Voice of London

TriForce Creative Network encourages diversity and inclusion in filmmaking and are running workshops helping filmmakers with funding, shooting and making connections within the industry.

The festival kicks off today at 11.00am and will last over 12 hours, with a range of workshops and seminars led by industry professionals to help emerging filmmakers develop their skills.

Throughout the day there will be screenings of the 16 shortlisted films, with an evening gala at the end of the event to announce the winners.

The festival celebrates films that have been created by a diverse group of people, with many of them starring people from minority groups.

Among the many topics being explored at the festival are the struggles LGBT people of colour face with their religious beliefs, such as in Cherish Oteka’s Religion. Made in collaboration with Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBT charity, the film tackles a rarely discussed topic in little under five minutes.

Speaking with the Voice of London, Cherish said: “I’m delighted to have Religion feature as part of this year’s TriForce short film festival. it’s so important that intersectional voices and experiences are given a platform.” On TriForce, she said they are successful at “curating content that gives audiences a well-rounded insight into underrepresented perspectives.”

On creating Religion and ensuring the representation of these people was authentic, she said: “we worked collaboratively with contributors to make sure they felt heard” and “ensured they felt they had this platform to share their stories.”

Another film, Run, is set in a dystopian future where synthetic organs have become a necessity to survive after a drug-resistant disease takes over the UK. The story is centred around a father who will go to great lengths to take care of his sick son.

Other films include Oh, Geno!, a story of a night in the life of 1960s soul legend Geno Washington, as told by himself. In The Super Recogniser, Jacob Anderson from Game of Thrones stars as Scott, a man with 90% facial recognition who is employed by the Government to track down terrorists. Charlotte Regan’s Little Monster is a story of a man who gets his first phone call to his daughter after being sent to prison.

TriForce is taking big steps forward in ensuring diversity in filmmaking is fully embraced, but the larger entertainment industry still has a way to go. Cherish said: “You can create a ‘diverse’ team but if they ultimately need their ideas signed off soley by cis-gendered white middle class men then we still have a problem – a very big one”.

Tickets are still available for the event.

Words: Christian Onions | Subbing: Tabitha Durrant

Featured image: Unsplash