On 26 March 2025, Mentees and Mentors of Film London Connect - Cohort 2 - celebrated the end of their 6 month programme. Held at Richmix with a drinks reception, the night began with a panel discussion of 2 mentoring pairs reflecting on their journeys, chaired by Moira McVean, the Skills Team’s Mentoring Manager. She was joined by Eshani Mhatre, a Masters Graduate in Strategic Marketing with Digital Media Management, and her mentor Gareth Lowrie, VP of Marketing at Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Secondly, Lourdes Walsh, who develops stages around the UK for the British Film Commission, was joined by her mentor, Rachel Morrison, Director of Farnborough International Studios.

When asked what the key takeaways had been from the programme, previous to mentoring Lourdes found that the industry "was about knocking on doors and not getting a response", however now that she’d had a mentor in Rachel, there was "someone guaranteed to answer the door to you. Even if it was just, “Oh I know someone, who can open that door.”

For Eshani, she mentioned how this programme was “something that spoke to me, because storytelling is a passion of mine, and with my numbers skills, what I ended up focusing on with Gareth, was data and storytelling.” Having first grown confident mingling with newcomers like herself to the industry, Eshani has since developed in confidence to approach people in the industry who are in senior positions.

Navigating imposter syndrome was a theme explored during the panel discussion; however, Film London Connect Mentors are merited for their openness, selflessness and curiosity towards the current and next generation of talent.

Rachel’s reason for mentoring? “I thought it was about time that I did something to give back. But actually what I’ve found through working with Lourdes is actually I’m gaining quite a lot out of the experience.”

Meanwhile, Gareth - who is keen to stay in touch with Eshani - shared with the crowd the magic of networking and how this can help people succeed, when “characteristics of people who work together and collaborate” compliment each other, “like a Writer, Producer, Editor, Costume Designer; they move from project to project because they know and they trust each other. You don’t want [the industry] to be an old boy’s club, you want it to be an industry where people develop and move together as a team.”

Alongside filming the panel, Videographer Philip Adu-Bobie captured some engaging vox pops of others’ reflections on their mentoring partnerships. These included, Erick Kwashie, Script Editor & Script Consultant who highly rated his mentee, Meghana Krishnamurthy. “She’s juggling her Masters, she’s producing a short, and she wrote a second draft of a feature and she also wrote a short film. Now for this short film, she has already reached out to potential collaborators". Though the project is still in the early stages of production/development and an ongoing process, Erick is "impressed with the confidence of going out there and trying to make it happen"

Later in the night, experienced Black filmmakers who were present at Richmix for TNB XPO 2025, networked with the crowd, curious to find out how they could apply to become Mentors themselves. Watch this space, for the next round of Film London Connect.