I had the pleasure of meeting Rosa Rogers a few weeks ago and her relaxed and friendly demeanor was enough to stick with me. I got back in contact with her and enquired whether I could ask her a few questions regarding her travels, previous work with NGO’s and her passion for film. Her responses can be found here.

1. When did you realise you wanted to become a producer/director?

I always used to imagine scenes for films in my head so I guess it’s always been there as an idea, but I got into this work as a researcher and then was lucky enough to get a series idea I had commissioned so became a producer very suddenly.

2. When we met you told us you usually work solo – how do you usually go about starting a project and where does your inspiration come from?

I only work solo in some situations but film is all about team work, even with a small documentary crew. When I’m filming abroad I work with a local fixer and translator and local crew if possible. The people you work with on the ground are the most important people on the team as they are the key to accessing a new country and culture and to enabling people to trust you and your motives. I’ve worked with some fantastic people, been very lucky.

3. It says on your website that you’ve worked with a number of NGO’s – how did you get involved in them?

I often talk to NGO’s who are doing work around subjects I explore in my film and relationships grow. I’ve worked with NGO’s in partnership with broadcast which is quite a good balance of different expectations/approaches – though it can be tricky for this reason as well!

4. What was the most rewarding experience you took from this work?

The most rewarding experience is always being able to spend time with people living lives very different to ours. Being welcomed into their lives and making connections and friends. I”m always overwhelmed by the generosity and warmth of people I meet – people often living very very hard lives – and i find coming back to London quite difficult sometimes, because we are all caught up in our own lives and live in quite a blinkered and selfish way.

5. I also saw you had visited Mumbai. What did Deepa Shastri’s story show you about Indian culture?

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time in India, so I already knew quite a lot before going there with Deepa. But going there with Deepa gave me an insight into life for deaf people in India which is quite tough. Deepa is a successful and confident young woman and it would have  been hard to achieve that in India as there is still a strong sense that deaf people are not capable of doing things that hearing people can and educational standards are low. However we visited a small village school for deaf children in the countryside there which was incredible. It was run by volunteers who really believed in the potential of these children and wanted to bring it out, and gave them so much love and encouragement. India is a country of extremes and experiences. It’s wonderful. I could go back year after year and never feel I’d seen enough of India.

6. What’s your favourite place you’ve visited through your work? Do you think it has to do with the story you were telling, or the country itself?

This is a very hard question, but if I have to choose one I would say Brazil. I was filming there during carnival, in the midst of the excitement and unique atmosphere of Brazil in party mode, surrounded by wonderful samba music. It was uplifting and enlightening and a combination of the country, the people who were hosting us there, being taken inside the heart of carnival and into the history of samba in Brazil all combined to make a completely unforgettable experience.

7. How has your day-to-day life been affected by your work?

Through travelling so much with work I’ve seen the effects of travel in places in every continent and am becoming more and more aware of the necessity of travelling thoughtfully and responsibly. Travel is wonderful as is all the experiences it brings, but now that we know how damaging planes are I think much more carefully about what trips I take, and because I have to travel with work I try not to do so outside. Planes are part of our modern world and hopefully one day someone will find a way of running them without oil, but in the meantime I think we all need to travel less, or make the journey part of the adventure and go overland. Similarly, tourism has good and bad sides and again I’ve seen this close up in lots of place. Now if I travel outside Europe, I make sure that the money I spend goes into the local economy and not to an international travel company.  I look out for locally run hotels or hotels that invest profits locally – there are more and more all the time. It makes the travel experience much nicer too – meeting more local people and getting a better sense of the country you’re in.

Rosa’s official website can be found at http://www.rosarogers.co.uk - You can see examples of her work and learn a bit more about her here.

Thanks again for the responses Rosa!