Diverse Thinkers in the New Era

Recently, producer Princeton Holt was mentioned in the discussion at SpringBoard Media's blog about the lack of cultural and gender diversity in panel discussions about the new era of distribution and DIY filmmaking. Brian Newman posed the problem by writing,

"I’ve been spending much of the last few years on the road speaking at numerous panels about new models for film, new media and distribution. I’m continually peeved to find myself sitting on a stage with a bunch of other white guys talking about the future. Usually, there’s not even a woman on the panel. I often bring this lack of diversity up publicly, because I find it so odd to find a bunch of white guys talking about the future - when we are decidedly not the future. What gives?

I found myself thinking about this again at Sundance in the panel entitled “The Doctor’s in the House” on distribution. Besides the moderator, Eugene Hernandez, there was no diversity on the panel. Now, I’m not faulting Sundance here - while their track record isn’t great when it comes to diversity, they aren’t the only, just the most recent example of this phenomenon. It’s much broader."

Later on, in the comment section, blogger/filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake offered the following:

"Great post Brian. To many people seeing someone who looks like them doing something interesting will make that action more relevant. 2 filmmakers who are making & releasing DIY movies that might be of interest to a panel discussion re: future of indie film are:

- Princeton Holt(you can find his prod. co's blog here: http://onewaytv.blogspot.com/)-- he's produced & directed in at least one instant - around half a dozen features, most are available on DIY DVD releases..."

Ekanayake went on to name several more "ethnic" filmmakers that have taken steps in the DIY filmmaking and distribution direction. See the entire highly informative post with the comments HERE.

Thanks to Sujewa for the shout out! You can read his main blog HERE.