Queer@Cannes Q&A Livestream
Panel Talks
Chat online with a talented guest panel of Australian and international LGBTQIA+/Queer Content Specialists about their experiences, challenges and advice in creating LGBTIAQ+/Queer content and storytelling.
Steve Pereira
Prof Anne Harris
Eben Venter
Nevo Zisin
If you don’t hear any audio, click the movie window to start playback!
Argh I lost the discussion
Congratulations David, loved hanging out tonight. Great to challenge my assumptions and reflect that only really simple human qualities are needed to show sensitivity in storytelling – empathy and respect most importantly, and good listening. Nothing superhuman and values that most can show and appreciate.
Thanks everyone for joining us tonight! What an amazing number of conversations and discussions.
Special thanks to Steve, Anne, Eben and Nevo for their invaluable participation and feel free to visit this page again to revisit the comments.
Thanks everyone-Keep listening avoid assumptions and keep asking questions in the gender identity and sexuality space ? bye
Incitefull event.
Thank you all.
Tech difficulties. so im outta here
Loved the opportunity to reflect on practice, a renewed perspective on the evolving, dynamic and expressive gender and sexuality space. Looking back on a snapshot of lives lived and wondering on lives to come.
I’ve got to run, but thanks everyone. Hope this sparks some great discussions and deliberations around more ethical LGBTIQA+ representation in the media! Have a lovely evening.
David is back on the screen in about ten seconds 🙂
Thanks Davie and thank you to the incredible panel. Its been a wonderful taste and opportunity to reflect and learn. I missed the film due to technicalities but will watch tonight.
Bye, really loved yr insights
Is David going to summarize live again?
Yes, he is commenting some of the key points that have have been raised and will join us live in a moment or two
Cool
Thanks all, been fantastic. Honored to be in this company
It was lovely to hear from you Steve
as a queer oral historian tonight was so encouraging for me to continue to record particularly older LGBTIQ+ stories and where possible asking them to reflect on the changes they have experienced in relation to their identity- gender sexuality the binary etc
Sending you so much love Teacosy! Haven’t seen you in a while but always value the time we share together <3
hey and back <5- so love your powerful work
While not being part of the queer community, I notice the frustration that many in this community dislike labels because it steers away from being an individual and authentic. We all need to fathom that we share many things with other humans but we are each designed with a unique hybrid of traits and bodily shapes. I think we all need a balance of pride and humility, a sense of self awareness but not be blind to how others want to treated. Compassion and conversation is integral gaining more comprehension of how each individual can make contributions to our global society without trivial factors of dubious importance interfering. Conformity and institutionalisation are old fashioned concepts and need scrutiny and reform. Social constructs are for inherently confused people requiring guidance. Conversation and forums allow us to grow our knowledge and hopefully disown irrational and over-utilised rhetoric. Thanks David and thanks to your panel for the fascinating food for thought.
Thanks for the film and the talks!
Me too – thanks David, Scott and everyone for making this great event possible! <3 Thanks for coming everyone, and for the great discussion. Take care
Thank you for joining us and sharing your wisdom and experiences!
Ok S0 I feel we have about 5-6 core tips and advice to glean from tonite !
POINT 1
Ethics are important for storytellers ! We have a duty to be ethical in our creative practice
POINT 2
Connect and participate with the cultures and communities you want to write about.
POINT 3
Empathy and Respect is important for writing about different cultures
Pay people for their participation and involvement in your projects
POINT 4
Lived experiences & your experiences and and feeling in your own life are a mine of energy for writing good stories
POINT 5
Dont make assumptions about your audience you my think your writing for : audiences are much bigger & more diverse than you may think !
POINT 6
Develop your awareness of the cultures your are writing about : Understand the issues of their visibility, their different identities & their experiences of political oppression and marginalsiation
POINT 7
Focus, organisition and discipline is essential to create an good story ! Writing is hard work !!!
POINT 8
Be real. be yourself – thats authentic AND – IF you do that it will probably sell too !
My apologies but I have to leave now. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to participate, organisers, fellow speakers and audience. All my very best wishes for your creative work.
Thankyou for yr powerful response
Thanks so much for being part of this 🙂
Keep language updated. Or go back to relevant language to be Era appropriate.
The language in this space evolves so quickly; I often feel like I am walking in a mine field. There’s always someone who is offended or feeling left out but I didn’t even know that this language has come to existence.
Yes this language evolves quickly, which is why if you want to write about our communities / lives, then you need to be on top of it. It isn’t just a matter of people being ‘offended’ it’s a matter of our safety.
I had not thought about the safety aspect before. I’ll be more mindful of this in my teaching when interacting with my students.
Story telling is a space of both compromise and commitment. Its a courageous space of risk and reward led both by authenticity of the subject and the unavoidable interpretation of the creator.
Keeping on top of current language based on each aspect of Lgtbqi+.
And if you are looking back don’ forgrt that language to make it authentic.
Sorry I can’t stay guys, I have to prep for my radio show tonight. Thanks for inviting me David it was amazing and extremely insightful. James.
Awww, bye….
from David: what are the most useful tips or advice from the documentary and the speakers’ presentations?
The third person, the writer was good in terms of the advice he gave writers in terms of how to develop their work and the work ethic needed.
Prof. Anne Harris was great in terms of highlighting the generational issues faced and also how older generations are not good at changing their language to be more inclusive and respectful.
That was Eben.
Home-truths!
Resonating comment from Nevo:
Coming from a perspective of having been born in the wrong society (or time) creates an abundance of freedom to be real and present just as you/we are. This can be a potent starting point for many creative ventures.
Being born into the wrong society/ or coming from the wrong crib – I’m thinking here of Jeanette Winterson – can and must be utilised as the hook for your story or novel. Without that ‘wrongness’ you just wouldn’t be the writer you are.
Wrongness, otherness, outsiderness…yes indeed.
Writing a queer character into your story requires good research, an attentive ear for dialogue, empathy and respect with the character, and, if possible, lived experience.
Thanks Eben
I am a white heterosexual actor & mum in my 40’s who dabbles in devising and writing. Is there an estimate for how much of a potential audience base might be LGBTQIA percentage wise? Any tips on how I might better make my work/storytelling relevant and engaging to this audience?
About 20%. That’s a huge audience!
Wow, sure is.
Did you see the text responses…? I think they were great tips for writing *all* characters, especially from Steve and Eben.
Ah yes, saw them now, thanks Liz
Hi Pauly, my take on this is just write interesting stories about a diverse range of people, making sure you know them before you write about them. Everybody loves that
Thanks Steve 🙂
Just look at the Slash (same sex fiction from pop culture and sci fi media) communities- they’re HUGE! And majorly driven by female authors, isn’t that interesting? It started thanks to Spock and Kirk in Star Trek.
But the demographic might’ve changed.
Will check it out, cheers.
Ooh I’ll have to check this out too.
We are about to come back to David live for the next part! 😀
Is there still a live feed?
Yep
David will be coming back live to lead us through the remainder of the Q & A
ok good
to all speakers: how can we avoid creating a queer character that is stereo typed?
what all the speakers said: write from your own experience, or do the research/consultaiton and write 3-dimensional characters.
I think there are a lot of things one can do to avoid stereotypes – to start with, actually meaningfully engaging with queer people, building relationships with them, having collaborators who are actually queer as part of the process, lots and lots of research – if you’re still worried the character will be a stereotype, then don’t write the character.
Agree. Let a transgender person take the role of a transgender character, as was doen in POSE.
Insightful and thought provoking discourse around equality representation from aspiring or professional industry peers, everyone! Timely, given the casting controversy of a cis actor playing a transgendered character in Hedwig & The Angry Inch theatrical production, that’s now postponed ? That the creators said that anyone could play the role, forgetting that authenticity actually matters and resonates more than those who haven’t, no matter the good intentions. Does it matter though if Hugh Sheridan has had relationships with both men and women, giving him the right to take on such a role, or are there others more deserving?
I’d love to hear the speakers take on this as well as I have always been on the fence about this issue. On one hand, I want more LGBTIQ+ people on the stage and screen, on the other hand isn’t it the job of an actor to get into the mindset of the character they are playing, no matter who that character is?
Sure that is the role of an actor – but for as long as transgender people for example are experiencing extremely high rates of unemployment and are very rarely cast to play cisgender characters, the least casting directors can do is reserve the transgender roles for transgender people – the same goes for all LGBTIQA+ people
There are heaps of talented trans actors who haven’t been given a chance because of their gender identity / presentation – they deserve the opportunities to show their talents as well, especially in roles that should be designed for them.
Agreed Nevo, there are a lot of talented LGBTIQ+ people out there who need to be given better opportunities.
I can see both sides of the fence but when you consider a growing or existing number of actors with truthful experiences and can be as talented, it’s perhaps more a question of access and opportunity than for the sake of an acting exercise. And you have to consider the historical context: for instance more cisgendered performers have played LBGTIQ roles than those in their own community. So personally, fortune should favour the bold, not the tried and true if you get my drift.
Why do you think there is such an attachment within the film industry/ies, to stereotypes of queer characters or a ‘token’ approach??
Hollywood just does not know how to portray these people without stereotyping or humouring them. This knowledge and respect is only setting in now.
Do you find it difficult to write characters based on your experiences, let alone to write your adventures down?
If anyone saw The Boys in The Band on Netflix- perhaps relevant of its time but slightly outdated in other ways. What I do love in the introspective that at one point or another perhaps we’ve all had to deal with a sense of self-loathing or at least self questioning, that can drive us and informed by the society of its time.
Reductive psychology or reductionism perhaps.
That’s pretty cynical but I suppose accurate.
Lol I’m far from cynical!
As a photographer I get invited to make portrait images of folks within LGBTIQA communities/networks. I love these opportunities and often have ideas for photos. Its more common however for folks to have their own idea of how they’d like to present or be portrayed and I find myself following their lead despite feeling awkward about perpetuating stereotypes of body type, age and cultural background (ie sexy images). This is a question of respect and representation verses an artists vision which I myself a little torn over.
Growing up Bi in regional Victoria in the 1990s, thank you so much for talking about inter-generational bi and transphobia, it still exists, even in the Gay community in many regional areas.
it’s so different once you get out of urban centres, isn’t it? I hear you.
Yeah living in the in the city is bliss. I am in my late 30s and have found more acceptance from so many people younger than me, than I ever have of even bi women and gay men in Bendigo
To the organizers
As a dyslexic, the grey writing on yellow background is such an obstacle.
Love a live qna, but hey 2020 adaptation.
I will see what I can do to fix that now
Thanks
roll the mouse over it and it becomes white on black
Thanks, but I’m on my phone.
if you refresh your screen, the colour is now much more legible 🙂
If you fly over the box of a new comment in yellow or tap on it it will switch back to normal.
How to navigate the issue of paying the “sensitive readers” in a volunteer indie production where no one else is getting paid?
Yeah this is a hard one and one I’m still navigating as a writer who works on pieces I’m not necessarily getting paid for – I think if you are exploring narratives outside of your own lived experience then you need to be paying. If that means paying out of your own pocket, then that’s just what needs to be done. I’ve done it quite a few times and I think it’s the bare minimum.
And if you are not able to pay out of your own pocket to everyone else who is helping, is this fair?
Yep, if you don’t have the means then come up with different fundraising initiatives – grant applications, crowd-funding, even a bake sale! But marginalised people need to be paid for their educational labour.
The question for me is who decides who is a an appropriate ‘sensitivity trainer’ or ‘cultural consultant’ and on what basis? I have experience of far too many ‘cultural consultants’ on films who had no business consulting on anything.
I would love other the take of all of the speakers about their thoughts on LGBTIQ+ representation on Australian screens
I am American so I do lament the more conservative depictions of LGBTIQA+ characters in Australian media. I think we are still pretty reserved here.
that said, I’d wish there was more diversity of all kinds and in particular of more POC to truly represent the Australian that I know.
Agreed Anne and this diversity cannot just be on screen, it needs to be in all areas of production. You cannot get the essence of culture in art if communities are not included throughout the whole life cycle of production.
so true, especially in leadership positions.
Growing up in Canada, we always thought Australians were ahead of the game in queer representation – particular in short, independent and experimental films. – mainstream not so good but still better than most other places.
where did everybody go?
I’m wondering this too
The problem when that film was first released was that there were far too few positive depictions of queer characters in films. So the film just repeated old tropes. Now we have a plethora of queer depictions and have nuanced stories and characters. We can be now, both good and bad. We didn’t have that luxury in the past,.
We’re still here, just online via the chat room here…
Peek-A-Boo
Thanks Nevo, please get in touch when your new book launches it sounds like it’s much needed in the community
Sure! You’re welcome to follow me on social media for updates 🙂
To Anne, Steve, Even, Nevo:
I recall in 1993 after the film SLIVER was released there was a backlash from gay and lesbian activists who protested to Hollywood that gay people or LGBTQI+ were presented in character roles as villains or negatively and that was offensive to gay people. Do you think the depiction of LGBTQI+ characters roles, in any medium, has changed to portray LGBTQI+ as more positive or is there any change since 1993?
There has definitely been a lot of portrayal of queer characters as villians, even in cartoons and the ‘queer-coding’ of evil characters. I do believe that is shifting significantly and have seen more and more positive representation of LGBTIQA+ lives
yes definitely things have improved, but there’s still a long way to go. For one thing, lesbians are not always suicidal or homocidal any more, so that’s good! I wish though there were more trans masc characters on TV to equal increasing numbers of trans feminine folks.
There is an revealing doco on NetFlix discussing how transgender people have been misrepresented and been made into jokes by Hollywood.The doco is called Disclosure. BY the time of POSE, representation started changing.
thank you speakers
Great to hear about the importance of paying for professional input of sensitive readers. This is also a significant issue in the disability pillar.
That was a very interesting talk
This is so good folks.
Really diverse.
Thank you all involved.
Best wishes, Heidi
You’re so incredibly welcome. We hope you stay for the live Q&A.
Hey all, if you had technical difficulties and couldn’t watch the show. Send me an email on hello@reggiechang.me and I’ll see if I can get you a link to watch the show. Apologies for that mix up.
Good work sorting out tech difficulties!
I have reset the movie and anyone who missed it (or would like to watch it again) can watch it anytime in the next four hours 🙂
Hi Scott, I went back to the film page, and it is still showing the begining pink page with the instructions. Cannot seem to access the film
there is a five-minute holding pattern at the start, then the movie begins 🙂
Thanks Reggie
Can’t hear anyone anymore. Just pink screen.
Hi Eleanor, The Q&A is happening now so there isn’t anything happening on the screen. Feel free to post a question.
Hi Eleanor, this part of the session is via comments. The speakers sent us their presentations, and are able to reply to comments using this system. Sorry for the confusion.
Anne
thanks for speaking up re the middle bracket of age- any thoughts re re actions we all can take?
thanks Sally. So many invisibles!
sorry i missed the 2nd part of your msg – i think we can do more intergenerational work, events etc – which i know you have been doing for years – but i thikn in terms of NB alot of older people feel like the NB scene is too young for them and they (we) feel out of place. Intergenerational alienation in the queer community has always been an issue i think, and it just remains so. Different cultures within cultures? I don’t know. Good to keep talking about different levels of invisibility.
I am 35. Culturally queer and heterosexual. I find it so confusing all the different terms for sexuality and gender.
it is confusing! and generational
During my teenage years, gay, homosexual, lesbian were the main words that were used. Yes there was transgender and transvestite there too but that was about it in terms of anything that wasn’t from a heterosexual perspective. I was at a Catholic girls school.
Can I ask what ‘culturally queer’ means?
“Cultural queerness” refers to the performance of queerness as an identity or aesthetic without necessarily being queer. Cultural queerness has nothing to do with actual gender identity or sexual orientation, nor with allyship.
https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2020/01/being-culturally-queer/
Right okay, thanks for the resource. I’ll do some reading. Sounds a bit appropriative to me.
David was the one who gave me the term and honestly, it’s been the best thing. I’m heterosexual but have always felt more at home in queer spaces. It made so much more sense.
Great job Steve!
second that!
thanks Sugar Plum Fairy and Anon <3
Really enjoying the content of your talk.
Thanks Anne, right back at ya.
Well done guys, this is brilliant!
Well done David 🙂
It’s it is fine