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Feminists Around the World: Farah Nabulsi · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steff.
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  Speaker 1: I never told your production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And today we are adding another activist slash filmmaker who
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  Speaker 2: previously released an OSCAR nominated short in twenty twenty one
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  Speaker 2: and just another film this year in September. And when
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  Speaker 2: I say we're adding another act filmmaker, I mean probably
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  Speaker 2: another film and movie that we're going to have to
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  Speaker 2: add to our feminist movie and our long list of
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  Speaker 2: Oh look who he found? We need to watch these things.
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  Speaker 2: And we were talking about Sarah Nabusi and of course,
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  Speaker 2: as per usual when we talk about people from other
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  Speaker 2: countries at international level, we try our best with pronunciations,
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  Speaker 2: but sometimes need assistance. The Internet can be limited, so
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  Speaker 2: if you know of a difference of the way we're speaking,
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  Speaker 2: please let us know nicely. We do try to do
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  Speaker 2: all of the videos, so we have watched like three
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  Speaker 2: or four videos with different pronunciations. I will say there
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  Speaker 2: were more availability for her since she as a filmmaker,
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  Speaker 2: so I appreciative of that, but said that we can't
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  Speaker 2: find that easy access for everyone. But you know that
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  Speaker 2: would be a little difficult, a little difficult, just say it.
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  Speaker 2: And for those future activists out there, go ahead and
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  Speaker 2: tell everybody your name, you know, post your name pronunciation.
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  Speaker 2: It'd be very helpful because we'd love to talk about you.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like there was a push for that, wasn't there.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, there was pronounce your name because people would do
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  Speaker 2: it wrong, and then a lot of times women specifically
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  Speaker 2: or marginalized people would just let it go instead of correcting. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I say we go back to that correcting everyone. I
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  Speaker 2: just gave any really scary face. Anyway, back to Nazi.
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  Speaker 2: Naboot Shee is a British Palestinian filmmaker who originally was
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  Speaker 2: in the world of finance as a stockbroker, but made
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  Speaker 2: a drastic career change in her late thirties as a filmmaker.
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  Speaker 2: I'm with you, yeah, as I understand these changes. In
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  Speaker 2: different interviews, she has talked about the reason she made
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  Speaker 2: this decision to change her path, and here's what she
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  Speaker 2: told Vogue Arabia in twenty twenty one. My background has
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  Speaker 2: nothing to do with film. I didn't study film and
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  Speaker 2: I didn't work in the industry. I was very much
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  Speaker 2: happy in the business and corporate world, she explains. The
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  Speaker 2: bookshelf behind her stocked with scholarly files, trophies, and family photos.
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  Speaker 2: So what made her change the trajectory of her life.
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  Speaker 2: I went home, she said, simply so. The article continues.
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  Speaker 2: Nabusi had visited Palestine a number of times as a child,
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  Speaker 2: but it took her first trip back as an adult
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  Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen and the visits that followed to grasp
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  Speaker 2: the reality of her ancestral home. Everything I thought I
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  Speaker 2: knew and understood about the daily struggles of Palestinians was
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  Speaker 2: absolutely nothing compared to seeing on the ground with my
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  Speaker 2: own two eyes. She explains. Whether it was the wall
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  Speaker 2: plowing through the Palastinian homes, the humiliating checkpoints, the refugee
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  Speaker 2: camps that I visited, or the ruins of demolished homes
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  Speaker 2: that I sat on, Those trips changed me.
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  Speaker 1: And here's a bit more about Nabuzi from her site.
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  Speaker 1: She is the daughter of Palestinians who are fortunate enough
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  Speaker 1: to make a home in nineteen seventies Britain, unlike the
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  Speaker 1: millions who continue to remain stateless and refugee camps. Born,
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  Speaker 1: raised and educated in London, Vera began her career as
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  Speaker 1: an institutional equity stockbroker. She ended up with the CFA
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  Speaker 1: designation at JP Morgan Chase, before moving on to build
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  Speaker 1: a children focused business that she ran for ten years.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, she started working in the film industry.
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  Speaker 1: She founded a production company through which she writes, produces,
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  Speaker 1: and directs fiction films exploring topics that mattered to her,
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  Speaker 1: and she created a digital resource to deconstruct the Israeli
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  Speaker 1: military occupation of Palestine in a way never done before.
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  Speaker 2: And that's all on her website. In another interview with
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  Speaker 2: Al Jazeera, she spoke about her heritage and her family.
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  Speaker 2: I was born, raised everything UK, and I can tell
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  Speaker 2: you there was hardly any political discourse in my house.
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  Speaker 2: My parents weren't about the politics at all, but they
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  Speaker 2: never let me forget the roots of where they were
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  Speaker 2: from and so essentially where I was from. I never
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  Speaker 2: had this identity crisis. I was British and Palestinian. And
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  Speaker 2: she continues on, as children, we would go to Palestine,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that laid certain sees politically, no, but
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  Speaker 2: it laid certain attachments, certain connections to the people, the land,
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  Speaker 2: to the friends we made, to our ancestral home. Quite literally,
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  Speaker 2: I remember my grandfather's house and the courtyard where we
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  Speaker 2: tell stories around a fire, and my aunt was squeeze
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  Speaker 2: fresh lemonade. So I have that. I did have that,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that did lay seeds.
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  Speaker 1: In her directorial debut, the short film The Present, Nabuzzi
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  Speaker 1: shows the events of a father and daughter as a
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  Speaker 1: try to buy a wedding anniversary gift for his wife.
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  Speaker 1: It follows them as they try to navigate the checkpoints
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  Speaker 1: throughout the West Bank as they try to shop for
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  Speaker 1: a simple gift. In the film The Bootsi opens it
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  Speaker 1: with a scene of the main character trying to cross
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  Speaker 1: checkpoint three hundred near Bethlehem. According to Naboutsi, everything filmed
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  Speaker 1: is actually happening, and the main character, Usef, is the
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  Speaker 1: only fictional thing in the scene. Here's a quote. The
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  Speaker 1: only fiction in that scene is our protagonist Usef. All
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  Speaker 1: the other hundreds of Palestinians you see there, actual Palestinians
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  Speaker 1: going to work at the crack of dawn. I have
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  Speaker 1: a whole philosophical conversation we could have about who should
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  Speaker 1: we be asking permissions from to film such a monstrosity.
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  Speaker 1: I just decided we were going to take that risk.
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  Speaker 2: Right So, as a part of the behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 2: apparently it was gorilla filming, or they did very skeletal
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  Speaker 2: equipment and just hope that they wouldn't get arrested. So
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  Speaker 2: the film garnered several high rated reviews as one of
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  Speaker 2: the best short films of that year. In fact, the
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  Speaker 2: film was not only nominated for an Oscar but also
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  Speaker 2: won a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film twenty twenty one.
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  Speaker 2: And in September of this year, twenty twenty three, Nabootsi
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  Speaker 2: released her newest film, The Teacher, which is her featured
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  Speaker 2: directorial debut. Here's a descriptor from Wikipedia quote. The film
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  Speaker 2: tells the story of a grief written Palestinian school teacher, Bassam,
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  Speaker 2: who becomes very involved in the lives of two of
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  Speaker 2: his students, Adam and Yakob, when their home is bulldozed.
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  Speaker 2: Throughout the film, Basama attempts to reconcile his role as
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  Speaker 2: a father figure to Adam and Yakob and his commitment
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  Speaker 2: to the Palestinian resistance, all in the midst of ongoing
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  Speaker 2: incident in which an IDF soldier the son of an
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  Speaker 2: American diplomat, is being held hostage. So as of October,
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  Speaker 2: meaning last month of this year, the film has been
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  Speaker 2: longlisted for the twenty twenty three British Independent Film Awards
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  Speaker 2: for Best Debut Director, Best Debut Screenwriter and Breakthrough Producer.
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  Speaker 1: The film was shot entirely in Palestine, which Nabootsi refers
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  Speaker 1: to as something very important for her storytelling. She teled
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  Speaker 1: Deadline dot Com. There are certain stark stereotypes that have
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  Speaker 1: permeated in Western media and around the world for a
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  Speaker 1: long time, and I really hope that this film lends
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  Speaker 1: itself to tearing down those stereotypes and overcoming those misconceptions,
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  Speaker 1: as only cinema really knows how to do. She says.
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  Speaker 1: Cinema is the most powerful and beautiful medium of human
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  Speaker 1: communication that the world has ever known. So if I
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  Speaker 1: played a part through this film to speak to and
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  Speaker 1: overcome some of that opaque understanding of the reality on
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  Speaker 1: the ground of military occupation and settler colonization that has
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  Speaker 1: been taking place for decades, then that's wonderful. She adds,
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  Speaker 1: I needed to make this film to deal with the pain,
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  Speaker 1: to deal with the guilt, to deal with wanting to
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  Speaker 1: be able to look at myself in the mirror and
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  Speaker 1: respect myself as a human being. I guess you could
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  Speaker 1: say I needed to make this film to cope with
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  Speaker 1: the injustice that I've witnessed come acutely aware of. And
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  Speaker 1: there's nothing more spiritual or cathartic than to create.
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  Speaker 2: And with it being something she needed for herself. Nabutsi
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  Speaker 2: has previously talked about the depth of sharing these films
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  Speaker 2: for others to understand. Here's another quote from that twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty one Al Jazeera At article quote, what about this
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  Speaker 2: layer of engagement. I don't mean on the mental level,
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  Speaker 2: because there's a lot of that available, but how do
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  Speaker 2: you engage people through the heart? Ultimately, that's what I
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  Speaker 2: am interested in. I want to speak to people from
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  Speaker 2: my heart to their heart, as opposed to talking facts
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  Speaker 2: and figures and studies show that if you can bring
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  Speaker 2: people to understand and feel and address them through their hearts,
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  Speaker 2: you have a much higher chance of moving them away
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  Speaker 2: from their positions or even changing their minds. It goes on,
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  Speaker 2: film seemed to be one of her best way to
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  Speaker 2: achieve this que a career into her filmmaking. She goes
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  Speaker 2: on to say, for me, it just became so obvious
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  Speaker 2: that that's the way I wanted to engage, says Nabutsi,
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  Speaker 2: and I've loved film since forever. Anyone who knew me
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  Speaker 2: as a teen knows that I'm exactly where I am
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be right now, and that felt completely right.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that the journey I went on wasn't
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  Speaker 2: something I didn't enjoy. It was actually very helpful in
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  Speaker 2: many ways. So you can find a lot of articles
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  Speaker 2: about her talking about her change and about why this
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  Speaker 2: is so important to her. Again, this was all from
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  Speaker 2: articles I believe of September or earlier of this year, right.
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  Speaker 1: And we definitely I want to check this out. We'll
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  Speaker 1: add it to our our list these movies.
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  Speaker 2: As a list I know which is great.
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  Speaker 1: It's great. I'm excited to check them out. And as always, listeners,
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  Speaker 1: if you have anybody we should be talking about in
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  Speaker 1: these segments, or any topic we should be discussing, please
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  Speaker 1: let us know. You can email us a Stephanie and
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• 9:51
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• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Zoe Steriu Super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
• 10:04
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