Monika Grassl was born in in Vienna, Austria. In 2006 she wrote an analysis about Austrian documentary filmmaking for the Vienna Film Fund. She also created monthly portraits about unusual people for OKTO Community TV in Vienna. She has worked for the film production companies WILDart Film and DocuZone Austria, and for documentary film director Hubert Sauper in Paris, France. Her previous directing credits include “Rana and Slawa,” “Be Free,” and “Where Time Stops.” (Press materials)
“Girls Don’t Fly” will premiere at the 2016 Hot Docs Film Festival on May 2.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
MG: My documentary is about a group of young women in Ghana who have an exceptional dream — to become pilots. At the one and only flying school for girls in West Africa, they are committed to find their own way in life as independent women, even though society in Ghana is still far from accepting women as equals to men.
At the flying school, they are confronted with another kind of oppression. They are thrown into the so called “white man’s system” since the director of the flying school is an Englishman who imposes his European methods and values. The film is not only about women trying to become independent, it is also about emancipation from post-colonial thinking.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MG: I found the flying school while doing research about women’s emancipation in Ghana. I wanted to show a positive success story in an African country to offset all the negative images and stories about war, hunger, disease etc. that represent Africa in a lot of films and media coverage.
In particular, the younger generations of women in Ghana are very eager to take their lives into their own hands and become independent women. I felt there is a change taking place in Ghanaian society, led by those young women who don’t want to be dependent on men any more. This was my first motivation for the film.
During the shooting, it turned out that there was another story to tell as well. From the very beginning, the relationship and cultural differences between the girls and the English director caught my interest. Of course I couldn’t know how the story would pan out but I felt that there would definitely be something there.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
That is a difficult question because every spectator should develop his own opinion and I didn’t want to direct my film in a way that would tell people exactly what to think. But I hope people will reflect on the existing post-colonial structures and behaviors on both sides, Westerners and Africans, and the injustices and inequality that come with it.
On the one hand, some Westerners in African countries still act like superior beings. In Ghana I observed that some have arrogant attitudes, like “We have to civilize Africa” or to “show them how to develop.” This is also due to completely different ways of thinking and values, and the resulting cultural misunderstandings.
On the other hand, a lot of Ghanaians still think that “white” means being superior, which paves the way for postcolonial thinking. So both sides have to reflect on their relationship and need to learn to approach each other as equals.
At the same time there is often that seemingly altruistic wish in Westerners to be “the saviors of Africa.” I don’t want to generalize and criticize every NGO or development aid worker, but I think everybody has to think carefully about their real aims and motivations.
I observed that some are in it simply for the adventure, sometimes it’s to have power over others, and sometimes the NGO sector comes over as mainly a business model with a lot of funding and money behind it. It can also be a way for Western nations — especially the U.S. — to control a foreign country or its people, and hide its influence behind development aid. Even though my film does not generalize, it shows some of the mechanisms at play in one specific example.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
MG: The biggest challenge was being a European filmmaker while at the same time criticizing the attitudes of other Europeans when they come to a West African country. I also had to ask myself if it’s right to shoot a film in a foreign country, where I hardly know or understand how the society works or how people think without knowing their traditions, ways of living, and habits very well.
Because of this I think there might be some people who could criticize me for going there and recording my observations with a camera. As a “white” filmmaker, you have to be very careful when you shoot a documentary in an African culture that is not your own and of which you know very little.
I thought a great deal about how to create equal relationships with my protagonists — so that they wouldn’t just see me as the white woman who might help them in some way, and therefore act how they think I want them to. At times, I did realize that subconsciously I was expecting people to think or see things the way I did. Sometimes there were misunderstandings and different interpretations due to cultural differences, and as a foreigner you have to be sensitive and aware of that to avoid seeming arrogant.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
MG: It was my final year film at a film school in Germany, Filmacademy Baden-Wuerttemberg. The school provided the material and a small budget, but not enough for a shooting in Africa. With two German and Austrian production companies (it was a German/Austrian co-production), we managed to get government funding and support from the German TV channel Br as well.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
MG: The best advice in general in my life was to be persistent and never give up, because things can always change at any moment, especially when you try to direct a film project.
I am not sure if I really got any bad advice in my life. If I got some, I guess I didn’t pay attention and therefore forgot about it.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
MG: Don’t see yourself mainly as a female director. I think there will be no equality if we continue to label directors as male and female. You have to know your capabilities — what you can do and what you can’t.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
MG: “Rough Aunties” by Kim Longinotto. I really like the film and her documentaries in general. It’s inspiring for me to see how she manages to direct while shooting at the same time. She manages to be very sensitive concerning her subject matter and in the way she approaches her protagonists.
