The #MeToo movement is showing no signs of slowing down. On the heels of Time’s Up’s revelation that it has raised $20 million so far, Women in Film (WIF) has announced that it is organizing a support group for sexual harassment survivors in the film industry and Screen Australia unveiled a new code of conduct concerning harassment.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, WIF is teaming up with mental health non-profit Wright Institute Los Angeles (WILA) for the support group, a free resource for women working in entertainment. When WIF first came up with the idea for the group, it contacted psychotherapist and WILA group therapies program director Ilana Bar-Din Giannini for help. Bar-Din Giannini, who has also worked as a screenwriter and director, endured sexual harassment herself in 1980 while participating in AFI’s directing fellowship.
Called Safe Space, the support group’s pilot program will convene once a week for five weeks, starting in mid-February. WILA is putting together the group from calls made to the WIF Help Line. Bar-Din Giannini will lead Safe Space by utilizing standard psychodynamic therapeutic techniques as well as unpacking Hollywood’s specific, unorthodox work culture.
“When you get women together in a room, being able to talk to each other in an environment that promises confidentiality gives women a chance to take a second breath,” Bar-Din Giannini explained. “What I often hear is women holding on to self-recrimination, but when they hear somebody else say, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed late at the office,’ they find a sense of perspective in looking at others that they can then apply to themselves.”
“Group therapy can be a powerful tool in a survivor’s path to healing and taking meaningful action against predatory behavior,” added WIF exec director Kirsten Schaffer. “WILA’s team of dedicated, trauma-informed therapists will help WIF expand the resources we’re able to offer to survivors.”
Anyone who would like a referral to Safe Space should call WIF’s hotline at 323–525–0333.
For its part, regulatory and funding agency Screen Australia has drafted a code of conduct addressing sexual harassment, per Variety. Expected to go into effect in April, the code of conduct will be required reading for everyone working on a production that has received funding from Screen Australia.
As part of the new standards, a project’s producers will nominate a trained employee to serve as the resident Sexual Harassment Prevention Contact. The producers will also file a report to Screen Australia once production has wrapped. “Failure to do so may mean the loss of final payments and being barred from future funding,” Variety notes.
“The proposed Code gives visibility to the standards and responsibilities that already exist, and makes it clear that on any Screen Australia production there is zero tolerance for harassment,” said Screen Australia COO, Fiona Cameron.
Screen Australia’s new code will be subject to industry feedback until April. Screen Producers Australia and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance are also developing a code that will oversee all of the country’s entertainment organizations.
The news from WIF and Screen Australia are just some of the industry actions inspired by or related to #MeToo. Among the other developments is “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius’ launch of #WeToo, a hashtag created in support of women and in response to France’s #MeToo backlash — spearheaded by the open letter that criticized the movement as “Puritanical” and was signed by Catherine Deneuve. Other recent #MeToo happenings include the Berlinale’s official statement of support, filmmaker Isabel Coixet’s piece about sexism in El Pais, and female music industry figures calling for Neil Portnow’s resignation in the wake of “step up”-gate.
