We had a packed house at Lincoln Center for our “New Faces Of NYC Indie Film” panel. It was a good conversation. Sure, my game show idea did not work out, but hey, when you have eleven people up on the stage with you, it means you have eleven people not talking and that’s hard to keep it lively. Luckily, all eleven people had a lot to say and are clearly a group of passionate and committed filmmakers, making sacrifices for the privilege of making their art. If you didn’t get there, now through the miraculous power of the internet, you can give us two hours of your time and see what it is you missed.
And yes, both I and Lincoln Center know, that this panel is very white, young, and generally male and probably straight — and thus not truly representative of the diversity of talented filmmakers in our city. The Film Society of Lincoln Center has to be acknowledged (and praised) for what may well be the most diverse programming in the world — this panel excluded. This panel evolved out of an initial idea to focus on new collaborative teams and that was shaping the “casting”. It’s not an excuse, just an effort to provide context. Of course, we can do better. And I will.