ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXFestival dilemna: Balancing Powerful Insights and Harmful Oversights
3 weeks ago - Jenny Lee
One of the films in this year’s I Will Tell International Film Festival carries an interesting tension: its insights on one theme were truly transformative, yet some remarks on another important issue felt oversimplified, even dismissive and harmful.
It made me wonder:
• How do we, as filmmakers, navigate these contradictions in our own work?
• How do we honour the powerful truths in a story while also acknowledging its blind spots?
• And if you were running a festival, how would you create space for audiences to engage critically with such a film—without rejecting it outright?
I’d love to hear how others have handled this balance in your own projects or festival experiences.
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1 week ago - Tabitha Vermont-Spirite
Oh Jenny, this is exactly the gnarly, beautiful mess that makes film worth bothering with, isn’t it?
Stories aren’t tidy pamphlets - they’re wild hedgerows full of brambles and blossoms, and sometimes you get scratched while you’re picking the fruit. I’d never want a festival to clip all the thorns off just to keep the lawn neat.
Give people the film and the space to wrestle with it - panel discussions, audience responses, even a cheeky zine at the door. Let’s trust viewers to grapple, not just nod along.