At Roxbury Film Festival, a difficult question: Can white filmmakers make black films?

An armed guard on horseback sits sentry at a sugar cane field in the Dominican Republic in this shot from the documentary “The Price of Sugar,” which was screened at last week’s Roxbury Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of www.priceofsugar.com)

Thomas Leenders

Actress Ruby Dee (center) is joined by Lisa Simmons, founder and director of the Color of Film Collaborative (left) and Terri Brown of ACT Roxbury after the awards ceremony of last week’s 10th Annual Roxbury Film Festival. Dee starred in “Steam,” the festival’s closing night selection.(Don West photo)

Hip-hop artist Medusa (left) joins Cynthia Gordy, editor of Essence magazine, for a question-and-answer session following the screening of “The Good Life,” held at Berklee College of Music as part of last week’s Roxbury Film Festival. (Don West photo)

Last week’s 10th Annual Roxbury Film Festival featured dozens of films that dealt with the issue of racism — both on and off camera.

One such film was “Steam,” the festival’s sold-out closing night gala presentation. Starring Academy Award nominee Ruby Dee and co-starring Ally Sheedy, “Steam” follows the lives of three women whose sole connection is weekly meetings at their local health club’s sauna.

During a question-and-answer period following the screening, Dee, Sheedy and director Kyle Schickner fielded questions from the audience. One viewer said that while watching films, she often braces herself for stereotypical portrayals of race that leave her “hurt, embarrassed or angry.”

“I wait for the black woman in the red dress, I wait for the bulging eye of a child, I wait for watermelon mouth,” she said, “and you always see it.”

Addressing Schickner, who is white, she added, “But this film did not have not one second of that … and I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to really enjoy your movie.”

Schickner smiled.

“For me, that means so much because, quiet as it’s kept, I am not an 80-year-old black woman,” he said. “I am scared that I’m not going to get it right. That is a big fear, and hearing that is very important to me.”

Minority viewers may have their doubts about whether white writer-directors can encapsulate others’ experiences in a manner that is respectful and genuine, if not fully authentic. Schickner said he understands the concern.

“I get it,” he said. “I’m sure that when I walked up here, there was a bit of a wave of, ‘Oh, here we go …’”

Schickner was not the only white filmmaker to address such concerns at this year’s festival. In fact, one film dealt explicitly with them: Ryan Piotrowicz’s “The Project,” which tells the story of white filmmakers making a documentary about black youth in Brooklyn.

Piotrowicz explained that telling the story from the viewpoint of young, well-to-do white filmmakers, rather than the perspective of housing project inhabitants, allowed him to retain the subjects of the documentary’s principal characters without speaking on their behalf.

Though his film’s screening was both well attended and well received, Piotrowicz said “The Project” has faced its share of criticism at other festivals.

“There has been a small but very vocal minority of people who really had some really strong reactions against the film,” he said. Some detractors voiced displeasure with Piotrowicz’s portrayal of poverty, drug commerce and violence within black housing projects.

What’s interesting about those detractors, he said, is they’re race.

“The funny thing is, black people seem to agree that I engage with these issues with courage and concern, giving them the serious weight they deserve,” said Piotrowicz. “It’s only certain of these white so-called liberals who seem to have a problem with it.”