Gurinder Chadha

This director is most famous for ‘Bride and Prejudice’ (2004), ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ (2002) and the latest ‘Wonderful Afterlife’ (2010). She has always used her own personal experiences of being British and Asian to theme her films. This is her recognised style, and has always stayed the same throughout her career. She was a journalist when she made ‘I’m British But…’ (1989). This was a documentary about several Asian and British people around the British Isles. During this documentary, numerous shots faded from a black and white version onto a colour version, showing the transition between the current eras to ‘back in the day’.

Chadha's documentary uses the rise of Bhangra music - a vibrant fusion of traditional Punjabi dance music with contemporary Western dance styles from Hip Hop. She uses this to investigate the extent to which Asian forms have both absorbed and influenced Western culture and the way this reflects a newer generation of Asian-British young people who now recently reject stereotypes.

This recent documentary uses interviewees, a group of people from Glasgow, Belfast, London and South Wales respectively, 4 out of 5 of these people were all born in the UK, they are relaxed about their identities. They feel as the UK as their home, but equally certain of their wish to retain a link to their Asian origins, even if their parents' homelands feel remote and unfamiliar.

This is a very personal style of media, with Gurinder being from the British/Asian community, she herself had a strong meaning and reason behind this film, which did come across very positive, of how there are new identities to suit new circumstances.