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Training, new professions, special insurance: the cinema is gradually introducing systems to prevent sexual violence and harassment on film sets.
France Télévisions – cultural editorial department
Published on January 13, 2024 6:05 p.m. Updated on January 13, 2024 6:19 p.m
Reading time: 3 min. Camera on the film set (illustration) (VARLEY/SIPA / SIPA)
Mandatory anti-harassment training, listening cells, a director “confined” to his own set… Freedom of expression on sexist and sexual violence following the #MeToo movement has begun to change certain practices on French film sets.
A filmmaker is accused of rape by a member of his team: the producers’ nightmare scenario. This happened last summer while filming I swearby director Samuel Theis, also seen as an actor in Anatomy of a fall. A technician claims he forced him to have sex after a night out. The filmmaker, against whom a complaint was later filed, refutes this version and speaks of reporting “Approval”.
Limited director
Can we finish filming under these conditions? A unique solution was found: a strict isolation protocol for the director, who will be physically separated from his team and managed remotely for the remainder of filming. A compromise to balance the continuation of teamwork, respect for the presumption of innocence and that of the victim’s words.
“Given the circumstances and the reactions of some, this protocol was a lesser evil, although difficult to bear for the director, who inevitably felt excluded from his own filming.”says Samuel Theis about his lawyer.
The case illustrates how explosive the topic is. “There is awareness among professionals and freedom of expression”, welcomes a manager who is in contact with all actors of the 7th art. And more and more, “There is a challenge not to damage the reputation of films”.
The fate of the film by Catherine Corsini The return serves as a warning. She was stripped of some of her public funding after it was discovered that a simulated, sexually explicit scene involving an actress under the age of 16 had not been properly reported to authorities.
Prevention and training
“The only way to get producers to bend is to hit them in the wallet.”argues actress Ariane Labed, who, together with others, founded the Association of Actors (Ada). “Working more abroad than in France, I am outraged by the delay in the cinema industry, which is due in particular to the imagination of the almighty author.” She analyzes on set.
Things are changing under the auspices of the CNC and Afdas, the sector’s training organization. Violence prevention training is now mandatory and from spring onwards all teams will be trained before filming begins.
In order to prevent productions from sweeping the dust under the carpet in the event of harassment, a special insurance policy was taken out as a flat rate, which covers up to five days of interruption in filming if the matter is reported to the public prosecutor’s office.
The 50/50 collective, which has been at the forefront of this issue, welcomed this progress at its meetings in December. However, he believes that despite the mandatory naming, things are moving too slowly “Harassment speakers.”
“A lot of people really aren’t aware of it and don’t care. I think it’s still very complicated to speak up and express your discomfort with a situation.” Harassment or violence, Clémentine Charlemaine, its co-president, told AFP.
“Viewed as moral police”
Inspired by the American film industry, “intimacy coordinators” are emerging very tentatively, a new profession responsible for overseeing the filming of scenes of a sexual nature. The series Emily in Paris (Netflix) or Too bad, France (France TV), the film An area that needs to be defended (Amazon Prime) with François Civil and Lyna Khoudri used it.
“We are still often seen as the moral police”regrets to AFP one of the few intimacy coordinators active in France, Paloma Garcia Martens, who sees herself more as one “Staging support”.
One of the resistances she encounters is the idea of becoming a filmmaker “I can’t stand the intrusion into his sacred relationship with the actor, the reluctance of the producers… But also that of the actors themselves, who sometimes have the idea that you have to accept everything to do this job.”
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