A Chat with Victoria Bridges

Victoria Bridges has been a documentary filmmaker for most of her career. She’s half American, having gone to Harvard University, but she lives in the UK with her husband and daughter. Now she’s heading up a chapter of Global Girl Media in London, a global organization that is dedicated to empowering high school age girls from under-served communities through media, leadership, and journalistic training.

“I want to put those media tools of content-authoring into the hands of girls. There is a hierarchy still of those who have the power to make media decisions. It starts with white men at the top and goes all the way down to girls - and young women of color in particular - who I feel are still left out of the conversation.”

Having come from a patriarchal family, she grew up feeling that she didn’t have a right to have her own voice heard, something that’s common amongst many women. But, she had a desire to create stories by getting behind a camera. It didn’t have to be her story, but she felt the world is a wonderful place, and that it could be opened up so much more through documentary filmmaking.

After graduation, Victoria came across a group in New York called Communication for Change, run by Martha Stewart (not the cook). So Victoria was instrumental in taking film equipment to the developing world and organized a library of videos made by tribal people from villages all over the world who swapped messages amongst themselves. Farmers in China who made films about how to create their own biogas, swapped videos with local Indian shop owners, who were fighting with local government to keep their market stalls open.

“I felt it was powerful to give a voice to those who didn’t have one through documentary filmmaking,” Victoria explained. “I felt the media (specifically broadcast media) was a top down institution in those days, in the 1980s. And I still feel that this is the case. So I went in with all sorts of ideals about giving a voice to the marginalized, through the BBC, even though there was a tight control over the types of films that one was allowed to make through the BBC.”

Victoria spent the early part of her career filming and researching. She was a researcher on a series called Frontiers, which was about borders between countries. She worked on the French-Spanish border, and on a film that took place on the Mexican-U.S. border. “For me that was the dream job. There was a self-empowering aspect to that. But there were stories to be told and heard that weren’t being heard.”

“As a director and producer you’re still under the power of those in the broadcast company that are making the final decisions. You’re not really making the films you want to make,” Victoria pointed out. At one point she and her husband went around the world to make films that they were inspired to make. They would connect with NGOs and make stories about, for instance, modern-day slavery in Pakistan or the impact of oil exploration on remote tribes in Peru.  

But in the early 2000s, Victoria became a mother, and she stepped back to make charitable films, as well as got a Masters at London’s City University.

In this time she began to see a democratization of using media equipment. It’s now easy to get a camera and editing equipment for cutting, as filming is more accessible than it used to be.

When GlobalGirl Media approached Victoria a few months ago she was delighted to start the London chapter. “I want to put those media tools of content-authoring into the hands of girls. There is a hierarchy still of those who have the power to make media decisions. It starts with white men at the top and goes all the way down to girls - and young women of color in particular - who I feel are still left out of the conversation.”

When I asked if she thinks there are enough women in the media, Victoria stated, “There are definitely not enough women in the media. I read a recent survey in the UK where there are fewer women directors than ever. It’s a real problem. I think it might be this sense culturally that women feel that they don’t have a right to speak out. That is changing where girls are starting to feel that they have a right to their voice.”

Because things are changing with blogging, and anyone can publish their own content, GlobalGirl Media feels like it can add to the conversation by empowering girls to make their voices heard. “I feel that what Amie is doing is so powerful,” Victoria commended. “She’s training girls and empowering girls by giving them a camera, and that in and of itself is a fantastic thing. Also in the training she’s helping girls with self-esteem issues. She’s helping girls understand their rights, human rights and question where they are in society, and where they could be. It’s an inspiring model. I’m excited to start it up here in London.”

*Photos courtesy of Victoria Bridges,