How to Increase Media Diversity: Three Lessons From The London Feminist Film Festival
By Guest Contributor Spectra, media partner for the London Feminist Film Festival; cross-posted from Spectra Speaks
A few months ago, the London Feminist Film Festival approached me for help in reaching out to African feminist filmmakers for their open call. The media activist I am, I admit that I did make them 
jump through hurdles before I agreed to help them spread the word of the festival on my blog. But it was only fair.
In my relatively short experience as an activist (who is also a person of color), I’ve received so many requests from white-run organizations and campaigns asking me to “help them create more diversity,” often without any proof that they’ve attempted to do any of this outreach on their own. It’s almost as though they view brown people as the people primarily responsible for alleviating the “burden” of creating the diversity they claim to want in their spaces. Oh, who am I kidding? 9/10 times that’s actually the case. But I digress.
After a series of sharp-shooting, poignant questions to the committee (“What have you done to reach out to feminist filmmakers of color?” “Who is missing from your lineup, and why?” “What have you done to make this relevant to African feminists, specifically?”), and receiving thoughtful (and honest) responses, I found myself in a strange place: satisfied and affirmed enough to see myself as partly responsible (as an Afro-feminist) for ensuring their success. I didn’t just write about the festival; I volunteered to be one of their media partners and a judge for one of their jury awards as well.
Why am I telling you this? Well, there are lessons about diversity to be learned (and shared) here.
It’s only been a few months since the LFFF’s initial email to me, but judging from the film festival’s program, the organizers efforts have really paid off. The lineup of films included in the program look fantastic; the panelists and jurors represent a wide range of perspectives, aaaannd–so far–they’ve avoided appearing to be The London White Feminist Film Festival, which is quite commendable. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed “universality” (i.e. lack of intersectionality), result in the whitewashing of so many spaces which would — with some effort — have the potential to truly empower and unify communities within communities.
It’s not every day I get to say I’m impressed with an organization’s outreach efforts (and results). So, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight A Few Awesome Things The London Feminist Film Festival Did To Support Media Diversity:
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