Guest Post by Sophie Mayer
Raising Films is a campaign for parent-filmmakers — and it’s urgently needed. While writing “Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema,” I observed that the vast majority of the British female filmmakers were child free. Only 14 percent of women working across roles in the UK film industry are parents, according to Dr. Natalie Wreyford. So I became a founding member, with director Hope Dickson Leach, producers Nicky Bentham and Jessica Levick, and screenwriter Line Langebek.
In the foreword to our new report “Making it Possible: Voices of Parents and Carers in the UK Film and Television Industry,” directors and co-parents Jeanie Finlay and Steven Sheil ask: “Childcare is not inherently a gendered role so why are more women left holding the baby? Is this at the heart of why the number of women making films is so low?” After four months of data-crunching, the answer is a painfully loud yes.
We know there’s been a gender-inequality-in-film statistics overload from the UK all year. And we want to add our voices to European Women’s Audiovisual Network, Calling the Shots (University of Southampton) and Directors UK, who have called for 50/50 funding by 2020. To get there, we need to rethink the way that the film industry works — because, for a lot of women (and some men), it’s not working at all.
72 percent of our 636 respondents, both male and female, are parents or carers, and 79 percent of them said being a parent or carer has a negative impact on their role in the industry: that’s a wake-up call. “Women/carers simply get lost from the industry,” said a female freelance producer. Why? The industry’s long hours culture, location shoots, and financial insecurity were the top challenges listed. “I am sinking under the stress of juggling childcare,” said a female freelance producer, “and I only see my children for one hour a day, and this year I have also worked one if not two weekend days every week, there is no choice not to.”
As Women and Hollywood recently reported, Elizabeth Banks took the huge step of being honest about childcare conflicts when stepping down from “Pitch Perfect 3,” and Zoe Saldana has been equally outspoken about the lack of on-set childcare. How do we create choice in a situation where women are currently “cut out of the picture” (to borrow Directors UK’s report title) if they do stay home for early years childcare, and feel like they are sinking if they go back to work? We offered survey respondents a list of 14 solutions to the problem. Reflecting the literal cost of being a parent filmmaker, four out of five of the top solutions address the expense and stress of finding childcare.
Raising Films started as a conversation, held a crowdfunder, called for stories, and became a community. We’ve listened to the voices that no-one has listened to, that have been silenced by a discriminatory culture and by the low value placed on caring labor in our society. On behalf of all who have spoken, we issue a call to action for the UK film industry. It’s time to:
1. Enable financial assistance for child and elder care.
2. Encourage industry-wide adoption of flexible working and access to child/elder care.
3. Formalize a way to combat discrimination.
4. Normalize conversations around caring commitments with employers and financiers.
Creative Scotland’s Screen funding forms now includes an application for personal access costs for people with disabilities, and to cover childcare costs “particularly… for activity where women are under-represented.” As we know from this year’s reports, that describes much of the UK film industry.
Yet across the survey we also heard from parents and carers such as Jeanie and Steven — as well as our founder members — who are making it possible. We also heard that their stories are a crucial inspiration for others. As a young female freelance producer wrote, “Though I don’t have children, I want to one day. Knowing that Raising Films is out there to encourage real change in the industry gives me hope for my life, that I won’t have to sacrifice parenthood for a fulfilling career, or vice versa.” Let’s take the actions that can make this possible.
