what has concretely changed on film sets since #MeToo

Training, new professions, specific insurance, the cinema is gradually putting in place systems to prevent sexual violence and harassment on film sets.

Mandatory anti-harassment training, listening cells, a director “confined” to his own set… The freeing of speech around sexist and sexual violence following the #MeToo movement has begun to change certain practices on French film sets.

A filmmaker accused of rape by a member of his team: the producers’ nightmare scenario. This is what happened last summer during the filming of I swearfrom director Samuel Theis, also seen as an actor in Anatomy of a fall. A technician claims that he forced him to have sex after a festive evening. The filmmaker, against whom a complaint was later filed, refutes this version, speaking of a report “consent”.

Confined director

Can we finish filming in these conditions? A unique solution was found: a strict confinement protocol for the director, physically separated from his team for the remainder of the shoot, managed remotely. A compromise to reconcile the continuation of the team’s work, respect for the presumption of innocence and that of the victim’s words.

“Given the circumstances and the reactions of some, this protocol was a lesser evil, even if it was difficult to bear for the director who necessarily felt excluded from his own filming”says Samuel Theis, through his lawyer.

The case illustrates how flammable the subject is. “There is an awareness among professionals and a freeing of speech”, welcomes a manager in contact with all the actors of the 7th art. And more and more, “there is a challenge of not damaging the reputation of films”.

The fate of Catherine Corsini’s film The return serves as a warning. It was deprived of part of its public funding after it was discovered that a simulated, explicitly sexual scene involving an actress under the age of 16 had not been properly declared to the authorities.

Prevention and training

“The only way to make producers bend is to hit them in the wallet”argues actress Ariane Labed, who launched, with others, the Association of Actors (Ada). “By working more abroad than in France, I am outraged by the delay taken by the cinema industry, which comes in particular from the fantasy of the all-powerful author” on her set, she analyzes.

Things are changing, under the aegis of the CNC and Afdas, the sector’s training organization. Training in violence prevention is now mandatory and, from the spring, before a film shoot even begins, all teams will be trained.

To prevent productions from sweeping dust under the carpet in the event of harassment, specific insurance has been generalized, which covers up to five days of interruption of filming, if the facts are reported to the prosecutor.

The 50/50 collective, at the forefront of the subject, welcomed this progress during its meetings in December. But he judges that things are evolving too slowly, despite the obligatory designation of “harassment referents”.

“A lot of people are really not aware and don’t care. I think it remains very complicated to raise your voice, to communicate your discomfort in the face of a situation” harassment or violence, explained Clémentine Charlemaine, its co-president, to AFP.

“Seen as moral police”

Inspired by the American film industry, “intimacy coordinators”, a new profession responsible for supervising the filming of scenes of a sexual nature, are very timidly making their appearance. The series Emily in Paris (Netflix) or Skam France (France TV), the film An area to defend (Amazon Prime) with François Civil and Lyna Khoudri used it.

“We are still often seen as moral police”deplores to AFP one of the rare intimacy coordinators active in France, Paloma Garcia Martens, who perceives herself rather as a “staging support”.

Among the reluctance she encounters, the idea that a filmmaker “can’t stand the intrusion into his sacred relationship with the actor”, the reluctance of the producers… But also that of the performers themselves, who sometimes have the idea that you have to accept everything to do this job” .