Shiroma Silva

BIOGRAPHIE

I began as a documentary maker, researching films where the subjects were part of ordinary life, but often in hidden pockets of society. One of my first films, on which I was also a reporter, looked at a form of inter-racial private fostering, a practice which was carried out without the knowledge of the authorities in Britain. On this story I met children of Nigerian parents living and working in the big cities in England who gave up their kids to rural foster families so that they could become more “English”. For the parents it was simply a continuation of how extended families worked in Nigeria, where children are brought up by wider family members and people other than their own parents. For the kids placed in that situation in a foreign country where it’s not the social norm, it’s open to malpractice. Perhaps surprisingly though, some of the children at the centre of all of this welcomed their chance to integrate and enjoyed their status as "outsiders" in their new environments. For the foster carers, it gave an opportunity to become parents in a way that the conventional system didn’t allow them, so it was interesting to view other dimensions of this narrative. As a filmmaker I’ve always been fascinated by what’s happening underneath the bonnet of the scenarios and situations presented to us as a fait accompli; for example minority communities caught up in riots in America and whose voice we don’t usually hear or those who have lost their hard earned life savings to emerging cryptocurrencies during the time when bitcoin was at its most popular. And as I shoot most of my films, I’m more able to form a rapport with contributors cast in front of the camera than when they are captured by a large crew. In the past few years I’ve made several films about our increasing preoccupation with technologies that are saturating our everyday lives and the consequences of this shift for the way our societies are run, with global technology companies forming the New World Order. I’ve delved into how technology can be used for the greater good in the spirit of openness and sharing, and how it can bring about new ways of grassroots governance. But I've also shone a light on how our willingness to give freely of our time and information can easily be abused by those manipulating these systems to gain control of our habits, ways of thinking and perceiving the world, often unbeknown to us. Drawing on my journalistic background I continually strive to make complicated topics that underpin the fabric of our society (such as data rights and democracy) relatable. And in looking at the socio-political fallout from our software driven world, I try to present subjects that are often perceived as dry and detailed in a manner that a wider audience can access.

FILMOGRAPHIE