Featuring WFT Members Katie McNiece and Grainne Bennett, as well as WFT Admin Executive Gemma Creagh, watch back this recording of the EQUALITY IS NORMAL: Beyond Diversity and Towards True Equity panel from the Dublin Screenwriting Festival which took place on Tuesday 6th September 2022.
“Screenwriters are (amongst other things) cultural creators. The power to create culture is incredibly valuable. Our stories shape us as we shape them. By ensuring that our culture is representative, we make it richer – we make it a better mirror with which to see ourselves. We learn to know ourselves better.
The screen industry has been working hard to promote diversity in recent years. It’s a move which is both long overdue and extremely welcome.
But where can we go from here? How do we make diversity unremarkable? How do we make it so common it only looks strange when it is absent? How do we change the culture so that a monocultural room looks bizarre, outdated and weird?
Because diversity is normal. Walk out your door and you will see that. All that is being asked is that the screen industry is more or less representative of the wider society.
We must open the door wide. Not out of fairness (although their are important arguments here). But for the sake of story.
What amazing voices are going unheard because we are not listening to broad sections of society. Let’s make screenwriting a profession that is hungry for new distinctive voices with new tales to tell. Becuase that is what will make our screen stories glow”
Watch this Dublin International Screenwriting Festival panel back here.
