The Different Faces Different Voices screenings started as a festival in 2016. Created by the 31 year old scriptwriting group – Harvard Square Script Writers, it was the brainchild of director Genine Tillotson.
After 30 years in the film industry, Genine was well aware of the difficulties that women and minorities of all stripes face when trying to create films, TV or digital media that reflect their true realities. She had personally witnessed the side-lining of women as crew and observed the continual tired tropes in mainstream media that reinforce stereotypes of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, older people, people in poverty, etc.
With an emphasis on story, rather than perfect production values, the festival set out to encourage and reward voices of originality and authenticity in film. We offered loglines – situations to spark creativity, as part of challenging production teams to make Flicks4Chicks shorts that were truly outside the box.
We offered local workshops on story-telling and invited women to a forum on diversity in cinema.
The organization pursued sponsors and reached out to the 44 affiliated Women in Film chapters around the world. In the end, submissions came from as far away as England and Brazil.
The festival culminated in screenings of many of these highly thoughtful films, bringing together creatives from around the world in a spirit of collaboration and celebration.
We continue our dedication towards films that challenge stereotypes in mainstream media by inviting filmmakers to screen their films with us at multiple events throughout the year.
