The Importance of Diversity in Storytelling
(AKA: Why You Should Support the Tribeca Film Institute)
Each one of us sees the world through a different lens. That lens is defined by our cumulative life experiences, our gender and racial identities, our personal beliefs. It’s what shapes how we see and experience the world.
We are also humans, and by nature we gravitate toward great stories told by great storytellers. So more often than not our worldviews will be shaped in part by another, more literal, lens of a camera — and the storyteller on the other side of that lens. But when there is too much uniformity behind the lens, we begin to believe that the image of this world presented to us is the only one: A world from the perspective of the dominant culture. A world in which repeated, limiting and uninformed imagery may often lead to stereotyping of those less represented, which impacts us in ways far greater than we realize.
I believe that we would live in a better world if there were a more diverse group of storytellers and subjects to tell us stories through their lenses. It is for this reason that I joined the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) Board of Directors, and why I ask you to join me in supporting them.
I met Tribeca Film Institute co-founder Jane Rosenthal at a summit hosted by Google Ideas, on the subject of violent extremism both domestic and foreign. The prevailing theme of the summit was that a major factor in avoiding radicalism is to create “counter-narratives.” Meaning, showing potential future extremists that a life of violence, despair, gangs or radicalism is not the only path. That people are not statistics. That groups of people are not uniformed, homogenous packs of lemmings, but rather collections of individual humans, each with their own stories.
“He therefore that would govern the world well, had need consider rather what fashions he makes, than what laws; and to bring anything into use he need only give it reputation.” — John Locke
Dominant media channels present often stereotypical views of what is perceived to be a group’s prevailing culture. Hoodies don’t represent gangs. Marley twists don’t mean you smoke pot. Being Muslim does not make a terrorist. Violence is not the only answer.
Opportunity begets opportunity. When we have diversity behind the lens — influencing casting, and scripts, documentary subjects and issues — a greater percentage of Americans will see themselves on screen and in stories that provide alternatives to the common narrative. These alternatives will be more reflective of nuance, range and truth. It comes full circle.
Tribeca Film Institute’s mission is to seek out and help nurture a diverse set of storytellers. These are the people whose stories — whose lenses — are necessary to better understand each other. Young kids, who become film students, who become artists. Artists whose stories can change the world as much as any politician, CEO or entrepreneur in a world where media is free to reach the masses…but only if the quality of the storytelling is good enough to cut through the clutter.
This is why I have decided to give TFI my support. Because you never know when one person, given the opportunity, could tell a story that will change someone’s life, or the world.
Here are a couple of the TFI-supported projects that bring those diverse voices to the table: — THE ENEMY, an interactive project that uses virtual reality to literally place you between two enemies, allowing you to explore both sides of a conflict from a humanistic standpoint —QUESTION BRIDGE, which shatters stereotypical and marginalizing narratives by asking us to rethink and reimagine the narrative of black men in America — THE CASE AGAINST EIGHT, which spotlights the struggle for marriage equality — NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC, the story of an African-American artist’s return to his childhood community and original sources of inspiration
If you want to hear more about what TFI is doing, I’d like to invite you to support their upcoming Gala in New York City on September 21, 2015. Come. Meet the team. See what’s possible. If you are interested in supporting the Gala, please reach out to me.
https://tribecafilminstitute.org/support/benefit_2015
