Published on: 23 January 2025 in Case Studies

Accessing Unique Worlds in Documentary Filmmaking: an interview with Havana Marking

Reading time: 7 minutes and 37 seconds

Read our conversation below.


Photo credit: Havana Marking

What drew you to documentary directing?

I was lucky enough to have a filmmaker as a mother! In my early teens double-bill matinees were a form of childcare and I would sit, mesmerised, in random cinemas watching the usually political, auteur movies she had chosen for me. I remember very clearly a Soylent Green and Fahrenheit 451 afternoon. I learned immediately the power of film and politics through art.

After university I started working on local papers and founded an eco-arts ‘zine, which ultimately led to an offer for work on Escape to River Cottage with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. It was factual entertainment, but had a soft politics edge that I loved.   

As a researcher and AP, I deliberately moved between genres learning all the different styles, from observational docs to shiny floor. I am not a snob about format, beautiful storytelling can come in many forms. However, I had a bad experience with reality TV, working on a series that prided itself on being “car crash telly”. After that, I decided to find an alternative to the mainstream.

My first directing commission was a comic animated Theory of Relativity for the Channel 4 3 Minute Wonder strand, and then I won the Channel 4 Pitch at Sheffield for a short called The Crippendales about a disabled stripping troupe. In 2009 I made Afghan Star, my foray into the arthouse feature doc world. This was a pure observational film following contestants at a local Afghan version of Pop Idol. I knew, from my days in factual entertainment, how a TV show like this could open a window on a nation. The film won the World Cinema Audience Award and the World Cinema Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

My latest film, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right is a real-life spy thriller, and I believe my best to date. We follow an undercover journalist as he investigates, infiltrates, and secretly films various far right networks. We worked alongside the Guardian and Die Spiegel newspapers. Ultimately the journalist, Harry Shukman, and his handler, Patrik Hermanssen, uncover a million-dollar network that spreads across Europe to Silicon Valley. It is, as one reviewer wrote: “Thrilling to behold, chilling to contemplate.” Which is exactly how it felt making it.

Your films explore complex topics in sometimes precarious locations and situations. What is that like as a female director?

I have always loved telling human, granular stories that reflect a much bigger geopolitical situation. My films are often the stories behind the headlines, or frontlines of the world. I often end up then in more dangerous locations, or at the edges of society. Each film will have a different challenge, and it’s true that being a woman can make you more vulnerable. However, it can also be a massive advantage. In Afghanistan as a Westerner I was able to be in rooms full of men and permitted to talk to Afghan women – which was the only way to get a true picture of society.

In my film Smash and Grab: the Story of the Pink Panthers, I worked to get access to the world’s most successful diamond thieves, a Balkan gang that emerged out of the collapse of Yugoslavia. By chance I was pregnant at the time, which ended up being amazing for the film. These hard nosed gangsters were total softies in the presence of a mum-to-be, and my access got better as my bump got bigger!

In this latest film, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right, it was also unexpectedly advantageous at points. The trick to filming something like Undercover is to make yourself invisible. Not in disguise, just blended right in. Our cameras were small (Sony AS7), our set-ups simple. We used radio mics and no booms. We had no lights and used darkness to our advantage. We wore clothes that said nothing, in brand or style, and I dyed my red hair. There are often cameras around, but not many with 50-something women behind them. Just toning my hair to auburn brown allowed a neutrality. Hilariously, my age also helped. At far-right rallies all the men are geared up to be aggressive to other men. They didn’t see me. It’s running joke with my producer Natasha Dack: it was a bit like trying to get a drink at Soho House.

“There are certain truths in documentary. For the film to have impact, you have to make it the most compelling it can be. The principles of good storytelling are fundamental.”

As a director, how do you fulfil your responsibility to ensure crew and contributors are safe?

In terms of the safety of the contributors, again each story has to be assessed individually. In Undercover we were working with journalists from Hope Not Hate, Britain’s leading antifascist organisation. They have a great deal of experience in undercover work and we took our lead from them. We spent large amounts of time and money making sure we were all digitally and physically safe. Harry moved into a safe house when the investigation was published, which was always the plan. Since the release, things have been managed very well.

Photo credit: Havana Marking

When telling deep, political stories, how do you keep the narrative front and center? How do you bring your style and artistic vision into a film?

There are certain truths in documentary. For the film to have impact, you have to make it the most compelling it can be. The principles of good storytelling are fundamental. The narrative in Undercover had a beautiful story arc that lent itself to a perfect three act structure. Of course we had no idea that would be the case in the beginning, but it unfolded as if from the pages of Robert McKee’s Story or John Yorke’s Into the Woods. The trick was letting it be.

The best style and vision will come out of the story itself: this is a real-life spy film, and we wanted to lean into that genre. Natasha and I were convinced it would work as a cinematic piece as the journalism was compelling through its storytelling and characters. We knew we could use music, movement and editing to maximise the tension. I must commend Tara Creme on her score, Tom Turner on his observational camerawork and Ross Leppard and Ian Kitching on their edit skills. I really believe we have managed to combine the observational doc and spy genre in a new and exciting way.

At a time when we’ve seen a downturn in commissioning of scripted work, are you seeing the same in documentary?

Yes! It’s an apocalypse right now. Probably there are broadly similar reasons for economic pressures, but the political documentary is experiencing an especially hard battering right now. The forces of populism and the swing to far right politics we are seeing globally has a knock-on effect on everything from funding to screening, broadcasters to film festivals. From what I’ve experienced, many are more risk adverse at the moment and we are seeing now who is willing to put their heads above the parapet. Documentaries seem a bit of a canary in the coal mine here. It feels like a very real achievement to have got our film out at all, and we are hugely grateful to the BFI Doc Society and Channel 4 for backing us.

What are you working on now? Is there something new you’re looking to explore?

If I told you, I’d have to kill you… 


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