Every producer in Hollywood over the past year and a half has faced the pressures, stress, and challenges of trying to tell stories during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the women who spoke at TheWrap’s Power Women Summit said those obstacles did not come close to the current challenges of fighting for equity for women and people of color onscreen.

At a producer roundtable titled “Inspiring Change Through Storytelling,” the panel of seven women, all leading Hollywood producers, discussed some of the challenges they’ve faced in trying to shoot movies. movies and shows during the pandemic. But the conversation returned to the real challenge of representation and how these women each use their position to influence who can tell stories.

Nina Yang Bongiovi, producer of the Netflix drama “Passing” and partner of Forest Whitaker, said it is these “philosophical” challenges that keep her from sleeping at night. She recalls having conversations with financiers who asked her if she could increase the presence of some of the white male roles in his film just so that he could better “travel” to international markets.

“I hear all about the COVID stuff. I got to work on the second season of The Harlem Godfather, and all the conformity was very, it was a struggle, but we got there. But when you talk about career projects, I think my biggest challenge is consistently fighting for budget fairness, acquisition fairness, when it comes to stories featuring top talent. color, stories that present stories from specific cultures, ”she said. “These kinds of philosophical challenges that I have encountered in my career are real, always present.”

Stephanie Allain, who moderated the panel, asked if Yang Bongiovi is tired or exhausted from struggling with the constant setback that when one of her films succeeds, it is only because it is a “one-off.” rather than a clever move or proof that such public accounts are false.

Nina Jacobson, who spoke on her “Impeachment: American Crime Story” series, agreed and spoke about the ongoing cycle of “comps” in the business and her failure to create new examples to show that various films can actually perform at the box office internationally. .

“The only way to free yourself from this prison is to create new compositions. And yet every time you do it, as you say, it’s overruled, the exception that proves the rule, ”Jacobson said. “Of course, a movie doesn’t travel if you don’t invest the money in it. So you can’t say, ‘Oh, that kind of movie doesn’t travel.’ But of course, it doesn’t travel because you didn’t travel with it and promote it there, it’s not a fact, it’s a bias realized as an effect.

Tanya Seghatchian, who produced Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”, praised her fellow panelists for sticking to their guns and believing that there is an audience that shares your own interests.

“It was really important to me when I started to know that there were other people, other women who followed their tastes, who didn’t just say ‘This is a film of women. ‘”, she said. “But they did what they wanted to do, what they believed in, and that success followed. I think it’s really important that we remember that and recognize the elements that we all activated.

Stacey Sher, producer of “Respect”, Laura Berwick, producer of “Belfast” and Rachel Shane, producer of “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” also joined the panel of the producers’ roundtable.

You can watch the full conversation here.

The Power Women Summit is the largest annual gathering of the most influential women in entertainment, media and tech. The event aims to inspire and empower women in the landscape of their professional careers and their personal lives. This year’s PWS offered three days of education, mentoring, workshops and networking around the world – to promote this year’s theme, “Represent”.