Sonita Gale
Sonita Gale | |
|---|---|
| Add a Photo | |
| Born | 6 June 1975 Wolverhampton, West Midlands |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | England |
| Alma mater | London Guildhall University, BSc Psychology |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Years active | 2012–present |
Sonita Gale is a British director, writer and producer of South Asian descent. Her directorial debut Hostile (2022), is a political documentary that explores the problematic treatment of migrants in the UK.
Early Life
Sonita Gale was raised in Wolverhampton, in the Midlands. She was one of ten children born to Indian immigrant parents who owned a convenience shop. Her mother and father were Sikhs who emigrated from the Punjab to the UK following the Partition of India in 1947.[1]
Gale has spoken in interviews about the racial abuse she received growing up, which included being called racist slurs and being chased down a street by the National Front.[2]
Career
In 2012 she established her production company, Galeforce Films.
Andrew Carnegie: Rags to Riches, Power to Peace, released in 2015, was her first project with Galeforce Films. It charted the rise of late-19th Century industrialist Andrew Carnegie and was directed by Vicky Matthews, with Gale serving as Producer. Actor Brian Cox also featured as the voice of Carnegie.[3]
With Galeforce Films, Sonita Gale has produced a number of other shorts and series including Happy Epidemic (2020), a web series filmed, edited and written from home during the covid-19 pandemic. It features guest appearances from figures including Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow.
Gale’s other producer credits include the short film, International Health Service (2020), and thriller Twenty8k (2012), which she Executive Produced.[4]
Gale's next feature-length film is in development, and she is also developing projects with award-winning directors Geeta Gandbhir and Smiriti Mundhra.
Hostile
Hostile, Gale's directorial debut, premiered in October 2022 at Raindance Film Festival.[5]
The film delves into the UK government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy. Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the film explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and so-called ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.
The ‘hostile environment’ policy strategy was first employed by Theresa May in 2012, while she was Home Secretary for David Cameron’s government. Speaking at the time, May stated that ‘The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.[6]
The film was praised by critics. Awarding it four stars, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called Hostile a ‘powerful film’ and ‘interesting and highly pertinent’, while Time Out (magazine)|Time Out’s Whelan Barzey described it as ‘a cry from the heart for a more compassionate attitude towards immigrants.’ Mark Kermode named it his BFI Player Choice of the Week.[7][8][9]
Mariella Frostrup of Times Radio called it ‘a film that demands our attention’ and Abiba Coulibaly of Sight and Sound praised it as ‘one of the most comprehensive accounts of how we arrived at our current immigration system legislation.’[10][11]
Personal Life
Sonita Gale currently resides in North London with her husband and two children.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Twenty8k | Executive Producer |
| 2015 | Andrew Carnegie: Rags to Riches, Power to Peace | Producer |
| 2020 | Happy Epidemic | Producer |
| 2020 | International Health Service | Producer |
| 2022 | Hostile | Director |
References
- ↑ Ravindran, Jeevan. "How a new documentary explores the UK's hostile environment through the eyes of those impacted". www.gal-dem.com. gal-dem. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ Lister-Fell, Frankie. "Primrose Hill director's film shows human cost of 'hostile' policy". www.camdennewjournal.co.uk. Camden New Journal. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "Andrew Carnegie: Rags to Riches, Power to Peace". www.imdb.com. IMDB. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "Sonita Gale". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "Hostile + Q&A". raindance. Raindance. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "What is the 'hostile environment'? An introduction to immigration policy in Britain". www.port.ac.uk. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ Bradshaw, Peter. "Hostile review – documentary highlights nastiness of UK immigration policy". www.guardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ Barzey, Whelan. "Hostile review: Britain's cruel immigraition policy gets the boot". Time Out. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "Mark Kermode reviews Hostile (2022) | BFI Player". www.youtube.com. BFI. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ "'We are the worst country to be accepting refugees at this time'". www.youtube.com. Times Radio. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ↑ Coulibaly, Abiba. "Sonita Gale on Hostile, her documentary about migrant experience in the UK". www.bfi.org.uk. BFI. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
External links
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