Five TIFF 2012 Studio participants are attending the co-production market and other events at the Berlin International Film Festival. Over the next few days, they will blog about their experiences and insights gained from conversations with international producers and industry execs. Here, Streel Films producer Michelle Latimer, attending the festival as part of the NATIVe delegation, discusses diversity in filmmaking and global achievements of Indigenous filmmakers.

Check out more blogs from Berlinale here.

I arrive in Berlin, fresh off a red-eye flight from Toronto. Clutching my Time Magazine with Kathryn Bigelow on the cover, I am armed and ready to represent as a proud, Indigenous female director!

The taxi deposits me in front of the Holocaust memorial. My apartment is across the street. For a minute I just stand there, taking in the memorial, its slate columns dusted in fresh snow. I’m reminded of how important it is to have a society where diversity is celebrated.

I can’t tell if it’s the jet lag or if I am numbed by the fact that I’m here, attending the 63rd Berlinale Film Festival for the first time as part of the NATIVe delegation. Over the next two years, the Berlinale is poised to make history by focusing on the achievements of Indigenous Cinema through a high profile spotlight.

While TIFF Bell Lightbox hosted a retrospective last summer, this is the first time a film festival of Berlin’s size has dedicated an official festival program in celebration of what Indigenous filmmakers have achieved over the last forty years. This year, the Berlinale is presenting work specifically from Canada, the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. What’s more, our delegation of Indigenous filmmakers has contributed to doubling Canada’s overall presence at the 2013 Berlinale!

I find it difficult to distill into words what this recognition means to our community of Indigenous filmmakers. Having our work, our storytelling, our Indigenous worldviews acknowledged on such a global level is a testament to how far we’ve come.

When I arrive at festival headquarters, I am ushered to the Berlinale NATIVe office dedicated to hosting us. I meet the other filmmakers in attendance and am delighted to see how many women are among us. I can’t help but recall the recent Sundance Film Festival study that shed light on the lack of female directors working in film. This comprehensive study unveiled the disparity that women directors face in their careers. However, as exemplified at the Berlinale, this is not the case in the global Indigenous community. In fact, the rate of female directors is actually rising at an incredible pace. Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival reports that over 60% of the festival’s overall film submissions are received from female directors.

Indigenous women are finding ways to tell their stories like never before.

At this year’s Berlinale there is programming that honours the contributions of Indigenous female directors. Last week I attended a panel on the topic. Included in the discussion were producer Chelsea Winstanley (producer of legendary New Zealand Maori filmmaker, Merata Mita), Australian filmmaker Katriona McKenzie (Satellite Boy) and Canada’s own first lady of cinema, Alanis Obomsawin.

These talented, accomplished women shared their stories and stressed the role that female mentorship has played in their careers. Listening to these women speak with such candor, I begin to consider my place in this evolution. How can I grow my career so that I can mentor the next generation of emerging women directors? I listen as Alanis speaks about advocating for equal pay and Chelsea elaborates on the trials of being a new mother in the midst of production. I watch clips from their films and am awed by their courage.

As the panel wraps up, I find myself shaking hands, holding babies (yes, the Berlinale offers free child care services to all accredited festival guests) and pledging to keep the conversation going. There is a sense of camaraderie around us.

Feeling a little lighter, I take to the electric Berlin streets. For the hundredth time this week, I walk past the holocaust memorial. This time, I decide to walk through its maze of columns. Surrounded by stone, I am reminded of the artists who have given voice to those who cannot speak. I’m reminded of the painters, writers, filmmakers and storytellers who have reinterpreted the past to give way for a better future. While in Berlin I am confronted with something larger, and I cannot separate the history of this land from the storytelling that is harvested here. I am reminded of why I am a filmmaker.

Perhaps Obomsawin put it best this week when she said, “I never roll my camera until I’ve listened long enough to understand. The voice is more important than the image. One must respect that. A film is a film, but life is sacred.”

The Studio program is TIFF Industry’s first year-round program, open to Ontario-based producers and aimed at developing next-level creative and business skills and knowledge of the global marketplace through panels, programs and seminars with Canadian and international film experts.