Lebanese director Nadine Labaki has discussed the modern challenges of cancel culture and restrictive regimes, saying “it’s becoming difficult for artists to spread their wings.”
Speaking at a Visionaries on-stage conversation at Toronto Film Festival (TIFF, September 7-17), Labaki was asked about any backlash she had received to her films, especially in the context of portraying the queer Lebanese community.
“When you’re living in such a difficult situation – social pressure, religious pressure, religious authorities getting involved in everything, especially arts, and censoring whatever we need to say – there’s always backlash,” said Labaki. “Especially now when it’s becoming so difficult to discern between what is right and what is wrong, what is your voice, what you are allowed to say. Especially with violence in social media, political correctness, cancel culture - it’s becoming very difficult for artists to spread their wings and say what they need to say the way they want to.”
Labaki detailed how this is restricting the growth of artists. “It’s shaking and destructing our scale of values, it’s taking away your innocence; you’re slowly starting to become this polished version of yourself. You say whatever you want to say in a way that pleases everyone, in a way that doesn’t get any backlash, that doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings,” said the director. “So you start steering away from who you are and your own values because you want to please everybody.”
”We live in a time when anything you say will get some kind of backlash,” continued the filmmaker. ”It’s very dangerous because you don’t know who you are anymore. And it’s specifically dangerous for artists – art is supposed to stir everything, change your perspective on things, ask difficult questions and stir difficult emotions. If we start polishing everything to be accepted, art is going to look the same everywhere, and that’s really dangerous.”
Self-censorship
Earlier in the Visionaries session, the director had discussed the particular challenge of expressing yourself under restrictive political regimes.
“I come from a country where it’s really difficult to express yourself, especially in regard to political positions. Self-censorship becomes part of your nature – you know what you can say and what you cannot say in a way that is accepted.”
“I’ve learned how to say what I want, and be able to really say it in my own way,” said the filmmaker. “This becomes really part of your personality when you grow up in difficult situations like that.”
Labaki scored an international hit with her third film Capernaum, which debuted in Competition at Cannes in 2018. The filmmaker did not provide any details about her next project; since Capernaum, she has worked as an actress in Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon and Wissam Smayra’s Perfect Strangers.
Labaki was in conversation with Shivani Pandya, managing director of the Red Sea International Film Festival. The event kicked off the TIFF 2023 Visionaries strand, a selection of on-stage conversations with filmmakers. Speakers include Spike Lee, Ladj Ly and Guillermo del Toro.
TIFF 2023 got underway last night with Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animation The Boy And The Heron; the festival runs until September 17.
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