Six years ago, actress Debbie Howard founded Big Buddha Films in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in the UK. Tired of the same old offers to play "a boring twitching old maid, a nagging wife, or the love/sex interest," Debbie decided to make the move, herself, toward making films with a strong female voice. She began writing her own scripts with positive female roles in mind, and now directs documentaries and shorts that have been featured at Cannes Film Festival, London Independent Film Festival, and dozens of others in the U.K., Europe, and North America.

The subject matter of Debbie's films ranges from documenting children's discovery on the playground and loving the curliest of hair to sexual harrassment and HIV/AIDS. Her current project, Peekaboo, tackles a women's issue that is still not talked about in depth - the pain and emotional hell of miscarriage and stillbirth.

Debbie answered a few questions for us about her company and mission - check out the clips on her site. You'll definitely want to see more!

K: Why do you think it's important to focus on women in your films?
Debbie: Making work with strong roles for women will always be something I want to do, as it's good to redress the balance, and to tell women's stories. A lot of films made are written by men, because a lot of men do the commissioning so they pick stories they relate to. But women make up more than 50% of the human beings on this planet - and we have stories to tell, interesting lives and passion. There are so many amazing women out there, and so many talented performers, I want to make for and about them.

K: What is your favorite project, to date?
Debbie: That's a really hard one. I've enjoyed many of them for different reasons. Definitely Peekaboo, the film I'm just about to shoot has been a massive passion for me and taken a huge part of my life up for the past couple of years. The themes of the film are really important, looking at stillbirth, grief, loss, relationships, taboo's. Not just the taboo of stillbirth, but the taboo that we're not allowed to grieve in the way you need to. It's very exciting to be about to shoot the film, and I'm really delighted to be working such amazing actors as Lesley Sharp and Shaun Dooley. They will bring such power to their roles. And they are tough roles to play.

I also really enjoyed making Bring Me Joy, which was a comedy and great fun to make. And Pussy, which was my latest film, which looked at sexual bullying at school.

K: Do you have a dream project that you'd ultimately like to complete?
Debbie: I guess I do, at the moment it's Peekaboo. As I said it's taken a large part of my heart and soul getting this project off the ground without funding, having to raise all the money independently, fight a lot of battles along the way and just pull it all together. I can't wait to shoot it, and then get cracking on post production with my fantastic editor Neil Fergusson, who has been a total star in helping me with my last three films, again for no money. I can't wait to see it completed and on the screen. But yes, after that, I want to move into features. I'm planning a feature length documentary after Peekaboo is finished, and I'd also like to then look at a feature drama, but keeping my ideas well under wraps for now!

Thanks Debbie! (oh, and I love this!)

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