Oh Canada! It's finally here!!
Dearest friends,
I’ve been waiting and WAITING for this day to come. It felt like forever but it’s finally here and I’m exploding with joy and excitement and some high-kick dance moves (that no one will ever see). Jugaad is now available on Netflix in Canada!!! It’s been streaming just about everywhere else, so now that Canada’s in the mix, it all feels very complete. You can watch it here!
Eleven years ago I was working at CBC TV in Ottawa, covering for a reporter who was on holiday, when I cut out a tiny article from the Ottawa Citizen. Did I think it would lead to a film that would one day be on Netflix? Well little old Netflix was a DVD mail service back then, but you get my point. The answer would have been a big fat NOPE. Truth is, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, meaning I was so inexperienced at filmmaking that I had no idea what the whole process looked like, what it would take, or how it would change my life. But I’m certainly glad I took that risk and kept going to the very end, especially in those moments when I was ready to call the whole thing off. Which happened regularly. And here I am now, eleven freaking years later, sharing my film around the world. Gah!!
I’ve come to realize I’m a risk taker. If it wasn’t for some blind leaps of faith I might still be an associate producer for radio or a production supervisor for documentaries (which, by the way, were two amazing jobs that I loved and I value those experiences immensely). What pushed me was that little fire in my heart that kept telling me to keep the bus moving, even if I didn’t know where it would lead me or if I’d fail so hard I'd be an embarrassment to my family and peers. That little voice deep down told me I had to make myself heard.
If you have a little fire in your heart about something you’re not sure you can pull off, I strongly urge you to take the first step. It might be scary as hell and have a guarantee rate of zero, and heck, you might fall on your face and have to scurry back home to lick your wounds. But unless you take that first step, and then the second and the third, there will always be that part of you that always wonders, what if? And usually that question has something to do with “what if I reach my fullest potential?” So we must try! And when we fail – which I continuously do on this path – we learn so much more than we do when we succeed. So close your eyes and take that first small step, no matter your age, experience or past failures, and give it a shot. I’ll be here cheering you on no matter what, along with a bunch of other people who really care about you.
So what’s next for me? As you might know from my last dispatch I’ve launched SHE Films and am now making not just documentaries but also branded content for women entrepreneurs. If you know a Canadian woman running her own business who might need beautiful, inspiring video content for her burgeoning empire, I would appreciate it so much if you would let her know about www.shefilms.ca, or better yet, introduce us! I’ll set up shop in Ottawa by February and will be casting my net as far as Montreal, Toronto and beyond. Hook a sister up!
Which brings me to you, and my gratitude for your continued support and morale boosting on this journey. It feels like an enormous crash pad that makes everything feel warm and safe when I find myself shaking in my shoes out on this limb.
For those of you in Canada, I hope you can stream Jugaad on Netflix this weekend and pretend for a quick 52 minutes that winter isn’t just around the corner. I’m in Mumbai now but plan to get back home just in time for a massive snowstorm in February. See you then!
With love and jugaad,
Susannah xo