Queer filmmakers, mediamakers and activists, along with political commentators, influencers and public officials, addressed how current challenges in politics and the film industry have converged, and how independent storytelling and social media can help respond to the anti-backlash. -LGBTQ+ as part of an hour-long panel at NewFest36's second annual Industry + Filmmaker Day.
Nick McCarthy, NewFest's director of programming, kicked off Friday's event, held at the Manhattan LGBT Center, which focused on the convergence of film, media and political activism. Kickstarter, NEON and The Hollywood journalist were partners of the event.
The candid discussion featured political and cultural commentary creator Matt Bernstein; drag artist, political activist and former city council candidate Marti Cummings; director, artist and cultural critic Jude Dry; director and Ponyboi star Gallo River; New York City Councilmember for Brooklyn's 35th District, Crystal Hudson; and Rajendra Roy, chief curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art.
With the 2024 election just weeks away, speakers and attendees were asked to examine ways – traditional or provocative – that Hollywood, film, and queer media can address the chaos of the current political climate; this includes high-stakes elections at the local, state and federal levels and a rapidly growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation spanning trans and intersex rights to book bans and broader censorship efforts. They also addressed the potential connection between increased film and media representation for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as progress or setbacks in both legal rights and public sentiment towards the community.
Hudson, the first gay black woman elected in New York City, told the crowd that she “wouldn't be here if it weren't for people who think I could be here, and that was because of popular culture, because of the art”. , thanks to the creatives who pushed us.” Cummings, who made history in 2021 as the first non-binary candidate for New York City Council, noted that political representation — including Chi Ossé and Tiffany Cabán in the New York City Council, Mauree Turner in the Oklahoma State House of Representatives and Sarah McBride in the Delaware State Senate – “show people that they have a seat at the table and that their voices will be heard.”
The writer, director and intersex activist Gallo also “absolutely” believes that there is a correlation between the work done by artists and legislation in the United States on LGBTQ+ rights, underlining the expression of the co-founder of The Center of Cultural Power, Favianna Rodriguez , according to which art is “always 15 years ahead of politics”.
“I always quote Pose like a moment where I thought, “Oh, wow, we're here.” Trans people are now part of popular culture in a powerful and beautiful way. And then what happened? Over the past five years we have seen some of the most horrific reactions to trans people through legislation,” they said. “It's just a dance we'll have to keep dancing. For better or worse, as artists, we must have the tenacity to move forward and continue to take bolder and bigger steps in our work so that politics can change for the better.”
Dry, a director he was working on IndieWire during the Transparent in the age of television, he also focused on how American society's reception of the community at large can change for better or worse. “Visibility actually comes with dangers – it's always been that way, but it seems very obvious when you look at the backlash to trans rights and Laverne Cox's turning point Time cover story,” they said.
In terms of how queer creatives can respond, especially now, Cummings noted, “I don't know what a film can do right now because [the election] is in two weeks,” but they highlighted existing work that is diversifying the types of stories put out into the world as a way to continue to push back against anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment now and in the future. Narratives that showcase the “joy of being a queer person,” like Heart holder, they are a way “that a kid who constantly hears about how this legislation is affecting his future and his present, sees himself positively and not as what these legislators are trying to tell him they are.”
Dry highlighted the efforts of queer creators who are going beyond including a single LGBTQ+ character in their narratives, and are instead “using their platform to be political. A new show this season that I really love is English teacher. … They did a really great episode about a shooting club on campus and why [Brian Jordan Alvarez] he's weird and a good comedian, he really threads the needle amazingly in dealing with school shooting exercises,” they said. “Making queer art is still a political act, but the limits of representation have been shown and We need to go further and use our platforms to talk about other issues that matter to Americans.”
For Roy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' recent attempts at censorship are a form of “smearing” that people should work to stop before attacks against certain communities and their rights intensify and grow. “[Ron DeSantis] I tried to say that it is not allowed to broadcast a television commercial in support of the right to abortion. It's disturbing, right? We must fight every little step and remain vigilant, because it will creep into not only the political sphere and your bodily sphere, but also the cultural sphere, and certain images will then become forbidden.”
Bernstein stressed that, in light of potential or actual retaliation and censorship, being willing to stand your ground and find new ways to do your job is also important right now.
“I've had a really transformative past year where I've had representation because now all these big Hollywood agencies have Internet creator sectors, but my desire to talk about the Middle East — the relationship hasn't survived that,” he said. “It's always difficult to work in an industry where there's no generational precedent for what we do online today, but I've refocused my career around things like Patreon. It's basically like, OK, we'll find each other's communities, we'll find each other's projects. We're not going to get these huge conglomerates. We will support each other.”
Gallo acknowledged that queer creators and people are currently trying to navigate a multitude of challenges in the current political and creative landscape, but said one way to address it is to create personally transformative art.
“We're creating in an industry that's falling apart and in a country that's falling apart, so I just want to create weird, weird art and go there to do things that are personally really terrifying to do,” they said . . “In my sphere as an artist, whose job is to express what lies beneath the culture – what is in the crevasses, what people don't want to see; I think it's our duty to be as investigative as possible and have the intention, not necessarily that your work changes the culture in a way that will change the legislation, but that it is somehow spiritually and metaphysically transformative for you as a person. person, and this will extend to other layers of culture.”
They also suggested moving beyond traditional studios and traditional funding and focusing on crowdfunding and grassroots to help support the kind of art that can respond, and not just in political moments. “I think there's something to do with the fact that in the United States artists don't get funded like in other countries,” Gallo noted.
“We have to remember that we are creating films in a system where access to resources is kept under lock and key unless you make a film that will make a lot of money,” they continued. “As filmmakers, we need to start thinking more horizontally, rather than vertically. Instead of “there's a man up there who will give me the money” or “there's an agent up there who will give me the opportunities”, he says: “I have a friend, I have a friend, I have my neighbor, who can we help us to each other to be in our stuff, produce our stuff, help raise money for our stuff.'”
Along with many other speakers, they also encouraged a more serious consideration of social platforms and their potential impact and reach in engaging voters and entertainment consumers. “A lot of TikTok creators are actually doing really radical work,” Dry said. “I loved it I saw the glow of the TVand it went pretty well. It's been a nice run for a small arthouse film, but in terms of focus, maybe we need to get off our high horses a little and be less precious about how we're making the work and how it's seen. On TikTok, this is a moving image that a lot of people are consuming.”
“You saw it with the strikes last year, where you couldn't reach an agreement because you had legacy studios and streamers negotiating with unions, but what you actually had were legacy studios, a corporation of food delivery, a computer manufacturer and an algorithm that negotiates with artists and they don't care about culture. Legacy studios created culture Louis B. Mayer and associates invented film culture and all the apparatus that surrounds it, so they would never have let it burn to the foundations,” Roy later added. “I'm not trying to sugarcoat how hard it is to accomplish things, but honestly, an influencer, you have so much power in this climate. If an influencer can combine with a creator, I think there's a new way forward that we're on the precipice of.”
Hudson agreed, telling the event audience that “we shouldn't just look to elected officials and politicians and public servants to tell us what we should do and who we should follow and believe. I think it depends on the content creators. We need to rely less on politicians and more on people who create authentic, genuine, honest, real content, who tell it like it is and speak truth to power, as opposed to people who are literally in positions where they will do so. say whatever they think you need to hear to promote themselves.