Decoupling “Empowerment” from “Likability”

The “strong female character” was created in response to decades of “damsel in distress” and “manic pixie dreamgirl” dominating cinema. Yet trading one trope for another hasn’t solved screen representation—it simply created a new binary where women remain two-dimension. In this special session brought to you by TIFF’s Share Her Journey initiative, join director Rachel Morrison and producer Jessie Henderson from Love of Your Life in conversation about what genuine freedom for female characters looks like. Together, they explore how on-screen women can be complex, messy, morally ambiguous, or complicit—all without needing narrative redemption or a punishing storyline.