'Fearless' filmmakers on joy, resilience and giving a voice to an overlooked generation

The documentary Fearless celebrates women from the Windrush generation that are rarely seen on screen: six elders in their late 70s to 90s who journeyed from the Caribbean, South Asia, and Ireland to Britain decades ago. 

The Floor Magazine sat down with the film’s creators – writer-director Noella Mingo and producer-cinematographer Damian Paul Daniel – to discuss the its origins, its uplifting approach to history and their mission to spotlight these remarkable lives. 

From Short Film to Feature Documentary

Nages Amirthananthar's family

The story of how Fearless came to be was with a ten-minute short, Noella explained.

“Fearless began life as a short film called ‘When I Was Younger’, featuring three of the women that are in the final documentary. And it did really well,  it got into festivals all over the world. People loved it.”

Encouraged by the response from Q&A sessions, Noella and Damian expanded the project into a feature-length documentary. Noella continued “People would always say they could listen to these women talk all day… why couldn't it be longer?” To build the feature, the filmmakers doubled the cast of women from three to six and refined the film’s focus. 

“We found three more women and changed the theme slightly,” she explained.

Noella made a point to note the common thread between these women, she said: “They were all women who came to Britain after World War Two at the invitation of the British government to help rebuild the country,” arriving as young migrants in the 1940s and 50s. 

Noella and Damian interwove the individual personal stories including all the social history and pivotal moments that happened when they first came to the UK. 

Chronicling Post-War Migration

Maggie Kelly

Fearless chronicles the lives of six women, now elders between roughly 80 and 90 years old. 

These women; Sheila Daniel, Aileen Edwards, Maggie Kelly, Anne Gaché, Nashattar Kang, and Nages Amirthananthar, came from Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, the Punjab, Sri Lanka, and Ireland, answering the British government’s call to help rebuild the country.

As part of the Windrush generation, they arrived not as immigrants, but as British citizens, many holding UK passports due to the colonial ties of the time.Fearless shines a light on this often overlooked chapter of British history – the story of women who helped to lay the foundations of modern Britain, yet whose contributions have been routinely underacknowledged. 

These women were nurses, caregivers, mothers, factory workers, and community builders.

 Despite facing hostility, discrimination, and culture shock, they persevered with dignity and resilience, shaping neighborhoods and institutions across the UK.

Finding Joy Amid Hardship

Aileen Edwards

While Fearless does not shy away from the difficulties the women faced, either through blatant racism, the stark weather contrast, the immense hard work or simply feeling homesick, the filmmakers were still able to  emphasise an uplifting perspective. 

“It was really important to us that it wasn’t about the [hard times],” Noella noted. 

“We had the social history elements that show some of the hard times they were living through. 

“But for the women themselves, it was about showing the joy and the happiness and the resilience of those women.” Fearless spotlights laughter, hope, and the spirited personalities of its subjects.

Many of these grandmothers and great-grandmothers prove to be exuberant storytellers, witty, candid, and even “mischievous."

“The film could have... gone down the route of the hard and the bad... perhaps it would have been grittier,” Damian reflects. 

“But we wanted… to highlight the mischievousness and laughter as well.” The women reminisced about going dancing, finding romance, and outrageous anecdotes. 

“To see these women being so funny and so vibrant was... a completely new and fresh way of looking at women of that generation,” Noella observed.

For Noella and Damian, Fearless is a personal journey that gives the feature documentary a uniquely intimate tone. By preserving these women’s memories, Fearless honors them individually but also gives them the opportunity to pass their wisdom to the younger generation. 

“You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been,” Noella added. 

Upcoming screenings of Fearless are taking place across the following dates and locations.

31st July @ The Newlyn Filmhouse

9th August @ The Fellowship Inn Cinema