Podcast - Community Consultant and Actor Max Jahufer
Max Jahufer speaks to the importance of transgender visibility both in front of and behind the camera, the role of community consultants in the industry, and his experiences on the upcoming Australian feature film A Savage Christmas.
Max Jahufer, Thea Raveneau in A Savage Christmas
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For Max Jahufer, creating safe spaces on set and on screen for queer cast and crew is about more than just pronouns.
“There's so many amazing stories out there…get real and authentic people in a room because it's so important for society to start understanding that […] trans people, queer people, we’re just people. We’re exactly the same as everyone else. Our stories are just as important and just as unique, and it will really help break down some barriers.”
In this episode of the Screen News podcast, we’re joined by transgender community consultant and actor Max Jahufer. Jahufer shares how authentic representation on screen, and queer inclusion on set, emboldened him to move from writers’ room to in front of camera, and will create more authentic stories and safer workspaces.
“I think a lot of the time queer people will get passed up as an option to be part of a team because a lot of leadership teams that are making decisions on who's in these crews don't know necessarily how to work with us. […] I don't think it's coming from a place of malice…it's fear based,” he says, and supports more active engagement with the community to develop guidelines and resources as resources for the industry so “people feel comfortable from both sides that we can all work together. […] And people are guided well in how to do that.”
While the prospect of working with community consultants can be daunting, it needn’t be. “I don't think rigour and pointing fingers and making people feel awkward is ever the right way to go,” he says. “…people just need to feel safe that they can all work together and work through it together…it's just about conversations”
You can catch A Savage Christmas in cinemas Australia-wide from 16 November.
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