Today we’re giving Cassiah Joski-Jethi some Really Good Exposure!
Cassiah is an award-winning mixed-race writer/director represented by Independent, who began her career working for writer/director Gurinder Chadha OBE after a chance meeting on a train.
Meg talks to Cassiah about how the hell you get into directing without going to film school, how Cassiah supports herself as a creative freelancer while also making a pretty daunting industry more accessible to people who can’t afford to go to film school, and why it is so important to find joy in creativity that isn’t about work.
Cassiah shares her tips for breaking into writing/directing, her methods of connecting with other creatives who she learnt from at the beginning of her career, and how to keep yourself sane in an industry that can feel somewhat bleak at times!
Cassiah has directed five short films including her recent award-winning BFI Network film 'Catch A Butcher' which screened at multiple BAFTA/BIFA festivals, and was acquired by ALTER and BFI Player. Most recently, Cassiah directed the BBC Studios short award-winning thriller 'The Pink Pill'. She was also recently a Trainee Director on Apple TV’s ‘Hijack’ mentored by director/showrunner Jim Field Smith, and has also been mentored by director Claire McCarthy. Cassiah is now working on her debut feature projects, including one in development with the BFI. In 2024, Cassiah was selected for the prestigious BRIT List, as well as selected for BFI Network@LFF 2024, and this year, she has been selected for BFI Midlands Directors Lab 2025.
You can find Cassiah on her socials here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassiahjj/
Twitter: https://x.com/cassiahjj
Learn more about Cassiah's filmmaking workshops here: https://www.cassiahj-j.com/workshops
Watch her BFI short 'Catch a Butcher' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqxDZVC36wg
and listen to her podcast 'One of us is a Filmmaker' here: https://oneofusisafilmmaker.podbean.com/
As always, you can find me here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Megartron
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/megartron.bsky.social
Twitter: https://x.com/meg_prescott
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MegPrescott/videos
Spicy page: @Megartron
A lot of the topics that we talk about on really good exposure relate to women's rights, worker rights, and the sorry state that both of those are in right now.
We believe that women have the right to choose what they do with their bodies and how they make their money, and we also believe that how we choose to use our bodies should never, ever alleviate perpetrators of violence from accountability. We believe that all workers deserve basic human rights and protections, and we believe that predators are always responsible for violence, not victims. If you agree, please consider donating to national ugly mugs. National ugly mugs is a pioneering national organisation that provides greater access to justice and protection for sex workers. You can donate here: https://nationaluglymugs.org/donate you can also follow N.U.M. on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/nationaluglymugs
Sex workers are often targeted by dangerous individuals and face obstacles to reporting access to services and police protection. Those who harm sex workers offend against all of us.
