in South Africa, playing in the Duchess of Malfi and Stephen Poliakoff’s Hitting Town. Not wishing to work in ‘whites-only’ theatres, her work possibilities in South Africa were limited, so she moved to London[5] at age twenty-one.[1] There she acted in plays at the Royal Court, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Cheek By Jowl playing roles like Lady Macbeth, Isobel in The Mayor of Zalamea, Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters, Nora in A Doll's House, etc. On screen she appeared in the BBC Shakespeare Series production of The Merchant of Venice (1980).[5] In 1989 she set a legal precedent in the High Court of England against a criminal landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten who harassed her and her fellow tenants in their rent act protected apartment block in West London. She then turned her real life two and a half year battle against Hoogstraten and its victorious outcome into a drama documentary Sitting Targets (1989) for the BBC drama series Screen Two,[6][7] feeling that this optimistic story should inspire as many people as possible; this was her first experience behind the camera.[8]

After ten years as an actress[1] she wanted more: "It was an exciting career, but working as an actress was not enough for me – I began to want to choose and not just interpret the stories being told." This led her to become a producer.[5][7] She started her production company, Assassin Films, in 1989.[9] Her well-known productions include the films East is East (1999), Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007), and West is West (2010), and the documentary India's Daughter (2015).[10][11][12][8]

Leslee is no stranger to successful campaigning films. Who Bombed Birmingham? (1990, starring John Hurt) for HBO and Granada TV, directly led to the release of the ‘Birmingham Six’ after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment. The morning after the broadcast Margaret Thatcher stood up in the House of Commons, seething with rage shouting, "We will not have trial by television in this country."[1] Her feature film East is East (35 prestigious awards worldwide, including British Oscar for Best Film) did much to promote tolerance and the celebration of diversity as between the Asian and British communities and has become a classic film taught in schools across Europe. Her documentary India's Daughter, has been critically acclaimed around the globe, won 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award for Best Documentary 2016) and sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

The searing insights yielded by the 2½ year journey making India’s Daughter, led Leslee to found UK-and-US-based Not for Profit global education initiative ThinkEqual, of which she is the CEO.[13] Leslee was voted by the NY Times the No 2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton), and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright) in 2015.[14][8] She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015, and a Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.

Personal life

She lives in London, UK when not on assignments in places such as Copenhagen and India.[1]

Controversies

The film was banned by the Indian government who were alerted to its 'undesirable nature' by a number of Indian feminists including Indira Jaisingh, Urvashi Bhutalia,[15] Vrinder Grover, Kavita Krishnan,[1] Dr Devaki Jain. The BJP government accused Udwin of "a conspiracy to shame India" and wish to "decimate its tourist industry". Udwin listed statistics at the end of the documentary to draw attention to the fact that violence against women and girls is a global pandemic to which no country is immune. She has said she believes the reason for the ban is "India's current obsession with nationalism and image which makes it reluctant to look in the mirror".

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Faleiro, Sonia (April 2, 2015). "Interview: Leslee Udwin". Granta Magazine (130).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  2. ^ "Leslee Udwin". Company Check.
  3. ^ "Nirbhaya Documentary, Banned in India, Premieres in US; Meryl Streep, Frieda Pinto Attend". Press Trust of India. March 10, 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  4. ^ Samuel, Patrick (February 22, 2011). "Exclusive Interview With Leslee Udwin - West Is West (Movie, 2010) Exclusive". Static Mass Emporium. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c "Sassy Supports: Leslee Udwin, producer of documentary 'India's Daughter'". Sassy Hong Kong. April 26, 2016. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  6. ^ "Screen Two: Sitting Targets - BBC Two England". Radio Times. BBC Genome. March 19, 1989. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  7. ^ a b "Leslee Udwin interview". Spotlight. British Council Film. 2011. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Restauri, Denise (June 5, 2017). "Women Take Action: How One Unbelievable Event Launched A Powerful Career". Forbes. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  9. ^ "Leslee Udwin Profile". Linkedin. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Leslee Udwin Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  11. ^ "Delhi rape documentary-maker appeals to Narendra Modi over broadcast ban". The Guardian. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  12. ^ "Careers in Film: East Is East producer Leslee Udwin". film4.com. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  13. ^ "ThinkEqual". ThinkEqual. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  14. ^ "Ministers received filmmaker Leslee Udwin". Government.se. September 11, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  15. ^ Akhtar, Aasim (May 24, 2015). ""Feminism grew out of our history in India" — Urvashi Butalia". TNS - The News on Sunday. Retrieved October 10, 2017.

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