Bruno Wang hosted Lee Daniels, Nadine Labaki and Marisa Berenson in a Liberatum-curated conversation about how film can help audiences look beyond the fragments of identity created online
The internet can compress a complicated human life into a post, photograph or passing comment, leaving little room for context. At Liberatum Art & Cinema in Venice, Lee Daniels and Nadine Labaki considered how cinema can offer an alternative by giving audiences the time and narrative space to understand people beyond first impressions.
The conversation took place at Palazzina Grassi on 7 September, as Liberatum celebrated its 25th anniversary. The programme, supported by the Pure Land Foundation, brought together film, performance and public dialogue to examine ideas around human dignity. Pure Land Foundation founder Bruno Wang hosted Daniels, Labaki and actor Marisa Berenson for a panel focused on the consequences of reducing complex identities to one image, statement or label.
Labaki reflected on how quickly online audiences can form conclusions. “It takes a moment, it takes a situation, it takes a phrase, it takes a comma, it takes a word to completely judge somebody,” she said. “And then it becomes like a verdict.” Cinema can slow that process down, allowing viewers to encounter a character’s motives, history and inconsistencies. “You start seeing their contradictions,” she said, and may eventually “fall in love with that person, even if you don’t agree with them.”
Daniels related the subject to his own experience of being excluded from mainstream visibility. “Precious was just representative of me not being seen as a Black queer man in the ’80s when I wanted to be seen,” he said. “So many of us are invisible to people. We don’t fit the norm, then we are not significant.” He said his work aims “to give voice to people that don’t have voices and a face for people that aren’t seen.”
The speakers also explored the extent to which art can affect society beyond an audience’s emotional response. Labaki recalled making Capernaum hoping that it could contribute to legal protections for children, while recognising that cultural work has limits when confronted with institutions. Daniels recalled a different kind of outcome after a screening of Precious, when an abuser told him, “Thank you. I will stop doing this to my daughter.” For Berenson, moments such as this demonstrated why “change starts on an individual level”.
A representative of the Pure Land Foundation said: “The Pure Land Foundation is increasingly interested in what happens when a person is misunderstood, judged or reduced to one public moment, and in what it takes to recover a fuller account of who they are. Cinema asks an audience to stay with a life long enough for the fuller person to emerge. Supporting Liberatum Art & Cinema allowed the Pure Land Foundation to place those questions at the heart of a public cultural programme.”
The wider event featured a poetry recital by Iranian singer and songwriter Sevdaliza as well as the 2026 Liberatum Pioneer Awards. Marina Abramović, Daniels and Labaki received awards for their work in performance art and cinema, with tributes from Rossy de Palma, Debi Mazar and Berenson.
Bringing the panel to a close, Bruno Wang connected the discussion to the Buddhist teaching of right speech. “Language is not always neutral,” he said. “The words that we use actually could shape perception, shape relationships and shape the reality.” He called for “a more humane culture of communication” that brings accountability, compassion and complexity into dialogue while maintaining the possibility of transformation and growth.
