The Work That Made Me: Sasha Rainbow

Sasha describes her filmmaking sensibility as taking reality and smashing it together with imagination.

Her work is hyperreal and filled with heart and hope, an energetic exercise in vibrant imagination. She has a distinctive talent for drumming up anticipation through bold camera choices, epic sound design, and lighting quick cutting.

She believes in the power of storytelling to showcase true, heroic role models, and invigorates social campaigns with undeniable artistry to cast light on the causes that really matter.

The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Sasha> Oh that’s an easy one. Telecom - Keep in touch.

I was a teen, having dinner at my friend’s house with her mum and brother (who of course I always wanted to impress), they had the TV on at the other end of the table and BAM! This commercial comes on - so sweet, I think, as I watch this young man with his baby boy, watching as he, and the baby, grow older until – what?! He’s not there?! He’s… God forbid…DEAD!? I burst into tears in front of everyone, just in time for the words “Keep in touch” to appear.

They never let me forget it, and I never forgot the power an ad could provoke.

The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Sasha> If I wasn’t finding cheats on Doom - I was most likely watching B52’s The Love Shack on MTV.

Should I be honest? OK, OK I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know there was an industry. I don’t know what I thought - like people actually lived inside these boxes and I could click a remote and see them? Perhaps!

The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…

Sasha> I will never, never, never, never get enough of The Wizard Of Oz. I mean - a young woman, goes on a journey to a land far far away, collecting friends all trying to find themselves, only to discover they had what they needed all along within?

Sheesh. What’s not to like. Oh, and the trippy raining “poppy powder.” Come on.

My first professional project…

Sasha> Hang on, I need to look up what professional actually means LOL.

Professional: /prəˈfɛʃən(ə)l/

Engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.

That would be babysitting. 13. These parents ripped me off and paid me seven bucks an hour but loaded me up with their children's friends. Welcome to the rat race.

In film, you ask? We don’t talk about that. Let’s just say the first professional project I did I was proud of was for Placebo – ‘Life’s What You Make It’. On the back of that I did a short documentary project about the electronic waste dump in Accra, Ghana and it was an experience that will stay with me forever.

The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

Sasha> If you want to get a fire in my belly show me a bank Ad with a cute cartoon. Or an insurance commercial with a really happy family smiling. I’d love to work on a campaign with such a company and actually tell a story that sits in the truth AND draws people in. I’m sure it’s possible!

The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…

Sasha> I’m jealous of anything coming out of Good Oil and Ocurens. Luckily I’m represented by them.

The creative project that changed my career…

Sasha> That would have to be Alpha Female by Wild Beasts music video. I went back to different parts of India four more times after that, made a documentary that was nominated for a BAFTA and started skateboarding, resulting in great times and a broken scaphoid.

The work that I’m proudest of…

Sasha> My documentary film, Kamali. Check it out (for free) on www.waterbearnetwork.com - it’s an awesome documentary platform full of amazing films!

I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Sasha> Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Truthfully, being involved in anything is pretty rad. That’s how you learn how to do (or not do) shit, so I’m not going to bag.

The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Sasha> I just finished shooting my first feature film, Grafted. It’s a hybrid body horror about a young Chinese science student who tries to fix her life, one body at a time.