Growing up, Chapter Arts Centre’s Anim18 Project Coordinator (and our FEDS trainee) Umulkhayr Mohamed thought that a career in film wouldn’t be a possibility for her. Ahead of our upcoming I.D. (Inclusion & Diversity) Screening Day, read her thoughts on what we should be doing to try and finally overcome this.

A career in film specifically and the arts more generally was something that for much of my life I thought wasn’t within reach for me. So naturally becoming a FEDS trainee and so much of what this experience has shown me, was not something I thought I would be sharing with you today. I feel like it all came full circle, when I attended the ICO’s Summer Screening Days in Leicester, and watched among other films, a film set in 1970s United States of America, that frankly hit a little too close for home. It made me realise that working in this industry coming from a background like mine has meant I’ve had to think about my race and class in ways I haven’t had to since when I realised these parts of my identity had been othered by society in the first place.