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Wednesday, November 01, 2017
8 Things to Come Out of the SAG-AFTRA Convention
Backstage: SAG-AFTRA held its biennial convention in Universal City, California, Oct. 5–8. It’s the third convention since the merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2012.
2 comments:
Alexander Friedland
said...
It’s comforting to see that SAG-AFTRA’s conference includes segments on what is going on in the world with the panel “Acknowledging Tragedy”. Art isn’t created in a vacuum in the world and it is nice to see a Union in the professional world help encourage this. Specific shouldn’t just be looking at the world but the performance industry as a whole should be looking at what is going on in the world industry. It is more comforting to see that there was a “Statement on Harvey Weinstein Controversy and Anti-Harassment Safety”. This shows that people are actually talking in the professional world and it isn’t just article buzz. It is even more comforting that there is a SAG-AFTRA Safety Hotline. This gives people a resource or likes an HR contact to help. However, this doesn’t solve the issue because abuse could still happen for non-union members and those in the design/production field. There needs to be a way for all theatre/film practitioners across all departments to report when there is abuse/harassment. One surprising thing is how there are awards at this conference.
It is really fantastic to see how much attention SAG-AFTRA is paying to the hugs flaws that are prevalent in the industry, particularly women's issues. They discussed under-representation and sexual assault, two problems that need to be addressed immediately. I appreciated the fact that they actually looked at one of the sources of the problem for under-representation of women, being that often times films with leading women are written off as "flukes" and not given the chance to thrive. Of course, not every leading lady script is going to be a great one, but let's start looking a little harder for them. Something else I thought was very interesting was that half of the vice presidents ran unopposed in their state. In a time when the industry needs so much change, we should be having proper election processes where the actors in each area can decide who is best to represent them, instead of being stuck with the only one who ran.
2 comments:
It’s comforting to see that SAG-AFTRA’s conference includes segments on what is going on in the world with the panel “Acknowledging Tragedy”. Art isn’t created in a vacuum in the world and it is nice to see a Union in the professional world help encourage this. Specific shouldn’t just be looking at the world but the performance industry as a whole should be looking at what is going on in the world industry. It is more comforting to see that there was a “Statement on Harvey Weinstein Controversy and Anti-Harassment Safety”. This shows that people are actually talking in the professional world and it isn’t just article buzz. It is even more comforting that there is a SAG-AFTRA Safety Hotline. This gives people a resource or likes an HR contact to help. However, this doesn’t solve the issue because abuse could still happen for non-union members and those in the design/production field. There needs to be a way for all theatre/film practitioners across all departments to report when there is abuse/harassment. One surprising thing is how there are awards at this conference.
It is really fantastic to see how much attention SAG-AFTRA is paying to the hugs flaws that are prevalent in the industry, particularly women's issues. They discussed under-representation and sexual assault, two problems that need to be addressed immediately. I appreciated the fact that they actually looked at one of the sources of the problem for under-representation of women, being that often times films with leading women are written off as "flukes" and not given the chance to thrive. Of course, not every leading lady script is going to be a great one, but let's start looking a little harder for them. Something else I thought was very interesting was that half of the vice presidents ran unopposed in their state. In a time when the industry needs so much change, we should be having proper election processes where the actors in each area can decide who is best to represent them, instead of being stuck with the only one who ran.
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