Oct 18, 2026 · 56 min · 13 segments
This week, filmmakers from around the world are flying in to showcase their stories as the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival kicks off tomorrow. Today’s panel will dive into some of those…
But talking about the stuff that inspires the films, of course, you're all storytellers and directors here.
What makes you excited to tell a story generally? What attracted you to these stories? But just generally like as the director who is the creative force behind these things.
What attracts you to a story to begin with? Because directing is a lot of things.
It's not like writing a novel or something where you can just sit down alone in a closet for two years and maybe you've got something – like you've got to manage an army of people and you've got to do all these things.
So it's a big thing to say this story is worth me putting myself through that.
I find that like universality, I guess, like I find whenever I am compelled to tell a story or if I'm finding the thing that really like draws, I guess, my heart, my interest to it, it's often the idea of like connecting with people over shared experiences, even if it's kind of wrapped up in a new experience or something that you're learning about or you don't really know about.
Often it's finding those moments where you can connect and, I mean, all of the stories that we're kind of highlighting here today have these beautiful things that even if you didn't go through it yourself, you have a friend that went through it or you understand it on a different level.
So it's really just about people that come from all kinds of different walks of life, all kinds of different backgrounds being able to sit together and have a moment where we all kind of understand each other.
And, and to me it's, it all comes down to if it'll emotionally impact anyone, like you're looking for one, but like it helps if you're, I don't know.
I'm, I'm a little more that like that than clinical over like how a story progresses.
Like, Oh, the inciting incident didn't happen on page 14 or – you know what I mean? Like that kind of thing.
And I think all the movies that have had the most lasting impact for me are – Or for my kids, it's like, you know, I feel like it's – or for anyone I know, really, it's emotionally how they felt when they walked out of it.
But talking about the stuff that inspires the films, of course, you're all storytellers and directors here.
What makes you excited to tell a story generally? What attracted you to these stories? But just generally like as the director who is the creative force behind these things.
What attracts you to a story to begin with? Because directing is a lot of things.
It's not like writing a novel or something where you can just sit down alone in a closet for two years and maybe you've got something – like you've got to manage an army of people and you've got to do all these things.
So it's a big thing to say this story is worth me putting myself through that.
I find that like universality, I guess, like I find whenever I am compelled to tell a story or if I'm finding the thing that really like draws, I guess, my heart, my interest to it, it's often the idea of like connecting with people over shared experiences, even if it's kind of wrapped up in a new experience or something that you're learning about or you don't really know about.
Often it's finding those moments where you can connect and, I mean, all of the stories that we're kind of highlighting here today have these beautiful things that even if you didn't go through it yourself, you have a friend that went through it or you understand it on a different level.
So it's really just about people that come from all kinds of different walks of life, all kinds of different backgrounds being able to sit together and have a moment where we all kind of understand each other.
And, and to me it's, it all comes down to if it'll emotionally impact anyone, like you're looking for one, but like it helps if you're, I don't know.
I'm, I'm a little more that like that than clinical over like how a story progresses.
Like, Oh, the inciting incident didn't happen on page 14 or – you know what I mean? Like that kind of thing.
And I think all the movies that have had the most lasting impact for me are – Or for my kids, it's like, you know, I feel like it's – or for anyone I know, really, it's emotionally how they felt when they walked out of it.
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