Hanna Flint’s reel life

Watching movies was our family’s pastime

Every week we would either go to the multiplex or rent a movie from Blockbuster Video – so a love of film was nurtured in our family. The careers I wanted to pursue were very much influenced by what I'd seen on screen. I remember watching Flipper when I was little and thinking I wanted to be a marine biologist. Later on, I watched Legally Blonde and decided I wanted to study law!

Nottingham helped me discover who I really am

As someone who's half Tunisian - I'm Arab, North African, British - Doncaster, where I grew up, didn't have a lot of diversity.

In my first year at Nottingham I was flat sharing in St Peter's Court halls with girls of Indian and Sri Lankan heritage. The ethnicity might not necessarily have been the same, but it felt nice to be around people who shared similar identities and experiences as women from ethnic minorities.

Learn your craft

Rather than trying to fast track your way towards success, understand there’s value in learning from others who are more experienced and educating yourself.

This is reflected in businesses not wanting to hire people for what they’re worth and investing in them too. Rather than letting people grow in a company, they just want to get the lowest person in or the cheapest person, rather than helping sustain the ecosystem.

What I liked about my degree was that there was so much I found useful as transferable skills. The thing about writing essays and doing research - it's all part of the craft you use as a journalist to tell a compelling story.

It’s all about the hustle

The reality is you have to pay rent! After graduating I got a job working in a marketing agency for about a year. But I also contacted someone I knew at LBC radio to ask if I could come in and shadow. So from Monday to Friday I was working at this marketing agency, and every Saturday and Sunday I was waking up at 5:30am to do guest bookings for LBC!

I then became an assistant producer, then I did overnight shifts on LBC, then I was working at talkSPORT – but none of these roles were in the entertainment field I was keen on, but I just saw the value of getting in anywhere and everywhere.

I'm 37 now and it’s taken me probably 14 or 15 years to get into this position, but I didn't have the straight route to get here. I only went freelance in 2017, but the whole period before was such a slog and you really need the stamina. Every time I speak to anyone about how to make it in the industry I say it's a lot of hard work! Consider how you can broaden your horizons and think carefully how to make every opportunity work for you.

Some people come out of university and are fortunate enough to go straight into Empire magazine and never leave, or they get to do the BBC placement, but these days our industry has become so oversaturated it makes it a lot more difficult to succeed.

Shining a light on Gaza

Cinema For Gaza is such a shining achievement (Hanna and five film industry peers raised over £250,000 to support Medical Aid for Palestinians), but it's also really been really difficult as an Arab watching the situation unfold, seeing the wider dehumanization of Arabs and experiencing racism. Ta-Nehise Coates said something like, ‘what do we lose as writers by not writing and talking about it?’, I've got a voice and a platform, so any chance to raise awareness I will.

A Night to remember

One of my highlights was interviewing the director M. Night Shyamalan. We talked about risk and believing in yourself - when he wasn't doing well after directing The Last Airbender, he had such faith in his ability that he put his own money on the line, remortgaging his house to finance The Visit. He's had such an interesting career and what I really love is that he's carried on in the face of a lot of critics. That’s such an inspiring story for me.

Hanna’s book Strong Female Character is available now. Find out more about her work.