I want to preface this by saying that I believe diversity in films is good and that everyone should have their share of accurate representation, I am just exploring what I think of story telling and how diversity could be handled in film.

The ability to write certain characters into film has always been difficult because of the purpose the character serves for the overall meaning of the film can be something tricky to justify if there is no legitimate reason as to their inclusion.  As a film writer, I have always stood by “write what you know” and, after attending Justin Simien’s Dear White People panel here on campus, what he said about the writing yourself into the film industry resonated with me.  He said something along the lines of “If you don’t see a representation of yourself in film, write that representation.”  This resonated with me because as a Caucasian male in an ever changing political landscape, it’s hard to decide whether I have a social obligation to complying with what the modern audience wants, a diverse cast of characters, or what I think would make for a good story, a story with characters who I believe have a purpose in the greater meaning of my story.

Now, I’m not saying that I think a good story is one that is dominated by characters much like myself, white and male, but at the same time, having an oversaturation of diversity in a story just to satisfy a quota is also not a good story.  I believe a good story comes naturally, and to write extraneous characters in, to satisfy a diversity quota or not, detracts from the meaning of the story.  I think this because then when you’re writing the story, you need to spend exposition on why that character is there and, if written/justified poorly, can make an otherwise good story feel shoddy.

How I think a good story can come naturally while also having a diverse cast of characters, referencing back to “write what you know,” is to recall experiences where you’ve been surrounded by diversity, find the inspiration to write, and then talk about the experience, or lack there of, and how that might play out, using film like an essay to explore your theory of why that experience, or again lack of experience, was meaningful in a broader sense.  A story which emanated from an experience, I think, would then reduce the misrepresentation of marginalized groups because it came from an unbiased memory and, using that memory as a reference, would very more or less better represent said group.  Yes, if the writer/director/producer had bias, that would be seen clearly in the film, but, if the story-teller meant to represent a memory accurately and unbiased, the method I’ve described could be a possible path for story-tellers to follow if they fear misrepresenting any group in a film due to error in any sense (writing, aesthetics, casting, etc.).

I know that a story with a diverse cast doesn’t strictly have to come from a memory, but if you have a story to tell and you’re writing the persona of a character you’ve never actually experienced, I think it’d be better to draw from inspiration that you know of rather than just making up an image for that character which may have repercussions later on.