Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Reese Witherspoon, Brie Larson, and Lena Waithe are among the Hollywood heavyweights joining filmmaker Jessica Dimmock in urging the Directors Guild of America (DGA) to change its parental leave policy. An open letter penned by Dimmock, and signed by dozens of women directors, producers, and actors, calls on the guild to expand its health insurance coverage to 18 months for new mothers. The current coverage period is 12 months.
Dimmock reveals that she needed to take extra time off after having her daughter, and was unable to the complete the yearly minimum of work needed to maintain her DGA health insurance. She had to switch to Cobra and pay high monthly fees, while her partner, also a director, was able to keep his healthcare. “Because my directing partner is also our child’s father, I was able to see in such a clear way the ways that having a child impacted me and not him, even though we were similarly situated. Since then, I’ve spoken to other members of the DGA who have had similar experiences,” Dimmock writes.
Per Variety, the DGA’s current work minimum to qualify for health insurance is “slightly under $36,000 a year in income from DGA directing jobs in a 12-month period.”
“As it stands, the DGA offers no form of leave for women in the lead-up and following child birth. In order to retain benefits, all members must reach a yearly minimum,” Dimmock claims. “Failure to meet yearly minimums introduces economic and health care insecurity when it could be argued that it is needed most. And, importantly, a lack of maternity leave will continue to be an obstacle in achieving parity in the field of directing unless corrected. It is imperative that in this moment of such positive gains that we work to clear this obstacle.”
The letter concludes with Dimmock and her co-signers asking the DGA to give new mothers “additional time to make their yearly minimum in the year that they give birth.” This provides new parents the chance to bond with and care for their child as well as recover physically from childbirth. “Women will return to their work better equipped to handle the challenges of balancing parenting and work and better equipped to delve into their future projects,” the letter argues. “This should apply for adoptive parents as well.”
In response to the letter, the DGA has asked the DGA-Producer Pension and Health Plans, the separate entity that is responsible for health plans for union members, to review the policy.
The lack of support for mothers in show business isn’t only an issue in the U.S. The org Raising Films has spotlighted the specific conditions parents and carers working in UK film and television encounter — and found they fall especially vulnerable to unregulated and unsatisfactory working conditions.
Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”) and Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) also signed Dimmock’s letter. Both are up for the DGA Awards’ First-Time Feature Film prize, as is Mati Diop (“Atlantics”). DuVernay, Minkie Spiro, and Jessica Yu are among the awards’ TV nominees. The former is being recognized for Netflix’s “When They See Us” and the latter two for FX’s “Fosse/Verdon” in the Movies for Television and Miniseries category.
Read Dimmock’s full letter to the DGA here.
