SIDE BY SIDE: INVISIBLE CENSORSHIP

Is the gaze of filmmakers of all genders, in contemporary film, really free?
Only in 2021 was film censorship abolished in Italy, and, at the same time, the number of Italian audiovisual productions sharply increased. The arrival of streaming platforms multiplied the job opportunities for screenwriters and directors, as more and more stories get told. But does that variety of gazes that reach audiences truly reflect the plurality of voices of contemporary filmmakers? While censorship, when legal, was official and out in the open, today there is another kind, quieter and harder to pin down, that manifests itself in the tangle of obstacles that male and female filmmakers need to overcome during their careers. Silences, rejections, gender disparity in pay; interference with the choice of characters or themes – all of these risk relegating films and individual practitioners to the sidelines of the business, excluded from the main funding flows for Italian film. The panel, organized by 100autori’s Equal Opportunity Group, explores the dynamics of censorship that may indeed be “invisible”, yet is at greater risk of curtailing freedom on the cultural scene in which filmmakers of all genders work. Together with Antonietta De Lillo, Angela Prudenzi, and filmmakers from the LGBTQ+ community, we’ll investigate the gatekeeping policies of the film industry in audiovisual production which exclude anyone who “doesn’t conform to the norm”, being women or LGBTQ+.