At the house of to missWe ask ourselves every year how to approach it this famous international women rights day which is 8 march. And every time it is eminently complicated. Why this time of year has recovered speaks marketing large companies, from policies that they don’t waste a minute to do demagogy or even by those who have not understood anything about it and think it is simply necessary wishes “happy birthday” to all women. Through it all, the feminist discourses and struggles we should hear most become inaudible that day. This year to to miss, so we decided to extend our microphone and our pen to those who really act on a daily basis to defend women’s rights, and that we finally hear less today. Associations and collectives that work in all sectors of society and despite the difficulties and the threat of knockback permanent.
Near institutionsfrom the professionals AND General public, they work to make the film and audiovisual industry more equal and inclusive and rid her of its dominance relationships sexist, racist, or ableist.
Elected to the board of directors of the collective 50/50 for two years, Clementine Carlomaina (General Delegate of Cinemas for everyone), Laura Pertuy (film journalist and festival programmer) e Margaux Lorier (producer) met to miss.
On the occasion of March 8 they gave us opened the backstage of their fight. They talked to us from the advancefrom the stagnations it’s theirs goals introducing us the 6 modes of action with which they moved the ranks of one of the most influential industries in France.
1: Make the training of mandatory prevention and fight against sexist and sexual harassment
Clementine Carlomaina. For all employees in the film and audiovisual sector, please follow training to prevent and combat sexist and sexual harassment. These training courses already exist but for the time being, they are only mandatory for company executives. Yet they are free and accessible to all ! It is a training of just three days, which gives you the weapons to accept the words of the victims and know how to act. Last week, for example, I heard about a shot where the contacts did their job by reacting quickly and well. An actress told me that for once, the shame had changed its face and that the person in question had razed the walls during the filming.
Margaux lorier. What’s important with these workouts is that once you’ve done them, you can be a training referent on a set. For some, this responsibility is scary because in the film industry most professionals are intermittent. They have one precarious state. Shooting is done in a short time and sometimes, the rest of his career depends on one recovery. Many prefer to bite the bullet during filming, because it is increasingly difficult to denounce poor working conditions being precarious. People are afraid to be in the blacklist.
Laura Pertuy. This is especially what happened on the set of almond treeswhere young people had fear of not being able to continue in this profession if they talk about it and preferred to abandon filming. Unfortunately, this case is far from being an isolated case. She simply had more media exposure.
Indeed, we are not meant to exist forever: we are meant to be useless!
2: Influence institutions and listen to the voice of professionals
Margaux Lorier. We define ourselves a action tank : we are in contact with the institutions to move the lines in terms of laws, subsidies, etc.. We don’t act on the set because our goal is for our actions to reach the highest spheres and for the institutions to apply what we put on the field. Indeed, we are not meant to exist forever: we are meant to be useless!
Concretely, we are in contact with the CNC, Ministry of Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Culture, National Agency for International Cohesion for the public part… But also UnifranceTV channels, basically all leading film institutions. We are always in touch with them both to benefit from their support and to work together to make things happen.
The other aspect of our action is that we collects the word and directs people to the appropriate institutions. We make this connection when we are contacted, often when there is a problem – we are rarely contacted when all is well! (laughs)
3: Mentoring, to promote integration
Margaux Lorier. Among our areas of action are our mentoring system, accessible to all people who wish to work in the world of cinema, even to young people.
We connect newcomers to the film industry with more experienced professionals to help them integrate. The latter are for some members of the collective, for others not, who decide to commitat different times in their careers.
We embody different points of view that do not have the opportunity to meet in other parts of the industry, while we have many common experiences related to domain relationships.
4: The 50/50 Bible, the inclusive platform for film professionals
Laura Pertuy. We have also created an inclusive online directory called the Bible 50/50. All you have to do is register, each registration is then validated. The idea is to renew the teams so as not to have exclusively male shots.
Margaux Lorier. As a manufacturer I have used it several times, it is very effective, and the technicians I have contacted have told me they are always contacted this way!
Clementine Carlomaina. By the way, Iris Brey is preparing a series and has recruited his entire team the Bible !
5: Members, at the center of the fight
Clementine Carlomaina. The collective belongs to the members. Clémentine, Laura, Margaux and the other members of the board of directors are mandated by them to carry out all the actions for 2 years.
Members also take part in actions – we organize regularly reflections or events to ask them which points they would like to see progress, by what means.
Margaux Lorier. One thing we are quite proud of is that our board of directors is representative of various professions ; we have a casting director, distributor, director, actress, producers, etc.… We embody different points of view that do not have the opportunity to meet in other parts of the industry, while we have many common experiences on these topics related to domain relationships.
Clementine Carlomaina. In our daily struggle, our paths and our commitments intertwine : it is because we are already in the film industry that we have our place on the board of directors and that we can be inspired by what we see, what we experience to shake things up.
The collective was created at a time when society was ready to listen to these requests. On the other hand, it’s hard to see that things are moving very slowly
6. Even if things are moving forward, keep fighting!
Clementine Carlomaina. As activists, there is clearly a leap in the industry. Things have changed a lot in ten years. One example among many: 10 years ago I tried to develop a documentary about Alice Boyand was told that no one was interested and no one knew who he was. Today, however, in industry, everyone knows that Alice Guy is the first director of fictionwhile his work remained unseen for decades.
I think the collective was created at a time when society was ready to listen to these requests. On the other hand, it’s hard to see that things are moving very slowlyand we still hear things like “Okay, we’ve already done a lot, the box is ticked”while, no, things are not resolved.
Margaux Lorier. We are also faced with a totem effect: people, productions or people join or support us to clear customssaid “We are 50/50, we cannot be sexist. » It’s like saying, “I can’t be sexist, since I have a daughter! »
Finally, there are other topics that we also cover and which have made less progress, it is inclusion in the broadest sense, whether it is people queerracialized or disabled. We really want to advance these things as much as parity. They cannot be dissociated from current issues of discrimination, equality and diversity.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
