Anny Tubbs was a lawyer for 25 years, working on business integrity and ethics. At the age of 50, she decided to become a documentary filmmaker. Currently she is studying journalism at VUB. In her short film ‘Trapped by Plastic’ Anny puts the spotlight on Mandy Barker, a British Photographer raising awareness on plastic pollution. That is what Anny does as a purpose. Reinforce positive change by sharing its human stories.

Do you also want to find your purpose and help save our planet? Then VUB is your partner! #TheWorldNeedsYou   

It is never too late to redirect your purpose. After spending many years preventing and investigating illegal and unethical behaviour as a lawyer, Anny wanted to highlight stories of individuals who are a force for good.  She is inspired by people with the values and practical skills to accelerate the pace of positive change. She captures their stories in her lens, and shares them with the world.

Being a European

“My parents were British and German. I was brought up in France. I was sent to Brussels for three months as part of my legal traineeship with a London law firm, met an Irishman who was already here
 We settled down together and our three children (now 23, 21 and 14) were born in Brussels. Belgium is definitely our adoptive home.”

“I became a lawyer and have practiced for 25 years, initially as an antitrust specialist, then more recently looking after the full corporate portfolio of business integrity and ethics, including fighting corruption and upholding human rights from within a global multinational.”

“Brexit rocked my world. We had moved to the UK for my job in 2015, but after the referendum it became increasingly clear to us that we want to support the European project. We decided to return to Belgium in 2019.”

Lifelong Learning

“As I was soon turning the big milestone of 50, I decided to take the opportunity to learn new skills in areas that felt increasingly important and had always interested me. I was quite nervous even though I used to teach law to mature students at the Open University. So I've always been a strong believer in lifelong learning. I was excited to find many interesting options: I picked the London Film Academy in London to learn about documentary filmmaking, and started the VUB’s Masters in Journalism and Media in Europe in the autumn of 2020.”

“Starting studies again was scary as a lot has changed since I sat my last written law exams in 1993!  Also my eldest daughter is doing a Masters in parallel in the UK, so I was very conscious I would be much older than many students - professors even - and worried about not feeling there was a place for people like me. I looked around to see if there were others, and met a few fellow lifelong learners, but importantly our fellow students, our professors and VUB staff have all been amazing. Like all the other students I am learning and I am happy to embrace the process: the professors’ approach is open, inclusive and respectful so I feel welcome.”

“Because of COVID we had less opportunity to socialise. In some ways perhaps it made differences less apparent. Also asynchronous learning became more of an option which is useful sometimes as I need to fit in family life and my new filmmaking projects. I have my own production company.”

“I'd love us to formalise a VUB Lifelong Learners community and to contribute to this: to make our characteristics, needs and what we can bring other VUB stakeholders more visible. Just as an example, having worked before I see lots of job and internship opportunities advertised through my network that I like to share with my student fellow students. I hope that some good things will come of that. Younger students can also really help me get my head around stuff. So ‘reverse mentoring’ could be more of a thing too!”

Sharing other people’s stories

“In the corporate world we did a lot of work on purpose. Mine is a bit of a mouthful and not a recipe for an easy life, but it rings true... My purpose is to challenge complacency and reconcile contradictions to unlock opportunities. I love trying to join the dots, to look at issues from a fresh perspective and bring people and ideas together to see how we can accelerate the pace of positive change.  As a lawyer working on internal awareness and training programmes, I realised it takes much more than just ‘putting information out there’ to have impact. I realised the potential of media and good storytelling, and how we can use this better to promote the values and skills needed to innovate and deliver inclusive, progressive, sustainable social and economic models. We live in an age of division so I wanted to learn more about the latest thinking and tools available to try to help make a difference.”

“Which brings me to film.  In my life I have come across and been inspired by some amazing people who had exactly that: the values and skills to make a real difference for real people. My godmother, for example, who was the only lawyer I knew when I started down that route, was from Barbados: she had made her career in the UK and led a very important inquiry into institutional racism in the public prosecution service. She quietly got on with things and like many others did not promote the incredible work she was doing. I see documentary films as a way of capturing, sharing and amplifying such personal stories and the key insights they bring us.”

Trapped by plastic

“So Trapped by Plastic is a short film I finished early in 2021 about British photographer Mandy Barker and her work. She raises awareness of the devastating impact of marine plastic pollution. Mandy’s visually enticing work engages audiences of all ages. I hope the film does the same, and starts important conversations that help us learn from each other and work together to problem-solve effectively. We need to unlock the best solutions to stop putting plastic into our waterways and oceans well before 2050.”  

“We’ve actually been invited to screen the film at EU Green Week in June and there will be a panel discussion after the screening. In addition Mandy has been invited to join the conference opening session with Commission Vice President Timmermans. So just by making a short independent movie and asking if organisers might be interested we’ve been able to raise the profile of an issue that is of critical concern for our planet. Our goal is to contribute to building momentum for implementing meaningful solutions!” 

“And longer term, if I can collaborate with others to do more of this sort of work I will be very happy indeed. Here at VUB it all feels very possible - perhaps that’s another important P for our list?” 

Do you also want to find your purpose and help save our planet? Then VUB is your partner! #TheWorldNeedsYou

Read more about: