Simran Hans
Simran Hans is a film critic for The Observer, and a features writer for print and online publications including the BFI, BuzzFeed, Dazed, The FADER, The Guardian, Little White Lies, NYLON, Pitchfork, and Sight & Sound, among others. In 2016 she contributed an essay to the BFI's Black Star Compendium, and in 2017 she wrote the liner notes for the Blu-ray re-release of Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Launderette.
She is a regular contributor to Little White Lies' Truth & Movies podcast and has guested on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour, The Film Programme and the Today Programme. She also programmes and produces feminist screening series Bechdel Test Fest, a London-based celebration of women in front of and behind the camera, as well as regularly programming, hosting and speaking at live events across the UK.
Twitter: @heavier_things
Outlets: The Observer, Sight & Sound
Location: London
Movie location I call home: Any Nancy Meyers kitchen.
I write about cinema because: Cinema is how we interpret the world.
Film criticism matters in 2017 because: it's a way to think and talk about the cultural (and not just the commercial) value of films.
The film or experience that made me want to write about film, and why: Reading the Shame issue of Little White Lies magazine back in 2012 and thinking, wistfully, that I'd like to do that one day.
A movie I changed my mind about, and why: Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro. On first watch, I deemed it televisual and too reliant upon James Baldwin's original text. On second (and third) watch, I realised that Peck's translation of that text into a visual language was more complicated than I had originally given it credit for.
The advice I’d give myself starting out: Shrug off the impulse to catch up with an arbitrary canon.
A critic that inspired me, and why: Wesley Morris consistently raises the bar for incisive, funny, interdisciplinary film criticism.
The strangest thing that happened to me as a film critic: Sharing a dancefloor with Paul Haggis at a film festival in Marrakesh.
I’m looking forward to Critics Campus because: I'm excited to meet the next generation of brilliant film writers.
MIFF film I’m most looking forward to, and why: The entire Pioneering Woman strand looks ripe for discovery.
Favourite film of the year so far, and why: Eduardo Williams' The Human Surge made me sit up. It's a challenging, political, formally daring film that actually gives its audience something to chew on.
My film festival theme music is: "Searching to Find the One" by Unlimited Touch.