“People are afraid to reveal themselves, because they think they will be blacklisted, and they will not get new work if they report bullies in the framework,” director Brian Hill says.
The BAFTA-winning director is so concerned regarding bullying in the film and television industry that he made a short film called “Toxic,” featuring four horrific testimonies of people whose identities have been kept secret and their voices cast.
Notorious Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein is perhaps the most famous case of bad behavior in business, especially in the film industry.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison following being convicted of rape and sexual assault once morest a number of women in 2020.
Several famous actresses including Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rose McGowan spoke once morest Weinstein before the case was heard in court in New York.
But Hill, the award-winning director, says this kind of problem persists in the film industry, and many in the field do not feel confident to make their complaints openly.
“People are afraid that their income will be hurt, that they will not get good letters of recommendation,” Hill, a worried expression on his face, told the BBC.
The film and television industry may seem like a charming and attractive field of work, but for the most part, according to Hill, it is not.
For freelance workers, also called piecework, they always have to prove themselves on short-term contracts while working long hours away from home.
Hull, whose work included the BAFTA award-winning series, “The Collapse”, produced in 2002 and shown on Channel 4, said that what prompted him to make the movie “Sam” was “his friend was bullied while working in a large production company.”
“From the very beginning of my career, I knew there were bullies in this industry,” he explains.
But he confirms that he was not subject to bullying, and did not suffer personally from it. He says, “I have never been bullied myself, but you hear stories and talk to people who have been bullied. Like many other people, I accepted bullying as a normal part of the scene.”
Hill also completely refuted the “artistic temper myth”, which considers that “a bully is a bully because he is a genius,” adding, “It is real nonsense.”
A study published earlier this year called The Looking Through the Glass Report surveyed the mental health of more than 2,000 people working in the UK film and television industry.
According to the results of the study, more than half of those surveyed (56 percent) were subjected to bullying at work last year, and the study’s author, the Film and Television Charity, said that discovering that “bad behaviors abound or even thrive in this environment” is a matter. worrisome.”
The results of the study also indicated that 16 percent of those who reported their peers’ experiences with bullying said that things “really worsened as a result”.
Hill decided to invite people on social media to tell him their stories of workplace bullying, and regarding 50 people came forward to share their experiences.
One participant described how her boss had become “like a ghost chasing her”.
She explains how she is at home with her two young children, but her boss is chasing following her, and says, “We are busy brushing our teeth and my phone starts ringing, it’s her.. I feel sick, and my children look at me and say ‘Mama what is this?'” I almost cried.”
Another says, “People in the upper echelons are not going to step in to deal with this (bad behavior) as long as the bullies get the work done. The interest and comfort of the workers is more important.”
A third speaks of being severely controlled by a director, while a fourth person who was working on a reality TV program spoke of “months of psychological torture,” adding that he was held responsible and blamed for causing trouble when he spoke regarding the story.
This explains why those interviewed in the movie “Sam” were keen to remain anonymous.
“If the administration doesn’t do something regarding these problems, I think at some point people will completely stop putting their hands up and name offenders,” Hill says.
Hill has been shown by the Royal Television Society and has participated in several TV and Documentary Film Festivals.
“The people who have to watch this movie are the ones who are at the fore in the industry,” adds the well-known director, adding that he hopes the movie will be “watched and taken seriously by the people who have power.”
Matt Longley is also trying to change the workplace culture in the creative industries, but from within.
Longley used to work on film crews, including “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, “Z World War” and “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises”.
But his career witnessed a sudden change following a colleague who was suffering from work stress committed suicide, ending his life regarding five years ago.
“I probably worked with him on two or three productions, and following that I kept in touch with him,” Longley recalls.
Longley says that his colleague “before his death, he wrote a letter to the film industry talking regarding how lonely he was… I went out for a beer with him regarding three or four weeks before he committed suicide, and I would never have known.”
The shock of his friend’s suicide led him to help found Six Fit from Spotlight some four and a half years ago, a company that “promotes positive work cultures” in the creative industries.
Longley has also been trained to provide counseling on mental health risks and protect those with problems, as well as “resolving difficult situations related to bullying, harassment and interpersonal conflict.”
He explains his role: “We realized that people had no one to talk to. So we are independent of the production side, we are the person who can come to him and talk to him confidentially regarding anything that may be of concern to him at work.”
Longley says successful interventions by a well-trained person can save money on production, given the fewer stress-related absences from work.
He talks regarding the physical and mental losses when a person remains in a state of “conflict”, or lives a “prolonged period of time” in a “state of conflict and fighting”, describing it as a “horrific situation”.
Returning to work in the world of films following the pandemic is also stressful, although it is welcomed, because people are “working even harder, as it is clear that the industry is experiencing a very busy and busy period at the moment.”
Longley would like to see all areas of the industry use people trained to maintain the mental health of workers, but so far they are working on a pilot program of the British Film Institute.
In February, the British Film Institute announced that it would provide additional funding for “luxury facilitators” to work on financially supported projects on set or in the studio to support the mental health of the cast and crew.
“The interest of our staff is of paramount importance to us,” Jennifer Smith, head of inclusion at the British Film Institute, told the BBC.
Smith has received “positive feedback” regarding the initiative to hire staff responsible for psychological safety, she says, adding that she hopes this will “be adopted in the film industry” similar to the role of “intimacy coordinator,” called for by the Time’s Up gathering. Founded in 2018.
The gathering includes more than 300 actresses with writers and directors to help combat sexual harassment, and to make it mandatory for intimacy coordinators to be present on set when productions include filming intimate footage.
But Jennifer Smith adds that the raising of standards in the film and series industry “and the interest we’ve seen gives me hope that there is a possibility that this role (coordinator of luxury) will become available on every filming location, but there is still a long way to go.”
Theo Baroclaw, BFI-backed producer of “Scraper”, agreed with Jennifer Smith, saying that working with Longley on set “proved a huge difference”.
He explains, “God has blessed us with a wonderful crew, but even in this case, every cinematic work must be a comprehensive and safe place to create your profession.”
“Having Matt Longley on site as someone who knows all the crew can ask for his help, talk to him privately, and solve problems with him, made a huge difference to me as a producer,” he says.
Jennifer Smith says the Harvey Weinstein case was “the catalyst that prompted us to create the atmosphere in the industry and come up with a clear set of principles and guidelines.”
She believes the role of a ‘wellbeing facilitator’ is an ‘essential step forward in improving our workplace culture’.
