Coffee Pod #71: Award-winning film director, story-teller and advocate Genevieve Clay-Smith creates inclusive stories to influence a more inclusive culture

Coffee Pods with Holly Ransom

Growing up, Genevieve Clay-Smith had a feeling of ‘otherness’ that has fuelled a sense of destiny and driven her to align her creative talent with social justice. Leveraging her experience in acting and directing, Gen pursued the film industry as a force for good, making a decision that instead of striving for recognition as an actress herself, she would work to give people living with disability the opportunity to achieve their (socially invisible) dreams. Winning Australia’s iconic short-film festival, Tropfest, with “Be My Brother”, Gen made headlines, challenging the status quo and smashing stigmas by giving people with disability an alternative to the tragic narrative lens they are too often see through.

A true game-changer, Gen’s work has been showcased at the United Nations as well as over 200 film festivals and events world-wide. Genevieve is the 2019 National Telstra Business Women's Award, Emerging Leader winner, the 2015 NSW Young Australian of the year and winner of the 2014 100 Women of Influence, Young Leader award. She also took out B&T's 2015 Women in Media award for creative, and won the 2015 Women's Weekly Women of the Future Awards. Needless to say, she is a mover and a shaker and as a part of the team at Taste has developed a new model of ‘creative inclusion’. We hope you enjoy this rare and delightful opportunity to have a coffee date with someone truly transforming lives, industries and audiences.

This #coffeepod proves that working inclusively doesn’t slow us down or compromise on quality. In fact, the transformation journey requires diverse inputs to change the narrative and therefore change the system. The operating model of so many creative journeys is founded on uncertainty. Uncertainty in terms of finance, acceptance, sustainability… we explore what it takes to suspend belief in transformation… and emerge successful. Come on the creative journey as we ask Gen how she overcame the loneliness of fighting for a more inclusive culture in the film industry. How long was she able to run her startup ‘Bus Stop Films on passion? And how did she successfully build alliances both in terms of social impact community and corporate supporters to bring her vision of inclusion to life?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.