
Rec-Sisters
Rec-Sisters
Rec-Sisters Achievements
Rec-Sister Challenges
THE FILM INDUSTRY IS RECOGNIZING WOMEN IN THE CREW
The film industry has been a men’s environment for many years. Nowadays, the industry is having more women in the technical crew and at the same time, they are suffering harassment, abuse, not equal pay and fewer opportunities.
An example of the harassment problem in the media is the story of a second camera assistant known as “La Flaca.” She has been working in the film industry for more than eight years, learning all about technical skills and camera knowledge from zero. Nowadays she is a well-known camera assistant that works for national and international productions.
In 2016 she lived a repeated harassment situation with a first assistant camera, with who she worked on several occasions. At that time, she didn’t make a legal allegation because she was afraid of losing her jobs and afraid to be pointed by her co-workers. In 2019, she decided to make a legal complaint about the harassment actions that she lived. She looked for support in the Colombian film union, none of them give her support.
She started looking for more backing in all the media until a group of female friends approached her to help her with the legal complaint and emotional support. That was the beginning of the non-profit organization named Rec-Sisters.
In the beginning, Rec-sisters started as a group of four women that worked in the camera crew, who helped “La Flaca” in her legal complaint. She was having many job problems since she started the legal complaint and in the mind time, the abusive man was protected by other men’s co-workers and still having a lot of work.
Rec-sisters wanted to investigate more about how was an environment for women in the film set. They created a survey that was answered by 140 women of the film industry, the results were creepy. They realized the big problem that the industry is having and nobody was making anything.
Nowadays, Rec-Sisters is a group of 10 women receiving a lot of complaints about abusive and harassment situations. They started studying and making alliances to help the women of the industry, listen to the cases with the support of psychologists and lawyers and talking with governmental institutions to create big changes.
Rec-sister is making big changes to help anyone in the industry that is suffering from abuse, harassment and discrimination. They believe that a big solution comes from educating everyone about what is harassment, abuse and discrimination. Many people of the continent have been normalizing these actions and don’t recognize the big effect that they can create psychologically and physically in others.
They had accomplished several projects in a short time.
- Decalogue between several national institutions: producers and the production companies, as well as the workers, pledge to abide by those 10 rules to protect everyone that is on set and for equal pay.
- Seminars: based on the education they share all the information to identify and prevent harassment, abuse and discrimination.
- Good practice manual: it is going to be shared with all the industry to motivate safe spaces for everyone without any act of discrimination.
- To Incentive to work with all the professional women that are in the industry that have the experience and the knowledge to perform any duty.
- Continue helping any person that needs someone to talk and share the experience having the support of psychologists and lawyers.
- Creating constant awareness through their Instagram of abusive situations that have been culturally normalized.
- Making big alliances with other feminist groups of the film industry from other South American countries. Working together towards the same objective. Equal pay, no discrimination, no harassment, no abuse always a safe space at work.
Rec-sisters is an example of how little steps can make big changes. These girls have been helping many people of the industry, creating changes in the institutions and bringing at front problems that were there but no one was talking. They take the lead, impacting men and women that want to make a change for a better world.
Their still a big road to walk but taking the lead is a huge start. The change is coming and Rec-sister is part of that next to all their South American friends and allies.
Social movements have been around all human history. They had made a difference in changing social, political and economical rules and laws. The first women’s movement was in 1848. The movement marks July 13 of that year as the beginning. After seven generations of women that have been making changes for society, there is still a lot to do.
Successes of women’s social movements
- Suffrage law for women
- Unions for working women
- Access to birth control
- Property rights
- Education
- Being legal for the law
- Legal right to an abortion
- Equal pay - Know days still a problem
- Ban employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or sex.
- Presence in politics and higher positions in companies
etc…
Know days in Latin America the women’s movement is working hard on the legal right to an abortion, ban employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex and equal pay. These three have been the leads for a couple of years.
By: Johanna Lorraine Hernandez Pinzon
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