Listen to Your Creative Core: Why Filmmaking Needs Courage

Distinct as their crafts and voices may be, what unites filmmaker Cheryl Dunye, producer Christine Vachon, and actor-filmmaker Sara Fazilat is an unwavering commitment to their visions and communities. With The Watermelon Woman (a Berlinale highlight from 1996) Dunye offered something electrifyingly new: a study of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian director. From Carol to May December, Todd Haynes’s longtime producer Vachon, in turn, is responsible for some of the most astute and engrossing films in recent memory. And Fazilat, whose most recent acting credits include Ali Abbasi’s 2022 Holy Spider and Michael Fetter Nathansky’s Every You Every Me (a Berlinale Panorama standout from last year) has long been promoting equality for all genders and diversity in the film industry. In this talk, the three weigh in on their different practices, their relationship with the industry, and the ways they have fought to defend their ideas and empower others to pursue theirs.