Based in Limerick, Catalyst International Film Festival will host their 5th edition, presenting films, panel discussions, workshops and networking events in venues across the city this April.
Catalyst's programme prioritises stories and storytellers currently under-represented on screen and behind the camera; for this year's installment, acclaimed writer, director and producer Ursula Rani Sarma will be participating in a number of panels and interviews. Below, she revisits her road to screenwriting success.
I grew up in Lahinch in West Clare in the 80's and 90’s. We were one of two mixed race families in the locality that I was aware of and this definitely framed how I saw the world and my desire to understand it through my work.
On the whole, being different or other was a positive aspect to my life as a young person. It meant I had a licence to question the status quo, whether that be the religion we were taught at school or the way the wider world was presented to me.
I felt lucky, like I had access to an entirely other culture which felt incredibly exciting and inspiring. On our bookshelf the work of Rabindranath Tagore sat alongside Patrick Kavanagh and the fledgling writer in me was nurtured from the literature of both cultures.
When I began creating my first pieces of theatre as a student in UCC, I began wrestling with characters who were in themselves caught somehow between two places and two ways of existing and in many ways, three decades later, I continue to do so.
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My ambition as a writer has always been to create stories that are personal and intimate but also epic and extraordinary, stories that aren’t afraid to tell the truth of life’s hardships, but which also illuminate great moments of joy, light and love. Ultimately, I want the audience to leave with a feeling of hope and a sense of belief that the goodness in humanity will always prevail over that which seeks to destroy it.
It was the imbalance in gender representation in the arts which I became most concerned with early in my career. There were so many more male playwrights being staged in our main theatre spaces than female and when I did question this initially, I was met with warnings about my concerns being seen as bitterness on my part. I knew this wasn’t fair as the statistics spoke for themselves.
I want my own mixed race children to grow up seeing themselves on our screens and stages, so that they believe that their stories are as valid and as important as any others.
It was only years later when eventually many female voices came together to articulate that same feeling that Waking the Feminists was born, a movement which would change the conversation around gender in Irish theatre forever. Change takes time and it takes the empowerment of those whose voices are seldom heard, it was heartening to see just what was possible when we came together.
I was living in the UK when I came across a quote by theatre critic Lynn Gardener in The Guardian which said , "At last we are waking up to the fact that diversity has real value: it doesn't just ensure survival, it can genuinely invigorate arts organisations and be a spur to creativity and new ways of thinking." Her words really resonated with me as a writer and made me look at how I had never actually seen my own life experience as an Irish/Indian woman reflected back via the characters on our screens.
I have since felt strongly the responsibility to be part of this movement to reflect ethnic diversity in our society via the work that I make. I want my own mixed race children to grow up seeing themselves on our screens and stages, so that they believe that their stories are as valid and as important as any others.
I worked in writer’s rooms for years for various TV shows before moving on to become the lead writer and Executive Producer of my own series. I take this responsibility seriously in the casting of crew both in front of and behind the camera. Current projects such as The Split Up (Sister Pictures/BBC), In The Shadows (Sleeper/Curate/True Brit) and Missing, Presumed (Smokehouse) all feature strong, resilient, diverse women at the helm and I am so grateful that the industry is now ready to place their stories front and centre.
I am so delighted to be part of the Catalyst International Film Festival as it focuses exclusively on films that address under-representation on screen and behind the camera; gender equality, diversity and inclusion are core to their programming. I will be joined by Niamh Moriarty and Victoria Thomas to discuss screenwriting and inclusivity on Friday the 19th of April, where we will be delving deeper into our own experiences in the industry as well as highlighting the areas we feel where improvements can still be made.
The Catalyst International Film Festival runs in various venues across Limerick city from 18th - 20th April - find out more here.
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