Lights, Camera, Authenticity: Why Trusting Your Voice Is the Most Radical Move in Film Today

The entertainment industry is at a crossroads, where questions of access, authorship, and technological disruption are reshaping who gets to tell stories—and how those stories get made. From the rise of AI-assisted tools to ongoing conversations about representation and gatekeeping, filmmaking today is as much about identity and equity as it is about craft. These pressures make it especially timely to examine how creative voices are shaped, challenged, and sustained in an industry that doesn’t always reward difference.

So how do creative professionals build lasting careers in an industry defined by gatekeeping—and what does it really mean to trust your voice when the system encourages conformity?

Welcome to Professional Quotient. In this episode, host Jason Winningham sits down with Julia Camara, an accomplished screenwriter and filmmaker whose body of work spans award-winning films, fearless storytelling, and a deep commitment to creative authenticity.

Julia shares what it takes to thrive in an industry built on gatekeeping, and why trusting your voice, even when it doesn’t sound like everyone else’s—maybe especially when it doesn’t—is the most radical move a creative professional can make. The discussion explores how professional equity plays out in entertainment, what AI means for artists, and why mentorship is more urgent than ever.

She also speaks candidly about erasing her accent to fit in, discovering her worth as a multilingual creative, and how becoming a mother reshaped her relationship with time, intuition, and legacy.

What you’ll learn…

• Why differentiation—not assimilation—is a long-term strategy for building sustainable creative careers.

• Why gatekeeping and access continue to shape careers in entertainment, and how mentorship can change that trajectory.

• What emerging technologies like AI mean for artists, educators, and the future of creative work.

Julia Camara is an award-winning Brazilian screenwriter, filmmaker, and professor whose work spans independent film, studio features, and global festival circuits. She has written and directed multiple acclaimed projects, including the experimental feature In Transit and the sci-fi horror film Occupants, which screened at over 150 festivals worldwide and won more than 100 awards, including a Telly Award for writing. In addition to her filmmaking career, she is a Cinematic Arts Professor at Keiser University and a screenwriting instructor and advisor for the Sundance Institute, with deep expertise in story craft, genre storytelling, and mentorship.