Diane Laidlaw: Story Over Spectacle: AI, Representation & Human Emotion｜BC +AI Film Club

Diane Laidlaw (Afro Futcha) is a UK-based creator whose work stands out because it’s not another fight scene or Marvel frame. It’s human emotion. Quiet. Personal. Real.

She talks about:
– Why people resonate with work that feels like something needed to come out—not just something made
– Self-taught creativity: 15 years as a web designer while homeschooling her son, learning beside him at the computer
– What AI festivals get wrong: 200 films judged, most were technically impressive but story-empty
– The bias problem: prompting for a Black woman in English gives you the Western tourist version. Prompting in native language? The real thing.
– “Quiet Please” — a story about a neurodivergent Black boy, something she’s never seen represented. Made because she had the tools and the experience.
– Why the end of the one-size-fits-all entertainment era is good for all of us

Story over spectacle. That’s the shift.

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