{"id":3115,"date":"2021-01-10T18:09:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T18:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/?p=3115"},"modified":"2021-01-10T18:11:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T18:11:50","slug":"happy-birthday-gurinder-chadha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/2021\/01\/10\/happy-birthday-gurinder-chadha\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Gurinder Chadha!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Andrew McCarthy<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Photography by Neil Grabowsky<\/p><\/div>\n

Happy birthday to director Gurinder Chadha! Chadha was bor<\/span>n\u00a0<\/span>January 10<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a01960<\/span> in Nairobi, Kenya. Her family later moved to the UK, and s<\/span>he studied at the University of East Anglia and the London College of Printing. Throughout her career, she’s\u00a0<\/span>worked in the radio industry,<\/span>\u00a0the new<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0industry as<\/span>\u00a0a BBC reporter, as well as directed\u00a0<\/span>award-winning<\/span>\u00a0documentaries for the BBC.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While she gained <\/span>notoriety<\/span>\u00a0for the film\u00a0<\/span>Bhaji<\/span>\u00a0on the Beach, where she became the first\u00a0<\/span>British Asian woman to direct a full-length feature film<\/span>, she\u00a0<\/span>has also<\/span>\u00a0gained a lot of popularity as the\u00a0<\/span>writer<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and director\u00a0<\/span>for many feature films including: Bend it like Beckham<\/span>\u00a0and Blinded by the\u00a0<\/span>L<\/span>ight.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the films that she has written and directed\u00a0<\/span>help tell her own story<\/span>; someone who wants to become their own person despite their parent’s objections.\u00a0<\/span>She works within that space in order to find the drama for each of her films. It <\/span>allows the characters to\u00a0<\/span>find\u00a0<\/span>each other’s perspectives and grow and develop as char<\/span>acters\u00a0<\/span>through that journey<\/span>\u00a0of discovery<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0As an umbrella theme, this is very common<\/span>\u00a0in film,<\/span>\u00a0but Gurinder makes it her own by applying it to her own life; an immigrant\u2019<\/span>s journey growing up in the western world.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the movie starts, I make it for myself. The film has to be your own.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

-Gurinder Chadha<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can find many of Chadha’s films in the Media Services collection:<\/p>\n

Bend it Like Beckham<\/a> (Available online; DVD 672)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bhaji on the Beach<\/a> (DVD 4958)<\/p>\n

Blinded by the Light<\/a> (DVD 16765)<\/p>\n

Bride and Prejudice<\/a> (DVD 1784)<\/p>\n

Paris, je t’aime, “Quais de Seine”<\/a> (DVD 3378)<\/p>\n

What’s Cooking?<\/a> (DVD 251)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andrew McCarthy Happy birthday to director Gurinder Chadha! Chadha was born\u00a0January 10th\u00a01960 in Nairobi, Kenya. Her family later moved to the UK, and she studied at the University of East Anglia and the London College of Printing. Throughout her career, she’s\u00a0worked in the radio industry,\u00a0the news\u00a0industry as\u00a0a BBC reporter, as well as directed\u00a0award-winning\u00a0documentaries for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3119,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}