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want to buy that. How about this:
what if, he’s not Asian, he’s Cauca-
sian but grew up in Hong Kong?’”
Bowers refused. “That defeats the
entire purpose of what the whole “
story’s about!” she says. As I’ve progressed
While that film was never ex- as a director, I’ve
ecuted, she was able to produce her
feature documentary, The Helper, become more and
and released it in 2017. The docu- more conscious of
mentary follows the lives and strug-
gles of domestic helpers in Hong how underrepre-
Kong.
Bowers made it after realizing sented women’s sto-
that nobody had made a film explor- ries are within the
ing their lives. “I became fascinated
by how important they were yet media
how unseen and unknown their sto-
ries were. I wanted to put them on a
platform where they would be ap- ” Joanna Bowers on location shooting the
preciated and be seen,” she says. documentary, The Helper. (Photo cour-
The Helper fits in well with tesy of Joanna Bowers)
Bowers’ interest in telling women’s
stories. “As I’ve progressed as a di-
rector, I’ve become more and more
conscious of how underrepresented
women’s stories are within the me-
dia,” she adds.

Life before Directing
Growing up in Kent, U.K., Bowers
did not even think she would work
in the creative industries. She ini-
tially selected her GCE A-level sub-
jects on the premise that she was go-
ing to study medicine in university.
“I thought I was going to be a heart
surgeon!” she says.
Yet she quickly realised that the
sciences were not suitable for her, so
she decided to pursue a more crea-
tive career.
Bowers studied broadcast jour-
nalism at university. While she en-
joyed learning about writing and
video production, she realised that
hard news was too dark and depress- Joanna Bowers (middle), Nurul (right) and her daughter, Leila (left), as featured in
ing for her. the documentary, The Helper. (Photo courtesy of Joanna Bowers)
Instead, she set her sights on
the entertainment industry. She