Bridgette Auger has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya, as well as the refugee crisis as a result of the war in Syria, through photography and video. She was a 2016 National MediaMaker Fellow at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) and a fellow at Independent Filmmaker Project’s (IFP) 2017 Doc Lab. Her credits include the short “This is not me: Enduring Syria’s War.”

“We Are Not Princesses” will premiere at the 2018 DOC NYC film festival on November 14. The film is co-directed by Itab Azzam.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

BA: “We Are Not Princesses” is about how feminine wisdom, passed through the mouth of the ancient Greek heroine Antigone, inspires Syrian women living in Beirut’s refugee camps to stand up to societal and patriarchal authority. Our film focuses on what Syria still has, strong women picking up the pieces of their society and moving forward. It is an uplifting and beautiful story told through intimate vérité footage and gorgeous animation.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

BA: In 2014, the Open Art Foundation put together a theater workshop with Syrian women refugees in Beirut to create a space for community, and to provide tools to help the women process their trauma as a result of the ongoing conflict in Syria. My directing partner, Itab Azzam, and I knew we wanted to make a film about the theater workshop, but were open to what we’d focus on. When the women received the script [for “Antigone”], they came rushing in the next day exclaiming, “There is no way this was written 2,500 years ago! This is our story!”

It was that moment that inspired our film. Seeing the instant connection the women made between the play and their lives made clear that the work going on behind the scenes would be the legacy of this workshop.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

BA: I want the film to inspire difficult conversations about the issues the film addresses. I have a dream of showing it in communities with resettled refugees across the U.S. and Europe, and creating a space for dialogue within those communities about fear, racism, Islamophobia, and gender equality. People see the film and their hearts open. This opening creates the space where honest and difficult conversation can happen. Only then can real change take place.

I know this is a very micro-level kind of work, but I think that is what is needed. The U.S. and Europe have been absorbing the fear-based media for far too long now and people have forgotten about our shared humanity. I continue to speak with the women in this film on an almost daily basis and it is these women that never let me forget that there is goodness and kindness in the world. This film is focused on bringing people together through a shared experience.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

BA: Funding! We finished filming it four years ago. Raising the funding for the animation and post-production was a challenge.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

BA: Our film was funded by putting together many different sources. We did several crowdfunding campaigns, received a grant from AFAC [Arab Fund for Arts and Culture] and also had private donations in addition to fellowships at BAVC and IFP, which provided invaluable non-financial support.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

BA: I met my directing partner, Itab Azzam, in Damascus, Syria in 2008. We were neighbors and co-workers at the UN Refugee Agency where Itab was interviewing newly arriving Iraqi refugees, and where I was the staff photographer. On Friday mornings Itab would invite me over for pancake breakfasts on her rooftop in Muhajireen, overlooking Damascus.

In 2014 I was living in Beirut, working as a freelance photojournalist and camerawoman. Actually, I was making a living as a real-estate agent for a company renting apartments to the flood of expatriate NGO elites flocking to Beirut. My career as a photographer had all but died, because I couldn’t bring myself to cover the “desperate Syrian refugee” story anymore.

Itab approached me to help her film a theater workshop that she was producing called “Antigone of Syria.” I jumped at the chance to be creative and work on issues I care deeply about. We began filming the movement exercises and the discussions in the rehearsals. It became immediately clear that important work was also going on behind the scenes and outside of the performance space.

Just as Fedwa, Heba, Isra, Mona, and the others were inspired by the story of Antigone, I have been on a personal journey of finding my own voice through the last four years of making this film. I’m really excited that the film is finally finished and we can begin the important work that has motivated the making of the film.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

BA: It really is true that you just have to keep going despite the rejections. I guess the best advice is just to trust that the film has its own life force and is going to be finished at its own pace. Forcing it wouldn’t work, it just led to emotional disappointment.

The worst advice was getting caught up in a fever that we needed to get the film out as soon as possible because it was a “Syria story” and “Syria fatigue” was fast approaching. I tried to get our film out there before it was finished and polished because of that push. It was a stressful lesson to learn, but I feel that it also helped us to really hone in on what we wanted to say with this film, and how to differentiate it from other films about the Syrian conflict.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

BA: Don’t get stuck in the poverty-mentality that you can’t pay yourself. I have done that and put myself in credit card debt rather than take money from the film. Make sure you have a work-life balance that suits you. There were a few years when I wanted to live out of a backpack and do nothing but work on the film. But that wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle in the long run. So make sure you are taking care of yourself. It doesn’t help our industry wants us all to be martyrs!

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

BA: I’m a big fan of Renee Tajima-Peña’s work, such as “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and “No Más Bebés.” She is always asking difficult questions and her films take us to places we don’t want to go, but need to. Our country needs to look at its wounds in order to heal.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

BA: I think that the conversations about patriarchy and privilege are at least happening now. Many more are needed. I was just at the Getting Real ‘18 documentary conference and it was exciting to hear people bravely calling out injustice and a lack of inclusivity perpetuated even within the documentary industry.

I think each person is becoming more conscious of their own complacency and how they look the other way or don’t speak up when they witness injustice. It will take effort from each of us to make substantial changes in our society. We can’t look to others to do it for us.