How does the Portland Film Festival program 59 percent of its films with women writers and directors? It’s easy…they screen films blindly and just play the better films. Filmmaker Josh Leake, founder and director whose staff comprises more than 70 percent women and has screening panelists from all over the world, all with diverse backgrounds explained, “We have a blind screening process so we didn’t know if the films screened were from men or women. This year it just happened to be a higher ratio…we’re playing the better films.” Now, that’s a true representation of equity.
To read the interview with Josh Leake, go to www.ff2media.com/blog/2017/10/30/pff/