Kim Longinotto is a British documentary filmmaker who is known for films which showcase the struggles of women in society. Over her career, she has made more than 20 films including ‘Sisters in Law’ (2005), ‘Divorce Iranian Style’ (1998) and Pink Saris (2010). Her first documentary was one about the all-girls boarding school that she went to when she was growing up, and she made it while she was studying at the National Film and Television School. This documentary was shown at the London Film Festival and she has continued to make documentaries ever since.
She is considered as being an observational filmmaker as she very rarely interacts with what’s being recorded and is simply a ‘fly on the wall’. She uses very little voice-over, formal interviews, captions or incidental music. She also doesn’t like to zoom or pan as the camera is supposed to act as the eyes of the audience.
She likes to make her films so that they have the experience of watching a fiction film as much as possible, but nothing is ever premeditated. Her idea is that she wants her films to raise more questions than answers and so her films don’t have traditional conclusions. Her films are about looking for characters which the audience can identify with and latch onto, almost as if you’re diving into that characters own experience.
Her focus on the difficulties for women in modern-day society is done as a way to make the audience really think about what that must be like. She wants people to see it from that very personal perspective so that they can open their eyes to that sexism that is seen all over the world.
She will make sure that her films are as close to reality as possible. One of the ways that she does this is by choosing to keep the camera rolling, even during times when the people on camera are showing lots of emotion in situations which can be seen as very private. She also chooses to keep her camera handheld, as it is a way to make it seem like we are actually there as the camera movements are closer to that of a real person and not just a camera on a tripod.
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